Change volume key step size in Ubuntu

At work we often listen to music off of my computer, so when the phone rings I have to quickly adjust the volume. Using the volume keys on my keyboard I could have the music either really loud or too quiet.

So, to change the effect the volume keys have:

  1. Press Alt+F2 to bring up the “Run” box.
  2. Type in “gconf-editor” and press enter.
  3. Select “Apps > gnome_settings_daemon“
  4. On the right hand side you’ll have a single option named “volume_step“
  5. Change the numerical value (6 by default) to a lower one (3 seems pretty good)

Simples!