How to record very faint sound from the analogue input?

[JD. Brown]

On Fri, Mar 5, 2010 at 11:59 AM, Dotan Cohen <dotancohen at gmail.com> wrote:
> I need to record a phone conversation, but the sound from the analogue
> input is so weak that recording and playing back in Audacity I hear
> almost nothing. How can I either boost the playback or (even better)
> boost the input so that the file is recorded in a hearable way?
>
> Thanks!
>
> --
> Dotan Cohen

As long as you still have pulseaudio, it can be done under the
pulseaudio manager.

You select your input stream while plugged in and you can crank it up
past 100%. Obviously, you will reach distortion stress, loud popping
and equipment damage, if done for too long.

It's been a couple of years since I did it, but, just like you; I was
restoring old tapes of my grandma talking, singing, etc, etc and I ran
into very low sounds for which pulseaudio enhanced the sound stream
when I recorded over to my harddrive.

It just takes a bit of tweaking and you will find the sweet spot.



Regards,
-- 

JD. Brown

Linux User # 375995 - http://counter.li.org/

Debian - http://www.debian.org/intro/about