Microphone capture not working

Hello,

I’ve been at it for hours now! Was hoping to get some help.

My settings:
http://www.alsa-project.org/db/?f=2ec68ca4101c4e07f7fbea81387fb0f2edb3b3d1

I know the microphone works, if I unmute the microphone channel I can hear myself through the speakers, its just that recording/capturing doesn’t work.

I’ve tried

arecord -d 10 myrecording.wav

…but nothing is recorded.

Any ideas?

I have been wrestling with same problem for some while.
System 4600+AMD 64bit Cpu, 4gb mem
On-board sound HDNvidia = device 0: logitech 9000 =device 1.0: Creative X-Fi device 2.0: Opensuse11.1

10 mins or so ago made sure KMix is set to X-Fi and set all slider levels up high ticked Mic(capture) minimised this lot.

Next into Audacity and set preferences
Goto Edit>Devices> set Host to ALSA then set (in my case)Playback Creative X-Fi WaveOut/WaveIn (hw:2.0) same again with RecordingCreative etc channels 2(stereo) press OK Now try recording and then playback.
My X-Fi worked a treat in Skype as well amazing so also did Video. Some perseverence has been required.

I wish you Luck but do stress your problems as outlined were almost identical to those I have battled with.
The problem really manifests itself in Skype

Maybe, … I note openSUSE-11.1 with the 2.6.27.23-0.1-pae kernel (I note there is a newer 2.6.27.25 kernel available). I see your PC has an AD1988 audio hardware codec and you have 1.0.17/1.0.18 of alsa.

If I search the alsa web site page for the AD1988, I note there was an update to that codec in 1.0.20 of alsa, that refers to an “amp” but it is not clear to me if that has anything to do with your mic:
Search results AD1988 - AlsaProject

I then took a look at your PCs mixer. There are settings there that look wrong to me. I believe you may need to address those settings. … specifically:

!!Amixer output
!!-------------
!!-------Mixer controls for card 0 [Intel]
Card hw:0 ‘Intel’/‘HDA Intel at 0xffaf8000 irq 22’

Mixer name : ‘Analog Devices AD1988’
Simple mixer control ‘Front Mic’,0
Capabilities: pvolume pswitch
Front Left: Playback 31 [100%] [12.00dB] [off]
Front Right: Playback 31 [100%] [12.00dB] [off]
Simple mixer control ‘Front Mic Boost’,0
Capabilities: volume
Front Left: 0 [0%]
Front Right: 0 [0%]
Simple mixer control ‘Mic’,0
Capabilities: pvolume pswitch
Front Left: Playback 31 [100%] [12.00dB] [on]
Front Right: Playback 31 [100%] [12.00dB] [on]
Simple mixer control ‘Mic Boost’,0
Capabilities: volume
Front Left: 1 [33%]
Front Right: 1 [33%]
Simple mixer control ‘Input Source’,0
Items: ‘Front Mic’ ‘Line’ ‘Mic’ ‘CD’ ‘Mix’
Item0:** ‘Front Mic’**
Simple mixer control ‘Input Source’,1
Items: ‘Front Mic’ ‘Line’ ‘Mic’ ‘CD’ ‘Mix’
Item0: ‘Front Mic’
Simple mixer control ‘Input Source’,2
Capabilities: cenum
Items: ‘Front Mic’ ‘Line’ ‘Mic’ ‘CD’ ‘Mix’
Item0: **‘Front Mic’**Clearly your PC has the Front Mic selected. But it appears switched OFF, and the boost is at either 0% or 33%. Move the boost up to the maximum. Ultimately it will give distortion, but lets get the mic working first, and worry about the distortion later.

There is also the possibility that your AD1988 was not configured properly by alsa upon boot, which may be why your mic is not recognized. One can force the model option configuration, by using a model option from HD-Audio-Models.txt file.

The list for the AD1988 is here:

	AD1988/AD1988B/AD1989A/AD1989B
	==============================
	  6stack	6-jack
	  6stack-dig	ditto with SPDIF
	  3stack	3-jack
	  3stack-dig	ditto with SPDIF
	  laptop	3-jack with hp-jack automute
	  laptop-dig	ditto with SPDIF
	  auto		auto-config reading BIOS (default)

There are likely over 100 posts from me, on this forum, explaining to users how to do this. If you give me the output of /etc/modprobe.d/sound, I can explain to you how to apply it.

But first, check your mixer.

X-Fi ? Definitely NOT the same problem, aside from perhaps the same symptoms. Until VERY recently X-Fi support in Linux was pathetic.

There is a possibility with the new kernels being released (possibly as soon as openSUSE-11.2) there will be some X-Fi support.

I’m at work at the moment, so I can’t access /etc/modprobe.d/sound yet, but I have a couple of questions/comments.

Clearly your PC has the Front Mic selected.

Can you explain? I have the mic hooked up to the back of my PC.

There is also the possibility that your AD1988 was not configured properly by alsa upon boot, which may be why your mic is not recognized.

As I said in my first post, if I unmute the microphone channel, I can hear myself through my speakers. So two questions.

  1. Could my AD1988 not be configured properly even though I can hear myself in the speakers?
  2. Back to the front mic thing… Doesn’t the fact that I can hear myself through the microphone channel prove that the front mic has nothing to do with my problem?

Take a look at what I highlighted, which is the mixer settings you provided me by posting the URL to the output of the diagnostic script. Front Mic is selected !

Yes. Its possible it may not be configured properly.

There is no way, I on the internet, can look at your PC and see where you have physically connected your Mic. I need to rely on what you tell me, and rely on what the diagnostic script says, which is “Front Mic”. Look at the output !! And what I see in your mixer is “Front Mic” is selected. OK? Front Mic is selected. Now if Front Mic on your mixer, corresponds to some physical jack on the back of your PC, then ONLY YOU can tell us that. Again, there is no way I can peer thru the electronic ether of the Internet to see that. :slight_smile:

Well, clearly I’m not as wise as oldcpu here. But here is my evidently flawed logic.

  • Plug microphone into back of computer.
  • Talk into microphone… hear nothing.
  • Go to volume control, preferences, add front mic,front mic boost, mic, mic boost
  • Unmute mic
  • Talk into microphone… hear myself through speakers.
  • Mute mic
  • Unmute front mic
  • Talk into microphone… hear nothing.

THEREFORE, front mic is indeed the physical jack on the front of the computer, and mic is the back jack.

THEREFORE, front mic is irrelevant!

But hey, if you figure out a way to “peer thru the electronic ether of the Internet” you can check for yourself. Otherwise, I’m telling you the front mic has nothing to do with my problem (90% sure)

I don’t think wisdom has anything to do this.

I’m just quoting what is in your mixer. Look for yourself. It has “front mic” selected. Whether or not the “front mic” on your mixer corresponds to the front mic on your computer is not something I can say. Its only something you can say.

If you wish to debate this, then I’ll go to another thread, because I have other things I can do. As noted, your mixer states you have FRONT MIC selected. Hence it is logical if your mixer identifies your physical back mic as corresponding to your mixer FRONT MIC, then you should listen to your mixer.

I have nothing to do with this.

But hey, its your mic that doesn’t work. Mine works fine.

No, I do not wish to debate you. I just didn’t think there was a need to throw on an inch of sarcasm at me and make me out to be a moron. Ya, I know, I’m sure that wasn’t you intention.

I asked you already… but it here it goes again I guess.

What do you mean by “your front mic is selected”?

Ya… its in the mixer settings, but isn’t that just because I added it to the mixer… because as I’ve already said, I’ve tried unmuting the front mic.

Are you trying to say the “mic” channel isn’t selected, because I’ve gone over the settings your pointing me to, and front mic and mic seem identical other than the fact that I muted front mic.

I know that the above seems a little silly, but I’m literally getting the impression that your convinced its the front mic.

Yes, I understand software can mix up on labelling hardware. But doesnt:

  • Plug microphone into back of computer.
  • Talk into microphone… hear nothing.
  • Go to volume control, preferences, add front mic,front mic boost, mic, mic boost
  • Unmute mic
  • Talk into microphone… hear myself through speakers.
  • Mute mic
  • Unmute front mic
  • Talk into microphone… hear nothing.

…prove its not the front mic. That’s what I take from it, at the very least it seems to indicate that there is a low probability of front mic being the problem.

Do you disagree?

I’m not trying to start anything, so if you’d rather just drop this whole “front mic” debacle, thats fine with me. Regardless though, I’ll be posting my output of /etc/modprobe.d/sound in a few hours and I sincerely hope your still willing to take a look at it.

It does not matter how the front mic control got in the mixer. What is important is it IS in the mixer.

Look, this comes from the diagnostic script you ran on your PC:
!!Amixer output
!!-------------
!!-------Mixer controls for card 0 [Intel]
Card hw:0 ‘Intel’/‘HDA Intel at 0xffaf8000 irq 22’

Mixer name : ‘Analog Devices AD1988’
Simple mixer control ‘Front Mic’,0
Capabilities: pvolume pswitch
Front Left: Playback 31 [100%] [12.00dB] [off]
Front Right: Playback 31 [100%] [12.00dB] [off]
Simple mixer control ‘Front Mic Boost’,0
Capabilities: volume
Front Left: 0 [0%]
Front Right: 0 [0%]
Simple mixer control ‘Input Source’,0
Items: ‘Front Mic’ ‘Line’ ‘Mic’ ‘CD’ ‘Mix’
Item0:** ‘Front Mic’**
Simple mixer control ‘Input Source’,1
Items: ‘Front Mic’ ‘Line’ ‘Mic’ ‘CD’ ‘Mix’
Item0: ‘Front Mic’
Simple mixer control ‘Input Source’,2
Capabilities: cenum
Items: ‘Front Mic’ ‘Line’ ‘Mic’ ‘CD’ ‘Mix’
Item0: ‘Front Mic’
Item0 indicates what mic is selected. If the wrong mic is selected, your mic will NOT capture any audio. FULL STOP.

Now I am not at your PC. I can not tell if your mic is mislabeled in the mixer.

Only you can tell as to what “front mic” corresponds to and what “line” corresponds to, and what “mic” corresponds to.

Anyway, this point is blocking. I won’t argue with mixer settings. Its just a hard coded piece of software. Until you can move forward from here, I don’t see I can add any more.

I will add one thing, IF you insist that selecting FRONT MIC is necessary, then you need to unmute “Simple Mixer Control” and move UP the level of the “Front Mic Boost”.

Either that, or change the selection control from “FRONT MIC” to “MIC”.

As it is now, from what I can see from the diagnostic script output, your mixer setting from the diagnostic output, pretty much guarantees your mic record won’t work with that setting.**

Typically the mic and front mic settings apply to different electronic circuits. In cases where a PC has only one mic, then typically one mic control does nothing, and the other functions. If one selects the mic that does nothing, then there will be NO recording. None. One needs to select the mic that functions.

Typically one MUST select one mic or the other. The should be a “switch” in the mixer for selecting one or the other.

Another means of looking at the mixer settings is to run “amixer”. For example, one can redirect the amixer screen output to a text file by typing:
amixer > amixer.txt
and look up amixer.txt with a text editor.

One can learn about amixer controls by typing “man amixer”

OMG. I am so sorry. It was the front mic. Although I feel like an ass here… The fact that I didnt know what you meant by selected was the point that got us here. In your last post you mention item 0 and I had a good look at the output and it made sense.

I plugged my microphone into the jack on the front and it works…

So, if your willing…

How to I make “mic” item 0? :stuck_out_tongue:

Found out how to select the mic, thanks. Problem solved.

Fantastic !! Congratulations on working your way through this.

I find the openSUSE controls MOST unfriendly for the mic, and a royal PITA. It took me years to become familiar with it, and it still trips me up with it on occasion.

So if my responses re: “the mic” do not have enough bed side manner at times, its really my fault (and I apologize for that), as on occasion I have forgotten my roots, and the long and difficult struggle I had to get here.

I’m happy to read its working for you now.

Ya, you’d figure something as important as selecting what microphone your using would be a little simpler to find. In the volume control I went to the preferences and selected all of the “options,” and that’s where I found it.

It was you who ultimately got it working for me. You could have just ignored me, but you didn’t. So thank you. And my advice to anyone one reading this down the road is to TRY BOTH MIC JACKS. Seems obvious, but if you get hung up on something…