[Solved]Cannot get microphone to record

[TheMagicalHobo]

Hi everybody,

I've been trying to get the microphone/microphone jack working in my Lenovo Y550P laptop, and unfortunately it just doesn't want to work. I hear nothing back during Skype's test call, and Audacity does not seem to hear anything either (this is using both the microphone built into the laptop and using an external one hooked up through the microphone jack). However, going into Alsamixer and unmuting the "Mic" option under Playback does allow me to hear myself through the laptop's speakers and unmuting "Front Mic" allows me to hear myself while talking through an external microphone, but neither enable Skype to hear me. Some information:
* Running the latest release of Gentoo i686, using Fluxbox as my Window Manager
* Sound Card, according to lspci, is a Intel Ibex Peak High Definition Audio with a Realtek ALC272 chip.
* Image of Alsamixer Capture Tab
* ALSA is compiled into the kernel, with PCI Device support for Intel HD Audio (as a module) with Realtek HD-Audio codec support.
* Skype has several options available to me under microphone. I've tried the "HDA Intel, ALC272 Analog Default Device (default:CARD=INTEL)" and "HDA Intel, ALC272 Analog (hw0:0)" in addition to Skype's default and have had no change. The rest of the options appear to just enable surround sound.

What should I do to get this working? If there is any more information needed, please let me know and I'll get it ASAP.

Thank you very much,
Hobo

[sebaro]

In alsamixer go to Capture (F4), check "Mic" with space, also "Mic Boost" if needed.

[TheMagicalHobo]

In alsamixer go to Capture (F4), check "Mic" with space, also "Mic Boost" if needed.

that was sort of the solution. I had to go to the Capture tab and press the space bar on capture, that enabled the Left and Right channels.

And for anybody who stumbles upon this and is having trouble with Skype lowering the octave of your voice and making it sound sort of robotic, then follow this, but replace "pacman" with emerge.