audio – No volume in pulseaudio until slider is above 80%

I’m using Pop OS 22.04 LTS, Gnome 42.5.

I am using an external USB audio controller (GS3) and I have zero volume until I pull the slider above 85% or so then it gets extremely loud as it gets to 100%.

Just to be clear, this is zero volume, not very quiet or just inaudible. I do not register any volume at all in my speakers or headphones until it hits 80 to 85%.

Strangely, I can see the audio from a YouTube video going up and down as the people are speaking, even when it’s below the 85%.

Now, I notice that in the pulse audio volume control app, there is a marker called “base”. This is where the volume finally starts to audibly register when I slide the volume above that mark.

So my question is, how do I lower this base value?

I’ve tried playing with alsa mixer, but it only lets me control the volume from 0 to 100 which equates to the 85% to 100% in the pulse audio volume control app (i.e. 0% in alsa mixer is 85% in pulse audio).

I’ve come across this issue in other distros with a variety of USB audio devices, so it would be great to figure out a solution to this when it happens.