soundblaster emu10k1 can't record line-in/microphone
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soundblaster emu10k1 can't record line-in/microphone
A bunch of people have posted this question with no resolution, so I'm going to guess there is a driver issue. But I'll ask again anyway.
My sound card plays sound coming from the microphone to the speakers fine, but none of arec, Gnome Sound Recorder, nor SND can record microphone sound. I have fired up alsamixer and turned on EVERY option and turned up every channel. No dice.
Type "alsamixer -V all". This should give you every commend that amixer prints out. I have used that POS card several years ago to record audio. Setting up to record audio is very strange. Its duplex feature is poor.
Post the output of amixer. I or someone else may suggest what settings to change.
I remember when I configured to record from line-in I had to first use alsamixer to unmute the line-in port (change from MM to 00). In your case it would be Mic-in. Mine also shows a Mic boost, which might help. After that I used my gui mixer (Kmix in KDE) to set Line/Mic as the recording source. I also had to configure the sound environment to be full-duplex and disable the sound enhancement system (aRts in KDE) and use alsa as the engine.
I do not recommend kmix for setting sound levels. Use only alsamixer.
When I setup recording, I do the following
1) Plug a source in Line In jack
2) arecord -r 48000 -c 1 | hexdump
3) alsamixer -V all
Adjust settings until hexadecimal changes. After it is setup, test with audacity.
After some head banging, I think I set the left channel of AC97 to 100% and the other channel to 0% (or was the opposite), unmute external amplifier, and adjust other controls.
I recommend use a different card because Creative Labs Soundblaster LIVE! does in fact changes bus registers on the fly, so chances of data corruption are increase. Turtle Beach Santa Cruz is the easiest to setup and has very good duplexing. Its 5.1 output is a lot better than the LIVE card.
... I think I set the left channel of AC97 to 100% and the other channel to 0% (or was the opposite), unmute external amplifier, and adjust other controls.
Last night you saved some DJs life Alternatively you could use aumix to set the left and right input gain to sensible values. Does the same thing, but feels slightly better. I just got a Live Platinum to work that way. I got it so cheap, I couldn't resist, although I remembered from a previous emu10k1-based card, that there was something tricky about capture. Nevertheless the Platinum sounds much better than the dozen of soundcards I tried before and seems to do a fairly good job with jackd.
Last night you saved some DJs life Alternatively you could use aumix to set the left and right input gain to sensible values. Does the same thing, but feels slightly better. I just got a Live Platinum to work that way. I got it so cheap, I couldn't resist, although I remembered from a previous emu10k1-based card, that there was something tricky about capture. Nevertheless the Platinum sounds much better than the dozen of soundcards I tried before and seems to do a fairly good job with jackd.
I recommend get an M-Audio card or other sound cards based on VIA ICE1712 or ICE1724. C-Media CMI8788 cards also works in Linux and have similar sound quality. Creative Labs care for features, but they do not care for sound quality.
I have an Audiotrak Prodigy 7.1 (based on VIA ICE1724) that sounds better than any Creative Labs sound card. Brands such as Auzentech, BlueGears, and Razer are creating some good sound cards.
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Alternatively you could use aumix to set the left and right input gain to sensible values. Does the same thing, but feels slightly better. I just got a Live Platinum to work that way. I got it so cheap, I couldn't resist, although I remembered from a previous emu10k1-based card, that there was something tricky about capture. Nevertheless the Platinum sounds much better than the dozen of soundcards I tried before and seems to do a fairly good job with jackd.
