Sound Recording

My Installation:

Dell 9060 i7-3770 CPU with Nvidia GT210/PCIe/SSE2

Apart from one short instance, which was not reproducible, I have not succeeded in recording sound input using Audacity and PulseAudio.

YAST sound configuration shows:

Index 0 7 Series/C216 Chipset Family High Definition Audio Controller
Index 1 High definition Audio Controller

Anyone able to take me through the settings?

I must say I have attempted to scrupulously follow Googled recommendations without success.

Thank you.

I confess I don’t use audacity (so can not offer a suggestion how to tune it to record with it) . Does recording with any other apps work ? You could install ‘pavucontrol’ and confirm that pulse audio is setup to direct the audio from your mic to audacity for recording.

If no other apps will record audio, I can look at the audio configuration of your PC to see if misconfigured. If you wish to try that, please setup your mixer best you think it should be setup to record sound, and then with PC connected to internet, in an xterm/konsole, as a regular user, send the command :


/usr/sbin/alsa-info.sh

and select “share/upload” when prompted. Let the script run to completion. Then look in the xterm/konsole, and it will note there the URL where your audio configuration was copied/uploaded to. Please post here that URL/address, and we could check your sound configuration to see if misconfigured for recording.


...select "share/upload" when prompted. Let the script run to completion. Then look in the xterm/konsole, and it will note there the URL where your audio configuration was copied/uploaded to. Please post here that URL/address, and we could check your sound configuration to see if misconfigured for recording.[/QUOTE]

Thank you.

Here is the URL: http://www.alsa-project.org/db/?f=e932e3b569884672df699538e61a1a27ad1cc935

OK, I note an ALC269VB hardware audio codec … Hopefully that is not relevant in this case … but lets see how things proceed …

I note ARECORD output;


ARECORD
**** List of CAPTURE Hardware Devices ****
**card 0**: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], **device 0:** ALC269VB Analog [ALC269VB Analog]
  Subdevices: 0/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

which tells me your record device is hw:0,0

I note these mixer settings for recording


**Simple mixer control 'Capture',0**
  Capabilities: cvolume cswitch
  Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Capture 0 - 31
  Front Left: Capture 31 **[100%]** [30.00dB] **[on]**
  Front Right: Capture 31 **[100%]** [30.00dB] **[on]**
.....
**Simple mixer control 'Digital',0**
  Capabilities: cvolume
  Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Capture 0 - 120
  Front Left: Capture 83 **[69%]** [11.50dB]
  Front Right: Capture 83 **[69%]** [11.50dB]
.....
**Simple mixer control 'Rear Mic',0**
  Capabilities: pvolume pswitch
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Playback 0 - 31
  Mono:
  Front Left: Playback 0 **[0%] **-34.50dB] [on]
  Front Right: Playback 0 **[0%]** -34.50dB] [on]

**Simple mixer control 'Rear Mic Boost',0**
  Capabilities: volume
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: 0 - 3
  Front Left: 0** [0%]** [0.00dB]
  Front Right: 0 **[0%]** [0.00dB]

That tells me the internal mic (assuming there is one) is likely “Digitial” and it should nominally be recording, but the Rear Mic input (for an external mic to your laptop) is muted and will not record. I assume you are trying to use the laptop internal mic ?

If you type in a konsole/xterm this command as a regular user:


arecord -vv -f S16_LE -c 2 -D hw:0,0 testnew.wav

talk a bit to record your speech, and then press < ctrl > < c > to cancel the recording. That will create a file testnew.wav with the audio recorded (hopefully).

and then if you have ‘alsa-utils’ installed you could type:


aplay testnew.wav

that is a check to see if your internal headphone is recording - and trying to confirm you are experiencing an application problem and not an alsa level problem.

For any nntp thread followers, I edited my above post and might not come through the nntp gateway in time. The arecord option should have been " -c 2" (as typed below) and not " -c 0"


arecord -vv -f S16_LE -c 2 -D hw:0,0 testnew.wav

OK. Just for clarification:

I have a Dell 9060 Desktop, not Laptop. this PV has front and rear microphone sockets - I assume these are for sound in?

The PC also has a front headphone socket - I assume for sound out?

As indicated in my opening post, I did succeed once, following the exact Audacity/PulseAudio setup from the Audacity wiki, but since reboot, even with exact same settings have not been able to replicate same.

While attempting to record my PulseAudio (pavucontrol) tabs are set as follows:

Recording: Monitor of High Audio Controller Digital Stereo (HDMI2)

Input Devices: 1) Monitor of High Audio Controller Digital Stereo (HDMI2) 2) Built-in Audio Analog Stereo - Front Microphone (Unplugged)

Audacity is not getting a sound signal.

Should I still do the terminal commands you have suggested?

In any case arecord -vv -f S16_LE -c 2 -D hw:0,0 testnew.wav is unsuccessful.

It seems the input microphone socket does not receive a signal. Is this a hardware issue or some other BIOS or system setting?

BTW, I am able to record perfectly sound tracks from YouTube over the internet with Audacity and PulseAudio settings as they are.

Where to from here?

to be clear - I have never seen a Dell 9060 in my life. But I suspect the answer is “Yes”.

Again - I assume Yes.

I note your front mic is not muted, so I assume then hw:0,0 corresonds to both mics. That should have worked…

In case " hw:0,0" was wrong, you could try recording 10 seconds of audio ( " d 10 " ) :


arecord -f cd -d 10 test-mic.wav

followed by


aplay test-mic.wav

but I suspect no recording there also, as the previous arecord should IMHO have worked.

I note in the Mixer for front mic should be working / setup properly (according to the script):


**Simple mixer control 'Front Mic',0**
  Capabilities: pvolume pswitch
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Playback 0 - 31
  Mono:
  Front Left: Playback 31 [100%] [12.00dB] [on]
  Front Right: Playback 31 [100%] [12.00dB] [on]
**Simple mixer control 'Front Mic Boost',0**
  Capabilities: volume
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: 0 - 3
  Front Left: 3 [100%] [36.00dB]
  Front Right: 3 [100%] [36.00dB]

You could unmute the rear mic (which is currently muted) , plug your mic in there, and try that - however I suspect even if that worked, it is not a solution you want. Likely it is the FRONT mic that you wish to use. I also assume given this is a Dell, that Dell properly wired the front mic. In a custom PC I would be suspicious there (as the ‘arecord’ should have worked).

We could try custom configuring ‘alsa sound driver’ setup upon boot. Before doing that, could you please post here the content of any file /etc/modprobe.d/50-sound.conf ?

The directory on your PC under alsa documentation: /usr/src/linux-4.4.114-42/Documentation/sound/alsa/ (or some other kernel version) … in the file HD-Audio-Models.txt lists the various model settings for an ALC269 - and we can try those one at a time to see if any of those help.k But first I need to see the content of the 50-sound.conf file.
.

/etc/modprobe.d/50-sound.conf by user and by root provides “Permission denied”

There is the appropriate application
https://software.opensuse.org/package/audio-recorder?search_term=audio-recorder

I suspect you misunderstand ? This file can be opened with regular user permissions by any text editor, and can be edited with root permissions with any text editor.

Just what were you trying to do to obtain that error ? Could it be that the file does not exist on your PC ?
.

Sorry I did misunderstand, didn’t read the instruction properly.

The file 50-sound.conf contains:

options snd slots=snd-hda-intel,snd-hda-intel

u1Nb.KS5lwYSNfTE:7 Series/C216 Chipset Family High Definition Audio Controller

alias snd-card-0 snd-hda-intel

NXNs.k4J9ONqCLEB:High Definition Audio Controller

alias snd-card-1 snd-hda-intel

Wrt the following I am making some assumptions:
(a) Dell PC hardware for front mic is functioning correctly
(b) External mic hardware, that you are using, is functioning correctly
(c) you ran those arecord commands in a konsole or xterm and received no error messages - but rather just had no sound.

You can verify (a) and (b) by
(1) check external mic on rear mic outlet on PC to see if it works (be certain to unmute rear mic in amixer and also move up rear mic booster value in amixer before testing).
(2) check external mic on a different PC to see if mic works

I assume you have already verified (c) [no error messages] as you have said nothing in this thread.

Logically - assuming no recording, then I think we have established there is likely a problem wrt alsa and/or the alsa configuration, for that ‘arecord’ command, run in a konsole/xterm, should have worked.

One can try and tune alsa configuration with ‘model’ commands, as I noted in an earlier thread. The options for the ALC269 are:


**ALC**22x/23x/25x/**269**/27x/28x/29x (and vendor-specific ALC3xxx models)
======
  laptop-amic        Laptops with analog-mic input
  laptop-dmic        Laptops with digital-mic input
  alc269-dmic        Enable ALC269(VA) digital mic workaround
  alc271-dmic        Enable ALC271X digital mic workaround
  inv-dmic        Inverted internal mic workaround
  headset-mic        Indicates a combined headset (headphone+mic) jack
  headset-mode        More comprehensive headset support for ALC269 & co
  headset-mode-no-hp-mic Headset mode support without headphone mic
  lenovo-dock       Enables docking station I/O for some Lenovos
  hp-gpio-led        GPIO LED support on HP laptops
  dell-headset-multi    Headset jack, which can also be used as mic-in
  dell-headset-dock    Headset jack (without mic-in), and also dock I/O
  alc283-dac-wcaps    Fixups for Chromebook with ALC283
  alc283-sense-combo    Combo jack sensing on ALC283
  tpt440-dock        Pin configs for Lenovo Thinkpad Dock support

and what one can do, is try applying each of those, one at a time, to see if any work. Even if the description does not appear to solve your problem, it could be worth while trying the setting.

To try a model setting (for example “dell-headset-dock” ) , you would change your /etc/modprobe.d/50-sound.conf file (using root permissions) to instead read:


options snd slots=snd-hda-intel model=dell-headset-dock,snd-hda-intel
# u1Nb.KS5lwYSNfTE:7 Series/C216 Chipset Family High Definition Audio Controller
alias snd-card-0 snd-hda-intel
# NXNs.k4J9ONqCLEB:High Definition Audio Controller
alias snd-card-1 snd-hda-intel

Reboot and test. That might even ‘break’ your sound after the reboot. In which case, simply remove that edit entry of “model=dell-headset-dock”, and reboot and all should be back to how it was before.

You can then cycle through each one of those 15 different model configurations one at a time, rebooting for each, testing with the 'arecord … " that I gave previous, to see if any record sound.


Thats a lot of testing.

If you prefer not to do all that, then an easier approach is to write a bug report on openSUSE kernel that recording does not work. A bug report will get the attention of the openSUSE sound packager, who is also an alsa sound driver developer. Possibly the best person (in the world ?? ) for sorting the problem. There is guidance here for writing a bug report : https://en.opensuse.org/openSUSE:Submitting_bug_reports

You can use your openSUSE forum username and password when logging on to Bugzilla. Attach to the bug report the file you get by running:


/usr/sbin/alsa-info.sh --no-upload

do not bother to reference this forum thread, as the openSUSE sound packager will not read a forum thread. Every few days check the bug report for a reply. Likely you will be asked some questions and given some instructions to test. After you answer any question in the bug report, clear any “need info” flag that may have been raised in the bug report - as that is the indicator to the openSUSE packager that you have replied.

Good luck in your efforts.
.

Thank you.

I have tried with audio-recorder but same result.

Hi oldcpu

Many thanks for your detailed efforts in helping me try to sort out this problem.

I will try what you have suggested and see where that leads me.

If no success I will file a bug-report.