Recording level low?

Hi

I am trying to record some sound in Gnome/OpenSuse 11.1. My goal is to use recordMyDesktop. When I record some sound the level is very low, so it is not really usable.

I have set the recording level to 100% both in Gnome Volume Applet, Gnome Volume Control, and with PulseAudio Volume Control.

I am quite confussed about the sound servers (PulseAudio, Alsa and OSS) and not completely sure which I am using. Seems to be PulseAudio.

Can anyone help me, how to find the solution on the problem?

Best regards
Sune

I like to run ALSA. I would send all my sound devices to it. You can go into YAST and clink on sound, go to others and you should be able to set your input to a higher sound level there. It work for me when I was using Audacity. I run ALSA and OSS.

if you run (with your PC connected to the internet):
/usr/sbin/alsa-info.sh
and post here the URL it gives you when it is complete, others can check your mixer settings.

Hi

Thanks for the fast reply.

I have tried to switch everything to alsa, but I’m not sure whether the applications use PulseAudio or Alsa. Sounds like Alsa is the preffered choice among the most?

In Yast under Sound I am not able to set the input level. Only the Master and PCM.

/Sune

Here is my alsa config:

http://www.alsa-project.org/db/?f=25ac870359691c9227c8f68cf9743ffa569d3427

I noticed in the first alsa-info output, that the

Simple mixer control ‘Capture’,0

was set to 0%. Now I have turned that to a 100% and the recording is still very low

http://www.alsa-project.org/db/?f=739baa884f0c46dcddcb941b1d4b56c0cfda726b

OK thanks. I note the 2.6.21.27 kernel with the 1.0.17/1.0.18 version of alsa on a 32-bit openSUSE-11.1, and STAC9200 hardware audio codec.

Your mixer settings are rather limited. I am wondering if that is normal for the STAC9200? You could speculate that the auto probe by alsa of your PC’s audio hardware configuration, upon boot, was not fully successful and may not have completely and correctly configured your audio. If we make that assumption (and it may not be correct) then you could try some hand edits to your /etc/modprobe.d/sound file to see if that configuration could be better tuned.

The list of model options that can be applied is here from the ALSA-Audio-Models.txt file is:

STAC9200
========
  ref		Reference board
  dell-d21	Dell (unknown)
  dell-d22	Dell (unknown)
  dell-d23	Dell (unknown)
  dell-m21	Dell Inspiron 630m, Dell Inspiron 640m
  dell-m22	Dell Latitude D620, Dell Latitude D820
  dell-m23	Dell XPS M1710, Dell Precision M90
  dell-m24	Dell Latitude 120L
  dell-m25	Dell Inspiron E1505n
  dell-m26	Dell Inspiron 1501
  dell-m27	Dell Inspiron E1705/9400
  gateway-m4	Gateway laptops with EAPD control
  gateway-m4-2	Gateway laptops with EAPD control
  panasonic	Panasonic CF-74

If you provide the contents of your /etc/modprobe.d/sound file, I can provide some specific recommendations as to how you can attempt to tune your PC’s audio configuration. You can to that by providing the output of:
rpm -qa | grep alsa
rpm -qa | grep pulse
rpm -q libasound2
cat /etc/modprobe.d/sound

As I am trying to investigate the problem I find more things confusing me. Thanks for the help.

When I go to Yast -> Sound the detected sound card is
82801G (ICH7 Family) High Definition Audio Controller

Is that correct according to wich card Dell says is in my laptop:
SIGMATEL STAC 92XX C-Major HD Audio

Also under Yast -> Sound I am not able to get it playing a test sound. There is just silence. Could this mean that the sound card is not configured correct?

Here is the requested information:

$ rpm -qa | grep alsa
alsa-oss-1.0.17-1.37
alsa-utils-1.0.18-6.4
alsa-plugins-pulse-1.0.18-6.12
alsa-1.0.18-8.7
alsa-plugins-1.0.18-6.12

$ rpm -qa | grep pulse
pulseaudio-0.9.12-9.6
pulseaudio-module-gconf-0.9.12-9.6
pulseaudio-module-lirc-0.9.12-9.6
libpulse-mainloop-glib0-0.9.12-9.6
alsa-plugins-pulse-1.0.18-6.12
libpulse-browse0-0.9.12-9.6
pulseaudio-utils-0.9.12-9.6
pulseaudio-module-zeroconf-0.9.12-9.6
libxine1-pulse-1.1.16.3-0.pm.0
libpulse0-0.9.12-9.6
libpulsecore4-0.9.12-9.6
pulseaudio-esound-compat-0.9.12-9.6
pulseaudio-module-x11-0.9.12-9.6
pulseaudio-module-bluetooth-0.9.12-9.6

$ rpm -q libasound2
libasound2-1.0.18-8.7

$ cat /etc/modprobe.d/sound
options snd slots=snd-hda-intel

u1Nb.dMH6nFzhrH7:82801G (ICH7 Family) High Definition Audio Controller

alias snd-card-0 snd-hda-intel

I hope this information helps?

I just ran the alsaconf configuration and it seems to have taken me some of the way.

Now I get this:

$ cat /etc/modprobe.d/sound
alias snd-card-0 snd-hda-intel
alias sound-slot-0 snd-hda-intel

Now I am able to have a fine recording level, but I think there is pretty much background noise. Could that be due to still having some problems?

In your case, since sound works elsewhere, this is more likely a bug in YaST’s test sound.

Try the following. … if you recall from above, I noted this list for options for the stac9200:

STAC9200
========
  ref		Reference board
  dell-d21	Dell (unknown)
  dell-d22	Dell (unknown)
  dell-d23	Dell (unknown)
  dell-m21	Dell Inspiron 630m, Dell Inspiron 640m
  dell-m22	Dell Latitude D620, Dell Latitude D820
  dell-m23	Dell XPS M1710, Dell Precision M90
  dell-m24	Dell Latitude 120L
  dell-m25	Dell Inspiron E1505n
  dell-m26	Dell Inspiron 1501
  dell-m27	Dell Inspiron E1705/9400
  gateway-m4	Gateway laptops with EAPD control
  gateway-m4-2	Gateway laptops with EAPD control
  panasonic	Panasonic CF-74

So I recommend you try each of the above items, one at a time, until you find one that works better for your PC. So lets start from the top of the list with “dell-d21”. So to try “dell-d21” change your /etc/modprobe.d/sound file (you will need root permissions to change it) to:

options snd-hda-intel model=dell-d21
options snd slots=snd-hda-intel
# u1Nb.dMH6nFzhrH7:82801G (ICH7 Family) High Definition Audio Controller
alias snd-card-0 snd-hda-intel

save the change and then as a regular user restart your alsa sound driver with su -c ‘rcalsasound restart’ and enter root password when asked for a password, then restart your mixer and test both sound and your mic. Pay special attention in case your mixer changes.

If “dell-d21” does not help, then try “dell-d22” and replace “dell-d21” with “dell-d22” in the /etc/modprobe.d/sound file, save the change, restart alsa, restart your mixer, and test. Do that for each item in the list.

Most will not work. Some may cause many error messages. Hopefully one will work.

If none work, we can try updating your alsa from 1.0.17/1.0.18 to 1.0.19, and I can provide you the 6 zypper commands needed to do that.

I am very thankful for your help oldcpu.

I have managed now to get a decent recording level with an acceptable background noise. My only problem is that the beginning of the recording always starts with a high click or something like that. But I guess that could be something with the microphone also?

I tried all the options for the STAC9200 as you listed, and I used “rcalsasound restart” and restarted X with each of them. I was only able to register small changes in the sound qaulity and sound level.

What confuses me know is, that after every new login when I use alsamixer from command line in the top it says:

│ Card:PulseAudio
│ Chip: PulseAudio

Which I guess means PulseAudio is still playing with me. I cannot figure out if PulseAudio is a problem or not?

Again, thank you very much for the help. All my credits to you!

Something in the microphone? I don’t know.

We could try to update your alsa version to see if that helps.

The downside to updating your alsa version, is that when there is a kernel update, it will likely not be compatible with your alsa-driver-kmp-version and that will be downgraded to an older version, and your sound and mic functionaly may break again until it can be fixed. Typically a fix is possible, but it takes some time and effort.

Your call.

If you wish to try to update alsa, let me know. … I’ll provide the commands.