(Newbie.) Still looking for the correct sound input settings.

[Donn]

Bas,
 I don't know anything at all about all the technical sound options. Those 
green/red buttons in kmix are a mystery to me too -- I suspect they may be 
mute buttons, but who knows? :)

To get a simpler view on things, run alsamixer from the command line.

As for the clicking sounds -- I played with a mic once and found that a lot of 
the noise depends on the wire and the plug going into the card. Perhaps your 
mic has a bad cable or something's loose? Mine is super cheap and real 
rubbish and makes sounds like H.P.Lovecraft on the jazz up to his eyeballs in 
Djinn :D

Good luck,
\d