can't use my microphone for voice recording

sfxpt · 01-31-2009, 11:02 PM

Hi,

I suddenly can't use my microphone for voice recording any more. I made
it work before. Now with the same HW and SW, nothing get recorded. (I can
hear the echo sound from the speaker when speaking to mic). Checking back
my log, I noticed one difference:

Previously it was:

Code:

  $ amixer set Capture '100%'
  Simple mixer control 'Capture',0
    Capabilities: cvolume cswitch
    Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right
    Limits: Capture 0 - 15
    Front Left: Capture 15 [100%] [22.50dB] [on]
    Front Right: Capture 15 [100%] [22.50dB] [on]

Now, I can't turn the capture on:

Code:

  $ amixer set Capture '100%' on
  Simple mixer control 'Capture',0
    Capabilities: cvolume cswitch
    Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right
    Limits: Capture 0 - 15
    Front Left: Capture 15 [100%] [22.50dB] [off]
    Front Right: Capture 15 [100%] [22.50dB] [off]
                                             ^^^^^

Any way to turn it on? I tried many, nothing worked.

PS. Here is my Mic setting:

Code:

$ amixer get Mic
Simple mixer control 'Mic',0
  Capabilities: pvolume pvolume-joined pswitch pswitch-joined cswitch 
cswitch-exclusive
  Capture exclusive group: 0
  Playback channels: Mono
  Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Playback 0 - 31
  Mono: Playback 31 [100%] [12.00dB] [on]
  Front Left: Capture [on]
  Front Right: Capture [on]

Does it look right?

Thanks

cheftec · 02-01-2009, 07:24 PM

Howdy. Couple questions: Are you running this as root? Have you tried running it as root? Can you post your lsmod and lspci? It may be a module issue instead of amixer issue. And, is this your slackware or debian machine?

sfxpt · 02-03-2009, 05:38 PM

Thanks for the reply. I'm using debian. Same command run as root produced same result.

As said, I'm using the same HW and SW as before when it was working -- it is because the capture is "[off]". i.e., it is a pure amixer issue.

Thanks

ErV · 02-04-2009, 12:55 AM

I think you should select microphone as input source to make it work.
Excerpt from amixer output:

Code:

...
Simple mixer control 'Capture',0
  Capabilities: cvolume cswitch
  Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Capture 0 - 31
  Front Left: Capture 31 [100%] [34.50dB] [on]
  Front Right: Capture 31 [100%] [34.50dB] [on]

...

Simple mixer control 'Input Source',0
  Capabilities: cenum
  Items: 'Mic' 'Front Mic' 'Line' 'CD'
  Item0: 'Mic'

You can do it in alsamixer (press F4 for record controls), KMix or manually (somehow, using amixer command).
And I recommend to use alsamixer/KMix instead of calling amixer directly.

Quote:

Originally Posted by sfxpt

Any way to turn it on?

run alsamixer, press F4, select your capture device with cursor keys, press "M" to unmute, or "Up arrow" to move volume up. Once device is enabled, run "alsactl store" as root to save (works on slackware).

Quote:

Originally Posted by sfxpt

I tried many, nothing worked.

It would be NICE if you posted which ways of enabling it you tried.

Quote:

Originally Posted by sfxpt

I suddenly can't use my microphone for voice recording any more.

..and how are you trying to record voice.