Trouble with your microphone?
Posted by Trip on June 8, 2006
Recording Level Monitor:
Checking your output sound is easy as you can just play any Mp3 file etc. & hear it playing, but you might also want to check recording from a microphone (known bug) or some other external source. One of the easiest way’s to do this is to use the Recording Level Monitor.
This handy little programme is installed by default in Ubuntu, but is normally hidden on Gnomes Applications menu.
Unhide it by doing the following..
Navigate to Applications/Accessories/Alacarte menu editor in the top Gnome panel, click on Sound & Video within the newly opened programme (left hand pane of window), then make sure that recording level monitor option (in the right hand pane) has a tick in the box next to it.
Once that’s done close the Alacarte programme, as you won’t be needing it any more & start the recording level monitor from the menu. Leave it running until you’ve finished testing the sound.
Sound Settings:
Double click the speaker icon (on the top Gnome panel) to start the volume control application.
Open the Preferences option from the Edit menu.
Enable (by placing a tick next to them) the following options..
Headphone
PCM
CD
Microphone
PC Speaker
Capture
Input Source
Everything else can be left disabled.
Click the close button to save the changes.
Click on the Capture tab that should now have appeared within the volume control application & move the volume slider to about a third of the way up.
Next click on the Options tab that has been added & make sure that the first Input Source is set to Mic & the second one is set to CD.
Don’t close down the volume control application just yet, as you first need to check that the microphone is working ok.
Plug in your microphone, start up the Recording Level Monitor & start chatting. You should see the bars on the Recording Level Monitor lighting up, as you talk. If it’s not working, then this is due to a bug in Ubuntu (already reported it to the devs) & it will take an extra step to get your microphone working..
Go back to your volume control application, click on the Options tab, change Mic to front Mic & then change it back again straight away.
Check your microphone again now, as it should work fine.
Unfortunately you will probably have to do this every time you turn on/restart your computer, or resume from suspend/hibernate.
This will be fixed soon I hope.
Lowtech said
Thank you so much,
I spent half the day reading forums, tweaking settings and pulling my hair out. Just found this guide and now the last little piece of my ubuntu puzzle has fallen into place.
Trip said
Glad it helped you sort it out Lowtech
Just wondering for future reference.. what model laptop you using?
bart said
When I open preferences in volume manager I only have three boxes – Master PCm and Capture. Is there something I need to do to show these other boxes?
Trip said
Sounds like your soundcard isn’t set up correctly Bart.
You using Ubuntu on a FS laptop or is it a different model?
Frederic said
Whit KDE on Acer Aspire i needed to use the mixer (Kmix) as root whit ’sudo’ command.
Thank you a lot, i am posting this link on every forum because there is a lot of threads about the same problem.
Trip said
Thanks for the info Frederic.
I’m not too sure yet if it will help us out, but it’s handy info to have anyway & could help someone else later on
John said
Hi guys,
My alsamixer does not show microphone option. I cant use my mic. What should i do ?
raluca said
Hy,
I have a sony-vaio VGN-NR11Z with vista on in and when I run sype,try to talk and doesn’t work.
So as an intermediate solution I attached and external mic an now is working. I think isn’t normal to work like this taking into account fact that at the very begging it worked.
Can you give me an advice? When I see movies on BS player works..
thank you in advance,
Raluca
Saskia said
This worked for me, using Ubuntu 7.10
Thanks so much!
Zack said
Wow. Thank you… Like many others up there ^ I spent like two days scrounging around looking for some driver package I missed, only to discover that the answer was hiding in the Ubuntu distro all along. I am very near 100% compatibility with my Sony VAIO CR…
You are my hero.
Trip said
Sorry Raluca but this tutorial doesn’t work with computers running Microsoft Windows.
Glad it worked for the rest of you
jfab said
hi trip!
same problem on my vgn cr 420 but i couldn’t get it fixed that way
the options that i have on the preferences window are :
Master
PCM
Capture
Capture 1
Capture 2
ATAPI Mic
Digital
Input source
Input source
Input source
(three times input source)
which ones do you think i should enable?
Calin Plesa » Ubuntu / Vista dual boot installation on a Sony VGN-FZ said
[...] Switch to the internal mic then enable Capture in the volume control panel and set your mic recording level as explained here: http://ubuntufs.wordpress.com/2006/06/08/trouble-with-your-microphone/ [...]
yasmin Hamied said
thank you, but it didn’t work for me
Igor said
so much BETTER! Sounds like the issue with Sony laptop is artificial after all. Thank you!
alexrander said
Sony VAIO VGN-CR510E/P
OK, u shouldn’t judge the entire laptop based on customer service. I mean come on, this laptop was a great investment. I had two compaq and an toshiba and this one beats them all. I have had no problems yet, but I just got this two weeks ago from best buy..great buy, highly recommended. The only problem is the speakers are a bit low, but I always buy external speakers so it doesn’t bother me at all. I love my laptop and soo many compliments..
HarshReality said
Unfortunately this doesnt work for the NS lappys.. any other ideas?