The volume is always muted, right click volume/speaker on panel, left of time, click volume control settings, I get an error, you need to install an application to configure the sound, (pavucontol, alsamixer)

Alsamixer is installed and can be launched by the terminal. Is there a default setting that needs to be corrected. The sound does work after I unmute but the error above is always persistent.
Any ideas, Thanks, itman