Fortunately,
the wise programmers of ALSA gives us the
hardware's full range of control (256 steps I believe
for this register) for the gain.
OSS lets customers to use the card in this way if they like. There is a
configuration option (envy24_gain_sliders=1) which makes the trim controls
to look like sliders.
That is a good way to do it. You can either set it for your equipment
and forget it, or enjoy the flexibility if you really need it.
Oh, and I apologize for singling out one camp to attach to the phrase
"wise programmers". ;) I was thinking more "hooray for GNU/Linux".
Tobiah