I normally use pulseaudio. But when I try to record from my MD player using Audacity the line input level is too low. I have set pulseaudio at maximum levels. If I de-activate pulseaudio and revert to ALSA and use alsamixer I can get the signal strength I want and more. The problem is that a number of things won’t work. Like Skype.
Why can’t pulseaudio duplicate ALSA’s ability? Or perhaps I am doing something wrong. Any suggestions will be appreciated.
While I have not tried this myself - my understanding is pulse audio will add its settings on top of alsa’s in some cases. For example if capture muted in alsa - then pulse audio may not be able to undo the mute, without going to one’s mixer and unmute the capture in alsa.
Can you please configure your setup with pulse as you would expect it to be configured to work. … and then as regular user run in an xterm/konsole (with pc connected to internet) the diagnostic script:
/usr/sbin/alsa-info.sh
and select the SHARE/UPLOAD option and let the script run to completion. Copy here the URL/Address it tells you to share (from the konsole/xterm).
Also, while still configured with pulse the way you think it should be configured (with everything setup and excuting to do what you want - even if it is not working), please provide a screen print of your pulse audio volume control (pavucontrol) “configuration” tab options (and advise us which one you had selected) and a screen print of your pavucontrol “input devices” and “recording” tabs. You can put the screen prints on http://imagebam.com and then share them here.
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Thanks for the speedy response.
URL requested…http://www.alsa-project.org/db/?f=8626e54d189e37810134c7833187914461ddd089
II have also posted screen shots of the “configuration” and “input devices” to http://imagebam.com. I use Analog Stereo Duplex.
<a href=“ImageBam” target=“_blank”><img src=“http://thumbnails113.imagebam.com/46772/1963d7467718904.jpg” alt=“imagebam.com”></a>
<a href=“ImageBam” target=“_blank”><img src=“http://thumbnails105.imagebam.com/46772/b101bc467718908.jpg” alt=“imagebam.com”></a>
But I have come onto another problem. With all the fiddling I have been doing, the level is now higher, BUT the input signal is compressed (I have no significant peaks).
Please don’t waste much time on this. I do have another option. I can install an older version of openSUSE on another box and run only ALSA on it.
In switching pulseaudio on and off I have done something in alsamixer to change what appears in the “recording” tab of pavucontrol. Previously it was blank and now it shows it’s connected to the sound card and the volume sliders increase the signal being recorded. Also the waveform is what I would expect from the source. Much more variation.
I honestly don’t know what I did.
It reads like you had some success.
If this is working now, while it is working I recommend that you run that alsa-info script again, but this time make a local copy … possibly with:
/usr/sbin/alsa-info.sh --no-upload
and copy the file out of the /tmp directory to a place where you can find it again. This will establish and maintain a baseline of the working / functional alsa setup.
You could also make screen prints of the pavucontrol setup as well.
Hence if it stops working in the future - you can compare settings to what worked in the past - and assess whether it is a configuration issue … and eliminate that as a possibility (or possibly restore functionality).
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Thanks for the suggestion. I was not familiar with the “–no-upload” option. But once I got favorable results I immediately took a bunch of screen snapshots for future reference. They are not always useful as configuration procedures do change with new versions, but they don’t take up much drive space.
Thanks again.
My syntax was wrong. It should be:
/usr/sbin/alsa-info.sh --no-upload
ie “dot sh” not “dash sh”.
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