Hi everyone,

I've tried just about everything I could find on the internet for this problem, still no success.

I'm running 64-bit Ubuntu 8.10 with a SB Audigy SE sound card. The card is listed appropriately with cat /proc/asound/cards and I can hear myself through the mic when typing / talking etc, but I can't get any application to actually record (TeamSpeak, Sound Recorder). In Pulseaudio's volume control panel, input devices, I can see my device listed in Input devices, the mic isn't muted and sliding the volume bar affects the volume coming back to me through my headphones. However, it's volume meter (recording) doesn't register anything.

Any ideas?

TIA

hmm, well soundcards usually have a 'line in' and a 'mic' port, and often an analog input for audio cds as input sources, perhaps you have the right soundcard selected but the wrong input source from that soundcard selected?

Hi frieza,

Thanks for the reply. My card has 4 jacks: Line in / Mic in / Digital I/O jack, and 3 Line out jacks. My headphones are plugged in Line out 1 and my microphone in Line in / Mic in / Digital I/O.

In Preferences / Sound I have several options in sound capture:

- Audigy SE [SB0570] CA0106 (ALSA)
- Audigy SE [SB0570] CA0106 (ALSA)
- Audigy SE [SB0570] CA0106 (ALSA)
- Audigy SE [SB0570] CA0106 (ALSA)
- Audigy SE [SB0570] CA0106 (OSS)
- ALSA - Advanced Linux Sound Architecture
- OSS - Open Sound System
- PulseAudio Sound Server
- Test sound
- Silence

Is there a difference between the first 4 Audigy SE's? Should I use one of these? I've also tried setting as PulseAudio, with no success.

In volume control, I have 5 options for device:

- CA0106 (ALSA mixer)
- mixer00 (OSS mixer)
- Playback: ALSA PCM on front:0 (CA0106) via DMA (PulseAudio Mixer)
- Capture: Monitor Source of ALSA PCM on front:0 (CA0106) via DMA (PulseAudio Mixer)
- Capture: ALSA PCM on front:0 (CA0106) via DMA (PulseAudio Mixer)

Most options are in CA0106 (ALSA mixer), and in the recording tab I have both Line in and Microphone. I've also selected Mic in in the Shared Mic/Line in option. For Microphone, the volume is set to max and is unmuted. However, I can't Toggle audio recording from Microphone. I can click it, the red x is taken off, but the setting isn't saved (when closing and reopening volume control the x is back on the button).

I know I'm pretty new to linux but I've managed to get everything else to work. This issue is pretty much the last thing left and I can't sort out what needs fixing between the sound card, ALSA and PulseAudio.

Thanks again for your help, and if you need more information just let me know.

bump? really hoping to find a solution to this

Update: I managed to get my microphone recording by uninstalling PulseAudio. However, recording now sounds distorted in Sound recorder and testing in TeamSpeak I get some sort of feedback (the sound echoes and adds to itself, becoming unbearable rather quickly). I tried playing with the microphone volume and the capture feedback levels, with no success. Any ideas?

try also adjusting the sound output level

I've tried lowering / raising the sound output levels in TS, still no success. What am I missing? Is there a slider somewhere that I don't see?

OK, I thought maybe TeamSpeak was causing issues so I installed Mumble instead. However, I'm still having the same problems: when testing the sound is extremely distorted (slowed down) and I can't get it to work properly. When going in the Audio Tuning Wizard I select [default:CARD=CA0106] CA0106, CA0106 Default Audio Device for both input and output device. The device tuning step plays the tone as expected, but detects a really long audio path (400-700ms), and the volume tuning step plays back what I say but much slower.

I'm really confused as to why this is happening in both programs. I've tried practically all devices in the list and still can't get it to work properly.

TIA

maybe it's a physical issue, perhaps the mic is simply too close to the speakers

frieza,

Thanks for your help with this. I've tried unplugging the speakers, and even the headphones, leaving on the mic plugged in. In mumble's audio wizard you see the volume meter. When speaking in the microphone I see meter spike, like it should, however I see the spikes come back as echoes, even though I have no sound coming out of my computer.

I tried plugging in a USB headset instead (MS Lifechat LX-3000) and I can get both Mumble and TS working fine. The downside is that the sound card installed by the headset isn't full duplex, and sound only works in the first app started (no voice chat while gaming through the headphones, although I can send the sound from the game to the speakers on the SB card).

Is there any hope to get this working at all? I feel like I've tried everything and still nothing to show for it .

Thanks again though,

I checked on the ALSA driver matrix page and noticed my card might not be fully supported. I went and bought me another one (which was listed as supported) and now I can finally make both apps use the sound card (through alsa-oss).

I'm having some slight issues with stuttering on TeamSpeak, but the sound is perfect in-game. I'm thinking I still need to play with some settings to have it run perfectly but at least I got it to work.

Thanks for helping out.