[SLUG] Audacity, no mic in sound

[Martin Webb]

john at johnallsopp.co.uk wrote:
> I've just installed Audacity 1.3.0-beta (which is
> what Yum installed for me) and I'm trying to record from a minidisc
> recording.

Do you know whether the Freshrpms or the Livna repo was operative here? 
  The Livna is the better of those two (mainly because it has has some 
MP3 support built in, and I know it all works - I use Audacity daily, 
and am well pleased and impressed).

  I've got an analogue jack lead from my player headphone
> socket

volume turned up?  :)

  to the blue socket (line in, I understand) at the rear of my PC
> (I also tried the pink one, mic in (I think)).

mic only good for mic, you definitely need "line in"

> Sound is from the AOpen AX4SPE Series motherboard. My Linux is Fedora 3.

Fedora 3 may be the difficulty.  Until I installed Fedora 5, I always 
had one difficulty or another with Audacity, and, provided I had the 
right version of Audacity installed, it wasn't Audacity that was causing 
the problem.

> My problem is I'm getting no sound in. I can open a wav file and play
> it and hear it, no problem. But no mixture of choosing  mic or line,
> changing the levels in Audicity or changing things in my ALSA Mixer
> capture volume control, nor any combination of unmuting, seems to make
> any sound enter the system at all. I can hear sound out of the
> minidisc if I plug in headphones.

Ah, so the volume is set right out of the headphones jack.

The problem often is in which of the mixer controls are on and off.  The 
requirements are different for each sound card, so telling you mine 
won't help.  However, it has made a huge difference to me using KDE and 
Kmix, which is clear and controllable.

> I haven't re-booted since installing Audacity, nor have I checked the
> BIOS in case there's a mic on/off switch there, I can't remember there
> being one.
> 
> Any ideas what I should try?
> 
> Oh, in Audacity preferences I appear to have just one choice for
> recording device, /dev/dsp

This is correct.

Any chance of using another machine, even an old one, installing Fedora 
5 and using the Livna repository?

I'm interested in sound recording.  Please keep us in touch with progress.