Sound Card Terratec Aureon 7.1 USB Microphone Problem

memset · 08-25-2018, 01:32 PM

Dear Community,

Recently I purchased a new sound card (Terratec Aureon 7.1 USB) and connected to my PC running Debian GNU/Linux 9 (stretch).

Bus 003 Device 006: ID 0ccd:00b1 TerraTec Electronic GmbH

It works OK except two major flaws:
1) It doesn't switch between external speakers (connected to its back) and headphones, when the latter is plugged into appropriate host on the front side.
2) It has two Mic sockets ("1" and "2") on the front side.
I plug my only Mic to the socket "1", and resulting sound
input hits only left Stereo channel (or right, if connected to "2"). The sound volume also leaves much to be desired.

So, my question is how do I fix these flaws.
I don't understand whether this piece of HW represents the only Mic input as two separate 2-pole mono Mic inputs OR, instead, the two Mic inputs are fully powered and are 3-pole jack inputs but misconfigured by PulseAudio or whatever.

What I want is to use only one Mic input socket so that it treats my only Mic as Stereo input with full phantom power, not as one of the mono channel inputs.

The problem (1) is of less importance, but I think it's worth solving, too.

I have poor knowledge of PulseAudio / ALSA and need a good piece of advice. But most of all I look forward to hearing from community members who do own the same audio card and can share their hands on experience.

ondoho · 08-26-2018, 08:01 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by memset

1) It doesn't switch between external speakers (connected to its back) and headphones, when the latter is plugged into appropriate host on the front side.

open 'alsamixer' in a terminal, scroll to the right until you get to "Auto-Mute" and make sure it is enabled.

Quote:

2) It has two Mic sockets ("1" and "2") on the front side.
I plug my only Mic to the socket "1", and resulting sound
input hits only left Stereo channel (or right, if connected to "2").

sounds like this is by design.

Quote:

The sound volume also leaves much to be desired.

again, in alsamixer, there could be a setting for mic or line boost (press F4 to get at capture channels).
or the volume of the channle in question is simply too low.

memset · 08-26-2018, 08:41 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ondoho

open 'alsamixer' in a terminal, scroll to the right until you get to "Auto-Mute" and make sure it is enabled.
sounds like this is by design.

again, in alsamixer, there could be a setting for mic or line boost (press F4 to get at capture channels).
or the volume of the channle in question is simply too low.

Thanks for trying to help me. I must have written this explicitly, I tried changing settings in alsamixer from the very beginning. Unfortunately, Setting Mic level (single control was available) to maximum improves Mic boost just for a little bit, it's not that helpful. Also, "Auto-Mute" wasn't present there (I made sure to scroll to the right).

Anyhow, thanks for your hint about F4 capture menu, I'll check it as soon as I reach my home computer.