I have discovered arecord which, for the time being, enables me to record audio, triggered by a command line.

I notice that arecord will display a primitive VU meter: When you type "arecord -V stereo" (plus some other options), you get some activity on the next line in the terminal window. I also get other output in the window which confirms the file name which is being created.

I wrote a script which calls on arecord - so that I don't need to put in all the options manually. When I run the script, I still get the file name displayed - but I don't get the VU meter. Where might it be hiding?

EDIT. I thought I should include a (simplified) sample of the script I want to use
However, this script is even worse that the real one - the filename does not make it through correctly.
So, now I have two questions - where does the VU Meter go and what am I doing wrong with the quotes in my script?

Hello Ian,
Do you need to launch another shell for arecord? I wrote a script with a line like this one:
arecord -V stereo -f cd removeme
and the volume bar is shown in the terminal from which it is called. In that case you only need to quote the file name. Do you need to use curly brackets? I always used "$var" only (http://www.tldp.org/LDP/abs/html/index.html)
Best regards,
Esteban

sh `arecord -V "stereo" -f "cd" "${Filename}"` looks strange. It generates a command of sh followed by the output of the command between the ` characters.

Probably you just want arecord -V "stereo" -f "cd" "$Filename" (the { } are not wrong but not required either).

Thank you both. The script (and arecord) now does what I wanted it to.