[SOLVED] Any trick to get arecord to work?

[ToddAndMargo]

Cent OS 5.6 x32

Hi Guys,

I have a Supermicro X8DAL-E motherboard with AC97 on board audio. I plugged a Cyber Acoustics CVL-1064 Desktop Microphone into the pink "Mic" jack in the back. If I click my microphone's On/Off switch, I hear a thump in my speakers. If I mute my microphone in gnome-volume-control, flicking my microphone's switch only gives me a click and no thump. I tried recording from Audacity with no joy.

So I switched to "arecord".

$ arecord -L
default:CARD=ESB2
Intel ESB2, Intel ESB2
Default Audio Device

$arecord -d 10 -f cd -t wav -D default foobar.wav

which does record 10 seconds of me making noise into my microphone into foobar.wav. Unfortunately, foobar.wav is completely silent.

I can play other *.wav" file with "aplay".

Is there any trick to recording from my microphone? Anyone know what I am doing wrong.

Many thanks,
-T

[pschaff]

[quote]
ToddAndMargo wrote:
Cent OS 5.6 x32
[/quote]
There is no such thing as "x32". Presumably you mean 32-bit, AKA i386, sometimes designated ix86.

The current supported CentOS-5 release is [url=http://wiki.centos.org/Manuals/ReleaseNotes/CentOS5.7]5.7[/url] so first please "yum update".

If still having problems then my next step would be to try the [url=http://elrepo.org/tiki/kmod-alsa]kmod-alsa[/url] package that is available from the [url=http://elrepo.org]ELRepo Project[/url].

[ToddAndMargo]

[quote][quote]
ToddAndMargo wrote:
Cent OS 5.6 x32
[/quote]
There is no such thing as "x32". Presumably you mean 32-bit, AKA i386, sometimes designated ix86.[/quote]

Hi Pschaff,
You are the first person I know of who did not know what I meant by x32. Interesting. I use x64 to mean 64 bit and x32 mean 32 bit all over the place. I wonder if I have confused others and they just have not said anything?

[quote]The current supported CentOS-5 release is [url=http://wiki.centos.org/Manuals/ReleaseNotes/CentOS5.7]5.7[/url] so first please "yum update".[/quote]

[code]$ cat /etc/redhat-release
CentOS release 5.7 (Final)[/code]

Ooops. I am already on 5.7 and did not realize it. Thank you.

[quote]If still having problems then my next step would be to try the [url=http://elrepo.org/tiki/kmod-alsa]kmod-alsa[/url] package that is available from the [url=http://elrepo.org]ELRepo Project[/url].[/quote]

[code]# yum --enablerepo=elrepo.repo whatprovides kmod-alsa
Loaded plugins: fastestmirror, priorities

Error getting repository data for elrepo.repo, repository not found
# yum --enablerepo=elrepo.repo install kmod-alsa
Loaded plugins: fastestmirror, priorities

Error getting repository data for elrepo.repo, repository not found[/code]

Bummer. So I downloaded it and installed it directly:
[code]# rpm -ivh kmod-alsa-1.0.24-1.el5.elrepo.i686.rpm
Preparing... ########################################### [100%]
1:kmod-alsa ########################################### [100%]
Working. This may take some time ...
WARNING: /lib/modules/2.6.18-238.19.1.el5/kernel/sound/pci/trident/snd-trident-synth.ko needs unknown symbol snd_trident_synth_free
WARNING: /lib/modules/2.6.18-238.19.1.el5/kernel/sound/pci/trident/snd-trident-synth.ko needs unknown symbol snd_trident_synth_alloc
WARNING: /lib/modules/2.6.18-238.19.1.el5/kernel/sound/pci/trident/snd-trident-synth.ko needs unknown symbol snd_trident_synth_copy_from_user
WARNING: /lib/modules/2.6.18-274.3.1.el5/kernel/sound/pci/trident/snd-trident-synth.ko needs unknown symbol snd_trident_synth_free
WARNING: /lib/modules/2.6.18-274.3.1.el5/kernel/sound/pci/trident/snd-trident-synth.ko needs unknown symbol snd_trident_synth_alloc
WARNING: /lib/modules/2.6.18-274.3.1.el5/kernel/sound/pci/trident/snd-trident-synth.ko needs unknown symbol snd_trident_synth_copy_from_user
WARNING: Can't read module /lib/modules/2.6.18-274.7.1.el5/weak-updates/vboxdrv.ko: No such file or directory
WARNING: Can't read module /lib/modules/2.6.18-274.7.1.el5/weak-updates/vboxnetadp.ko: No such file or directory
WARNING: /lib/modules/2.6.18-274.7.1.el5/kernel/sound/pci/trident/snd-trident-synth.ko needs unknown symbol snd_trident_synth_free
WARNING: /lib/modules/2.6.18-274.7.1.el5/kernel/sound/pci/trident/snd-trident-synth.ko needs unknown symbol snd_trident_synth_alloc
WARNING: /lib/modules/2.6.18-274.7.1.el5/kernel/sound/pci/trident/snd-trident-synth.ko needs unknown symbol snd_trident_synth_copy_from_user
Done.[/code]

"aplay" still plays other *.wav but no sound from what "arecord" records. Rats! Any other tips?

Thank you for the help.

-T

[pschaff]

[quote]
ToddAndMargo wrote:
...
You are the first person I know of who did not know what I meant by x32. [/quote]
I did manage to guess correctly :-) , but my point was that it is not common usage. If you use your own unique shorthand communication may be impeded.

[quote]
"aplay" still plays other *.wav but no sound from what "arecord" records. Rats! Any other tips?[/quote]
Try another microphone?

[ToddAndMargo]

[quote]Try another microphone?[/quote]
Don't have access to one at the moment. What gets me is the audible thump in the speaker when I switch the mic on and off. I do have access to another computer in a few days. I think I will try the mic in it.

Thank you for the help!
-T

[ToddAndMargo]

[quote]
ToddAndMargo wrote:
[quote]Try another microphone?[/quote]
Don't have access to one at the moment. What gets me is the audible thump in the speaker when I switch the mic on and off. I do have access to another computer in a few days. I think I will try the mic in it.

Thank you for the help!
-T[/quote]

Okay. I tried the first mic on a second computer (SL6.1 x64): no joy. I tried a mic from a different vendor on the first computer (CentOS 5.7 x32): no joy. Bugger!

I can hear my mic through my speakers when I thump on it too!

Anyone have any experience with this?

-T

[ToddAndMargo]

New information!

The following actually *worked* on the my Fedora Core 15 live CD 32 bit (joy):

arecord -d 5 -f cd -t wav -D front foobar.wav

Booting back into CentOS 5.7, both "-D front" and "-D default"
do not work (no joy).

Now this is funny. In CentOS 5.7, I have two "front" devices:

$ arecord -L

front:CARD=ESB2,DEV=0
Intel ESB2, Intel ESB2
Front speakers

front:CARD=NVidia
HDA NVidia
Front speakers

I think if I can figure out how to tell "arecord" I want the
"front" on the ESB2, not the nVidia HDMI, I can get this thing to work!

Anyone have any ideas?

Many thanks,
-T

[milosb]

Although I'm still quite ignorant when it comes to this audio I/O redirection stuff, here's my two cents,... hope it helps:

1. List all sound cards:
[code]
arecord -l
[/code]

2. Choose the one you'd like to use by referencing the device with [b]hw:0,0[/b] (where the first number denotes the card number as provided by the previous command, and the second, the channel, I believe. In my case, both microphones used channel 0 (i.e. I managed recording from both devices by referencing them with hw:0,0 and hw:1,0)

Just to make my deployment a bit more clear: alongside Intel on-board sound card, I also have a monitor integrated webcam with microphone. Recording from the Intel sound card worked simply by supplying [b]-D default[/b] to arecord... However, figuring out how to denote the second input device, required some more research. And [url=http://www.linuxjournal.com/node/8234/print]this[/url] is what gave me an idea to do this rather easily.

Couldn't read it though,... am a bit lazy and tired at the moment...


Regards,

[ToddAndMargo]

Figured it out! Jason over on the Scientific Linux mailing list pointed
me in the right direction.

1) start Alsamixer and "tab" to switch to "Capture" screen

2) change "Capture" device over from "CD" to "Mic". Use arrow
key to highlight "Mic", then press "space" to activate as the
Capture device

3) Use arrow key to high "Capture", turn volume up from zero to 100.

4) okay, ha ha, turn volume up speakers from mute


Joy!

Test run string:

arecord -d 5 -f cd -t wav -D front foobar.wav
Recording WAVE 'foobar.wav' : Signed 16 bit Little Endian, Rate 44100 Hz, Stereo

aplay foobar.wav

Thanks to everyone for their tips and support! This was driving me nuts.

-T