[Klug-general] Audacity under Fedora Core 10

[Martin Webb]

Hello, All.
I recently asked for help with Audacity under Fedora 10 and Ubuntu 
Intrepid.  Many thanks for the replies.  I couldn't, however, get it 
going, as others have been able to.  This may be a hardware thing, or 
the way the OS installs on this particular system.
I have finally succeeded with Ubuntu Intrepid, and give a report below, 
just in case it's of any use to any others with the same difficulty.
Best wishes,
Martin

<report on using Audacity under Ubuntu 8.10>
This information relies on that given in:
http://forumubuntusoftware.info/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=2184&start=
and
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/PulseAudio
which is similar,
to both of which many thanks.

1.
sudo apt-get install libasound2-plugins "pulseaudio-*" paman 
padevchooser paprefs pavucontrol pavumeter

2.
Next go to System -> Administration -> and click on Users and Groups 
(you may need to unlock – button at bottom of window).
Click on Manage Groups, and scroll all the way to near the bottom of the 
list where you will find:
* pulse
* pulse-access
* pulse-rt
Make sure to highlight each, one at a time, and click Properties. Just 
put a check next to each user that you want to be able to have access to 
sound

3.  (Not vital, but this is what I did)
 From “http://www.real.com/linux” install Real Player 11 Gold (I used 
Package Installer to install the deb package automatically, with all its 
dependencies)
And whilst we're about it, we may as well enable flash support:
sudo apt-get install flashplugin-nonfree-extrasound

4.
Audacity was installed, with all its dependencies from Synaptic Package 
Manager

5.
Go to System => Preferences => Main Menu, and change the command for 
Audacity to “padsp audacity”  (Back in Applications => Sound and Video, 
Audacity can be dragged onto the Desktop, if you wish).  Alternatively, 
Audacity can be started from a command prompt with "padsp audacity".

6.
Open up 'Applications -> Sound and Video -> PulseAudio Volume Control'
(NB  For me, this was actually “sudo pavucontrol” from a terminal, or 
approached through Pulse Audio Device Chooser in the Applications => 
Sound and Video Menu (the Device Chooser appears as an applet in the 
Panel – left click on it and choose Volume Control)
On the Output Devices tab, right click on the volume level for the sound 
output that you actually listen with e.g. USB audio headphones might be 
'ALSA PCM on front:1 (USB Audio) via DMA'. Select Default in the little 
box that pops up.
On the Input Devices tab, on the Show Options at the bottom right, 
choose Monitors (or All). Right click on the monitor for the sound 
output that you listen to i.e. the monitor of the same device that you 
selected on the Output tab e.g. 'Monitor Source of ALSA PCM on front:1 
(USB Audio) via DMA'. Select Default in the little box that pops up.
* Open up the source of the sound, e.g. Totem music player or a web page 
that plays audio. Once the sound starts, pause it and go back to the 
start if you can.
Go back to the Playback tab of the PulseAudio Volume Control. It should 
be showing the sound stream. If you right-click on the volume bar of the 
stream and hover the mouse over the 'Move Stream...', you can verify 
that the sound is pointing towards the same place you selected in Output 
Devices above.
(NB  This worked well with a music stream via flash player, but Test 
Match Special via RealPlayer did not show up.  PulseAudio doesn't like 
cricket?)
Close the sound source.

7.
Open up audacity but use the command 'padsp audacity' instead of just 
'audacity'. (NB We changed the Menu command for Audacity to “padsp 
audacity”, so just use the Menu).  This will make the OSS source within 
audacity actually come from PulseAudio. You can permanently change the 
command for the menu item if you wish using System -> Preferences -> 
Main Menu (NB we did this already).
* Under Edit, Preferences in Audacity, in the 'Audio I/O' section, 
de-select the two check-boxes under Playthrough, set the recording 
device to 'OSS :/dev/dsp' (this option was not available at first, and 
only appeared after Audacity had been opened, closed, and opened again) 
and the channels to '2 (Stereo)'. Set the playback device to 'OSS 
:/dev/dsp' too. Click on OK to close the dialogue.
NB  In the above, the advice is to set the Playback Device to OSS.  I 
found this not to work, and playback to be unobtainable, until I set 
Playback Device to the same as the Output and Input Devices mentioned 
above in pavucontrol.  This option did not appear straight away in 
Audacity => Edit => Preference => Audio I/O, but only after Audacity had 
been closed and re-opened.
* Click on the record button in audacity and start the sound off again 
from the source. When you're done, stop the recording in audacity, 
remove any bits of the sound that you don't want e.g. leading and 
trailing blank sounds, and export as an mp3 file (NB or any of the other 
formats available in Audacity).

8.
It says in 7. above, “ Click on the record button in audacity and start 
the sound off again”.  I found that Audacity would only start to record 
if this were done in the reverse order: i.e. start the sound source 
before clicking on Audacity's record button.  This often then means 
restarting the sound source, in order to record the beginning of it.

9.
All the above does not lead to a completely stable set-up, so once 
recording is finished, to avoid loss of data, save the file before 
beginning to edit.  Audacity can easily freeze, then the recording is 
lost (however, it often un-freezes after a minute or two, so, if the 
recording is important, it's worth going to make a cup of tea).  If it 
is saved, Audacity can be restarted and the file can be re-imported. You 
may need to close the sound source before beginning to edit, as Audacity 
and Sound Source don't seem to be able to inhabit the same planet.
<end report>

Good luck!