Microphone Problem

[Frans Ketelaars]

On Wed, 18 May 2011 04:53:39 +0300, Waleed Hamra wrote:

> i'm having a very weird problem.
> i have never thought of using my microphone before, but this week, i
> decided to give it a try.
> after some fiddling with alsamixer, i managed to see what controls i
> need to control its volume, and what levels are acceptable between high
> enough volume, and not too high to cause nasty feedback loops. so
> basically, now when i speak into the microphone, i hear my sound coming
> from the speakers. i thought all is fine... but alas... no NONE of the
> programs i tried managed to detect the faintest of sounds. i tried
> skype, i tried audacity, i tried arecorder, even ran virtualbox and
> checked Windows' sound recorder, nothing, they all hear nothing, yet...
> i am hearing myself during all the tests, on the speakers... this is
> really really confusing.
> anyone has any ideas?

Note that in order to hear yourself from the microphone the audio 
hardware only has to route the analog signal from the microphone to the 
analog output.

To record the audio to harddisk and such the analog signal from the 
microphone (also) must be routed to an analog to digital converter. 

ALSA uses terms like 'capture source' and 'capture volume' to indicate 
which analog signal at which volume should be sent to the A/D converter.

In alsamixer F4 lets you see the capture controls. See 'man alsamixer'.

Good luck!

    -Frans