diff --git a/src/doom/s_sound.c b/src/doom/s_sound.c
index e413e589..5ffee9b0 100644
--- a/src/doom/s_sound.c
+++ b/src/doom/s_sound.c
@@ -90,11 +90,11 @@ static channel_t *channels;
 // Maximum volume of a sound effect.
 // Internal default is max out of 0-15.
 
-int sfxVolume = 6;
+int sfxVolume = 11;
 
 // Maximum volume of music.
 
-int musicVolume = 6;
+int musicVolume = 11;
 
 // Internal volume level, ranging from 0-127
 
diff --git a/src/pico/i_input.c b/src/pico/i_input.c
index bab0be3e..05440cb8 100644
--- a/src/pico/i_input.c
+++ b/src/pico/i_input.c
@@ -571,6 +571,7 @@ void I_GetEvent() {
 #endif
 #endif
 
+#ifdef DEFCON32_BADGE
 static const uint8_t bdef[] = {
         DEFCON32_BADGE_SW_FN_PIN, 0, 0,
         DEFCON32_BADGE_SW_START_PIN, SDL_SCANCODE_ESCAPE, SDL_SCANCODE_ESCAPE,
@@ -585,7 +586,10 @@ static const uint8_t bdef[] = {
 static uint8_t buttons[count_of(bdef)/3];
 static uint8_t keycodex[count_of(bdef)/3];
 #include "hardware/gpio.h"
+#endif
+
 void I_GetEventTimeout(int key_timeout) {
+#ifdef DEFCON32_BADGE
     static int mods;
     // this is a bit hacky, but just track the state
     // of each of the keys we care about, and select a different function
@@ -618,6 +622,7 @@ void I_GetEventTimeout(int key_timeout) {
     }
     extern boolean show_fps;
     show_fps = buttons[0];
+#endif
 #if PICO_ON_DEVICE && !NO_USE_UART
     if (uart_is_readable(uart_default)) {
         char c = uart_getc(uart_default);
diff --git a/src/pico/i_picosound.c b/src/pico/i_picosound.c
index ad35139a..46c74b31 100644
--- a/src/pico/i_picosound.c
+++ b/src/pico/i_picosound.c
@@ -405,8 +405,19 @@ static void I_Pico_UpdateSound(void)
         // let's collapse stereo to mono...
         int16_t *samples = (int16_t *)buffer->buffer->bytes;
         for(int i=0;i<buffer->sample_count * 2; i += 2) {
-            // ... and divide by 4 not 2 because the speaker is real bad
-            samples[i] = samples[i+1] = (samples[i] + samples[i+1])/4;
+            // hacky: we take 270Mhz / 5431 to be close to our sample rate of 49716 Hz which is a pain
+            // to change as that is the OPL2 freq
+            uint x = samples[i] + samples[i+1];
+#ifdef DEFCON32_BADGE
+            // note 2x because the volume is so quiet - thus the need to saturate
+            pico_default_asm(
+                    "ssat    %0,  #16, %0"
+                    : "+r" (x));
+            x = 2715 + x * 2715 / 32768;
+#else
+            x = 2715 + x * 2715 / 65536;
+#endif
+            samples[i] = samples[i+1] = x;
         }
         give_audio_buffer(producer_pool, buffer);
     }
diff --git a/src/pico/pico_audio_pwm8/audio_pwm8.c b/src/pico/pico_audio_pwm8/audio_pwm8.c
index 51ee7a63..c8831b55 100644
--- a/src/pico/pico_audio_pwm8/audio_pwm8.c
+++ b/src/pico/pico_audio_pwm8/audio_pwm8.c
@@ -65,16 +65,16 @@ const audio_format_t *audio_pwm8_setup(const audio_format_t *intended_audio_form
 
     dma_channel_config dma_config = dma_channel_get_default_config(dma_channel);
 
+    shared_state.slice_num = pwm_gpio_to_slice_num(config->pins[0]);
     channel_config_set_dreq(&dma_config,
-                            DREQ_DMA_TIMER0
+                            PWM_DREQ_NUM(shared_state.slice_num)
     );
 
     // todo only true for stereo
     channel_config_set_transfer_data_size(&dma_config, DMA_SIZE_32);
     // todo only true for same pin
-    shared_state.slice_num = pwm_gpio_to_slice_num(config->pins[0]);
     pwm_config pc = pwm_get_default_config();
-    pwm_config_set_wrap(&pc, 255);
+    pwm_config_set_wrap(&pc, 5431); // 270000000 / 49716 ish
     pwm_init(shared_state.slice_num, &pc, true);
     dma_channel_configure(dma_channel,
                           &dma_config,
diff --git a/src/pico/pico_audio_pwm8/sample_encoding.cpp b/src/pico/pico_audio_pwm8/sample_encoding.cpp
index 4b46c702..19526bee 100644
--- a/src/pico/pico_audio_pwm8/sample_encoding.cpp
+++ b/src/pico/pico_audio_pwm8/sample_encoding.cpp
@@ -32,6 +32,7 @@ audio_buffer_t *audio_pwm8_mono_to_stereo_consumer_take_s16(audio_connection_t *
 }
 
 audio_buffer_t *audio_pwm8_stereo_to_stereo_consumer_take_s16(audio_connection_t *connection, bool block) {
-    return consumer_pool_take<Stereo<FmtPWM8>, Stereo<FmtS16>>(connection, block);
+    // buffer conversion is done in i_picosound now, so just do a pass thru copy for now
+    return consumer_pool_take<Stereo<FmtS16>, Stereo<FmtS16>>(connection, block);
 }