sorry, this is going to be a longish post; english isn't my native
language, and i may lack in technical professionalism, as well.

using slackware 11.0 / kde 3.5 / alsa i never had any problems regarding
sound, i.e. *listening*; i can hear cds, mp3, wav, etc.
hw: kmix tells me i've got a 'HDA ULI M5461'.

but: i never ever succeed capturing some microphone input, try as i
might; as i think i'm the only one with this problem, i'm pretty sure
i'm doing something wrong (i unmuted mic input, though).

this is beginning to bother me as i'm tempted to try to use skype.

is there any good reading on 'sound' on linux? mixers? HowTos regarding
*recording*, not playback?
i'm at wit's end, not that this would mean too much, in my case - but my
friends keep telling me to buy an xp redmond machine (argh!).

rtfm pointers most welcome!

thank you for reading so far,
christian

christian wrote:

> using slackware 11.0 / kde 3.5 / alsa i never had any problems regarding
> sound, i.e. *listening*; i can hear cds, mp3, wav, etc.
> hw: kmix tells me i've got a 'HDA ULI M5461'.

I'm using at the present Asus-Ali and finally I disabled sound on
board and put in a old yamaha pci so I have a very good audio :-)
but in my case I was complitly without audio.

christian wrote:
> sorry, this is going to be a longish post;

22 lines, that's hardly what i'd call longish. ;-)

> english isn't my native
> language,

i wouldn't have known. (but then again, it's not really *my* native
language either. ;-)

> but: i never ever succeed capturing some microphone input, try as i
> might; as i think i'm the only one with this problem, i'm pretty sure
> i'm doing something wrong (i unmuted mic input, though).

i may be waaaay off here, but IIRC many sound cards have both a mic input
and a line in, though it may be that the mic input isn't actually connected
to a microphone jack on the machine. in that case, the mic you're
connecting is probably connected to the line in, which means you should
unmute that, rather than mic input.

like i said though, i may be way off. it's been a while since i've done any
recording, as my current laptop doesn't have a line in. though i'm certain
that when i did do recording (i used to record lp's) it was always through
line in.

btw, unmuting alone isn't enough, of course. you also need to put the
volume up.

HTH

--
Joost Kremers joostkremers@yahoo.com
Selbst in die Unterwelt dringt durch Spalten Licht
EN:SiS(9)

On Tue, 19 Dec 2006 21:17:21 +0100, christian wrote:

> english isn't my native language, and i may lack in technical
> professionalism, as well.

Near as I can tell, you are doing better than MANY of the functionally
illiterate casualties of the American public school system I see on usenet.

christian <aols@sisyphus.ch> wrote:

[snip]

> using slackware 11.0 / kde 3.5 / alsa i never had any problems
> regarding sound, i.e. *listening*; i can hear cds, mp3, wav, etc. hw:
> kmix tells me i've got a 'HDA ULI M5461'.

> but: i never ever succeed capturing some microphone input, try as i
> might; as i think i'm the only one with this problem, i'm pretty sure
> i'm doing something wrong (i unmuted mic input, though).

Hmmm. I use my microphone all the time. It works great, although
there was a bit of learning. How to use the rec command, for example.
And how to set levels (I use rexima).

However, I just now tried to use it in Kde, and it wouldn't work. It
was functioning, and I could hear my voice over the speakers when I
spoke into the microphone. Yet all my efforts to record a file and
play it back failed. (So I tried again in fvwm2--no problem.)

I normally use the command line or fvwm2. I'm also fond of twm. I
don't know what is going on. I think it is a Kde issue.

Anybody out there in alt.os.linux.slackware got any help for Christian
and me?

[snip]

> friends keep telling me to buy an xp redmond machine (argh!).

Don't do that!

> rtfm pointers most welcome!

I had to read the man pages for rec. Finally, I learned which options
and values to use. A lot of trial and error there. If you get that
far ask me for more help.

> thank you for reading so far,

You're welcome.

> christian

-Joe

Le mardi 19 décembre 2006 21:17, christian s'est exprimé de la sorte sur
alt.os.linux.slackware :


> but: i never ever succeed capturing some microphone input, try as i
> might; as i think i'm the only one with this problem, i'm pretty sure
> i'm doing something wrong (i unmuted mic input, though).
>

English is not my english language but as i understood your problem, it
seems that it is the same problem i had and solution is very simple.

Unmute your microphone input with the alsamixer tool is the first step but
it's not the last !

I spent several days (weeks searching some clues on google !) to understand
this but in alsamixer, you have to go to the capture panel to see the
*real* input menu, not only the microphone.

On this panel, select the capture device (all are named capture without any
other information) related to your microphone and *press the space bar* to
select it then set the volume up.
The default capture device selected may be the wrong one. It's up to you to
find the one that suit your config.

--
@+
Doug [Linux user #307925] - Slackware RuleZ ;-)
[Pourquoi t'es qui, qu'est ce que tu fais par où ?]
-- Pour me contacter enlever no-spam (2X) --

Le mardi 19 décembre 2006 21:17, christian s'est exprimé de la sorte sur
alt.os.linux.slackware :


> but: i never ever succeed capturing some microphone input, try as i
> might; as i think i'm the only one with this problem, i'm pretty sure
> i'm doing something wrong (i unmuted mic input, though).
>

English is not my native language but as i understood your problem, it
seems that it is the same problem i had and solution is very simple.

Unmute your microphone input with the alsamixer tool is the first step but
it's not the last !

I spent several days (weeks searching some clues on google !) to understand
this but in alsamixer, you have to go to the capture panel to see the
*real* input menu, not only the microphone.

On this panel, select the capture device (all are named capture without any
other information) related to your microphone and *press the space bar* to
select it then set the volume up.
The default capture device selected may be the wrong one. It's up to you to
find the one that suit your config.

--
@+
Doug [Linux user #307925] - Slackware RuleZ ;-)
[Pourquoi t'es qui, qu'est ce que tu fais par où ?]
-- Pour me contacter enlever no-spam (2X) --

On Tue, 19 Dec 2006 21:17:21 +0100, christian wrote:

> sorry, this is going to be a longish post; english isn't my native
> language, and i may lack in technical professionalism, as well.
>
> using slackware 11.0 / kde 3.5 / alsa i never had any problems regarding
> sound, i.e. *listening*; i can hear cds, mp3, wav, etc.
> hw: kmix tells me i've got a 'HDA ULI M5461'.
>
> but: i never ever succeed capturing some microphone input, try as i
> might; as i think i'm the only one with this problem, i'm pretty sure
> i'm doing something wrong (i unmuted mic input, though).
>
> this is beginning to bother me as i'm tempted to try to use skype.
>
> is there any good reading on 'sound' on linux? mixers? HowTos regarding
> *recording*, not playback?
> i'm at wit's end, not that this would mean too much, in my case - but my
> friends keep telling me to buy an xp redmond machine (argh!).

Please don't go the XP path.

If you want to get into sound recording/editing/playback there is a
linux distro called AGNULA that is purpose built for all your sound needs.
I have it installed on a spare partition and use it whenever I feel
creative and want to have a bash (no pun intended) on the guitar.

Apparantly it is dormant ...according to www.distrowatch.com ...but I am
sure you can get a copy from somewhere.
>
> rtfm pointers most welcome!
>
> thank you for reading so far,
> christian

klang (gclegg@ozemail.com.au) writes:
> On Tue, 19 Dec 2006 21:17:21 +0100, christian wrote:
>
>> sorry, this is going to be a longish post; english isn't my native
>> language, and i may lack in technical professionalism, as well.
>>
>> using slackware 11.0 / kde 3.5 / alsa i never had any problems regarding
>> sound, i.e. *listening*; i can hear cds, mp3, wav, etc.
>> hw: kmix tells me i've got a 'HDA ULI M5461'.
>>
>> but: i never ever succeed capturing some microphone input, try as i
>> might; as i think i'm the only one with this problem, i'm pretty sure
>> i'm doing something wrong (i unmuted mic input, though).
>>
>> this is beginning to bother me as i'm tempted to try to use skype.
>>
>> is there any good reading on 'sound' on linux? mixers? HowTos regarding
>> *recording*, not playback?
>> i'm at wit's end, not that this would mean too much, in my case - but my
>> friends keep telling me to buy an xp redmond machine (argh!).
>
> Please don't go the XP path.
>
> If you want to get into sound recording/editing/playback there is a
> linux distro called AGNULA that is purpose built for all your sound needs.
> I have it installed on a spare partition and use it whenever I feel
> creative and want to have a bash (no pun intended) on the guitar.
>
> Apparantly it is dormant ...according to www.distrowatch.com ...but I am
> sure you can get a copy from somewhere.


I don't think a whole other distribution is needed to fix this simple
problem (no matter how much trouble he is having).

On the other hand, I did buy the issue of Linux Format magazine that had
Slackware 10.2 on the cover DVD, and it also included "dynebolic" which
is a "live multimedia distribution". I fiddled with it at the time
I got the magazine, and other than the live aspect, it didn't really
give anything that couldn't be had with a regular distribution. It
just simply had it all in one place, when some of those applications
are not usually standard.

Michael

Joost Kremers wrote:
> i wouldn't have known. (but then again, it's not really *my* native
> language either. ;-)

:-))

> i may be waaaay off here, but IIRC many sound cards have both a mic input
> and a line in, though it may be that the mic input isn't actually connected
> to a microphone jack on the machine. in that case, the mic you're
> connecting is probably connected to the line in, which means you should
> unmute that, rather than mic input.

oh!
so even if there are separate 'line in' and 'mic' jacks, latter isn't
necessarily connected?
i'll have to try the 'line in' then, too.

> like i said though, i may be way off. it's been a while since i've done any
> recording, as my current laptop doesn't have a line in. though i'm certain
> that when i did do recording (i used to record lp's) it was always through
> line in.

noted.

> btw, unmuting alone isn't enough, of course. you also need to put the
> volume up.

yes, this i did. :-)

> HTH

thank you very much.