Is it just me or is ALSA a little bit pessimistic about maximum gain levels for inputs and outputs.

Of a sample of 3 machines (old desktop with a SB Audigy, New desktop with Intel HDA and my Fuji laptop) none of them seem capable of getting the volume out of their speakers that they were capable of in Windows. Also I am having trouble getting any of them to work with a selection of passive (and in one case a USB) microphone at anything like the input gain I need to use them with things such as skype.

Is there any way to tweak the input/output gain of my soundcard beyond the limits of the mixer sliders in alsamixer ?

My USB Mic is a particular problem as I can just about live with the maximum output volume. But the USB mic is part of a USB camera and with the gain at maximum I can just about be heard with everything set to max if I speak directly into the mic/camera but with it mounted where it needs to be on top of my screen I am barely audible unless I shout.

Not that I think it is device specific as it seems to affect even the analogue microphone inputs but my webcam/mic combo is ID 0c45:62c0 Microdia