problems recording audio[solved]

[Adel Ahmed]

I'm having problems with recording audio on my laptop, I've tried using the following commands:
ffmpeg -f alsa -i hw:1 -strict -2 /media/hdd/recordings/test.aac

it just hangs, ctrl c results in a 0 byte file
arecord -l:
**** List of CAPTURE Hardware Devices ****
card 1: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 0: ID 283 Analog [ID 283 Analog]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
arecord /tmp/test.wav
does nothing, ctrl c results in a 44 byte file



thanks

[Adel Ahmed]

bump

[v_andal]

Do you have "Capture" activated for your channel? Have you tried to use arecord for recording data from it?

[Adel Ahmed]

I'm not sure what you mean by that, in alsa mixer capture is not muted if that has anything to do with it.
I've tried arecord but it just results in a 44 byte file

thanks

[v_andal]

You can enable/disable capturing of specific channels. For example, here's how one of microphones looks in alsamixer without Capture http://andal.linuxx.org/nocap.png. If one hits "Space" when this microphone is selected, then it becomes like this http://andal.linuxx.org/capture.png

Then I use arecord -l to learn about device for that microphone

[Adel Ahmed]

blakdeath here, thanks for your help
I just checked in alsamixer and the recording device did indeed have that capture text underneath it

[Adel Ahmed]

bump

[Adel Ahmed]

help anyone?

[NeddySeagoon]

Adel Ahmed,

First, try to capture a raw .wav, with no processing.
It will confirm your alsa setup.

Your laptop can only record from one input at a time but you probably have four inputs to choose from.
You must choose the right one.
The recording level must be both unmuted and be set to around 70% for a trial.

For the mic input, you may need to choose the 20db gain switch too.

Once you can get a .wav file and play it back, you can add ffmpeg to do on the fly processing.
_________________
Regards,

NeddySeagoon

Computer users fall into two groups:-
those that do backups
those that have never had a hard drive fail.

[Adel Ahmed]

b5400 ~ # arecord -l
**** List of CAPTURE Hardware Devices ****
card 1: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 0: ID 283 Analog [ID 283 Analog]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

alsamixer:
[img]http://www.zimagez.com/miniature/screenshot-05172015-014015pm.php[/img]

[NeddySeagoon]

Adel Ahmed,

We are only interested in the capture controls, so open alsamixer and press F4 to see only the capture controls.
There are more controls off screen to the right in alsamixer. Use right arrow to move to them.
_________________
Regards,

NeddySeagoon

Computer users fall into two groups:-
those that do backups
those that have never had a hard drive fail.

[Adel Ahmed]

well, apparently I had the microphone disabled in the bios settings
enabling the mic has enabled me to record
there are no sounds in my recording so far, but that's a different problem appaarently which ill start working on

thanks