A few days ago I setup a pc. It contains an “Intel ICH5” sound card. Before I begin posting all the configuration stuff I’ve tried so far could you please tell me what the standard procedures are to set it all up for recording the sound card output (with Audacity)?
On my older computer it all worked fine but now I only get silent recordings. However sometimes (when I played on the controls the right way…) I get recordings where you can (amoung some noise) recognize the stuff I actually wanted to record very low…
Apart from Audacity I’ve also tried
arecord -vv -fdat audio.wav
which didn’t work either. That’s why I think the problem is not related to Audacity but to the system.
Is the combination of OpenSuse 11.2 + ALSA + Intel ICH5 commonly known to cause such trouble?
If you would like us to take a more detailed look at your configuration, please then provide the information recommended to be provided in the second half of our multimedia stickie: Welcome to multimedia sub-area - openSUSE Forums
I quote the relevant part:
please post … the following information:
provide the URLs (of a summary webpage) that are created by running the diagnostic script noted here: SDB:AudioTroubleshooting - openSUSE - Script to run to obtain detailed information. On openSUSE-11.1 and newer that will ask you to run the script /usr/sbin/alsa-info.sh and after the script finishes it will give you a URL to pass to the support personnel. Please post here the output URL. Just the URL. You may need to run that script twice (the first time with root permissions to update in the /usr/sbin directory, and the second time to get the URL).
in a terminal, or xterm, or konsole, type: rpm -qa ‘alsa’ #and post output here
in a terminal, or xterm, or konsole, type: rpm -qa ‘pulse’ #and post output here
in a terminal, or xterm, or konsole, type: rpm -q libasound2 #and post output here
in a terminal, or xterm, or konsole, type: uname -a #and post output here
…
for openSUSE-11.2 or later, in a terminal, or xterm, or konsole, type: cat /etc/modprobe.d/50-sound.conf #and post output here
Thanks! The script output is very useful. I see a 32-bit openSUSE-11.2 with the 2.6.31.12 kernel and a 1.0.20/1.0.21 mix of alsa, running on an MEDIONPC MS-7012 which has a CMI-19671A hardware audio codec.
I noted the following in your PCs mixer:
**!!Amixer output
**!!------------- !!-------Mixer controls for card 0 [ICH5]
**Card hw:0 ‘ICH5’/‘Intel ICH5 with CMI9761A at irq 17’
** Mixer name : ‘C-Media Electronics CMI9761A’
Components : ‘AC97a:434d4978’ Simple mixer control ‘Line’,0
Front Left: Playback 31 [100%] [12.00dB] [on] Capture [off]
Front Right: Playback 31 [100%] [12.00dB] [on] Capture [off] Simple mixer control ‘Mic’,0
Front Left: Playback 31 [100%] [12.00dB] [on] Capture [off]
Front Right: Playback 31 [100%] [12.00dB] [on] Capture [off] Simple mixer control ‘Mic Boost ( 20dB)’,0
Mono: Playback [off] Simple mixer control ‘Mic Select’,0
Items: ‘Mic1’ ‘Mic2’
Item0: ‘Mic1’ Simple mixer control ‘IEC958’,0
Mono: Playback [on] Capture [off] Simple mixer control ‘Aux’,0
Front Left: Playback 31 [100%] [12.00dB] [on] Capture [off]
Front Right: Playback 31 [100%] [12.00dB] [on] Capture [off] Simple mixer control ‘Mono Output Select’,0
Items: ‘Mix’ ‘Mic’
Item0: ‘Mix’ Simple mixer control ‘Capture’,0
Front Left: Capture 15 [100%] [22.50dB] [on]
Front Right: Capture 15 [100%] [22.50dB] [on] Simple mixer control ‘Mix’,0
Front Left: Capture [on]
Front Right: Capture [on] Simple mixer control ‘Mix Mono’,0
Front Left: Capture [off]
Front Right: Capture [off]
Your PC has most of the capture controls muted. Its quietly likely IMHO that you have inadvertently muted one or more controls that should not be muted, in order for your mic to work. Please test changing a combination of the items I highlighted in RED to be un-muted.