problems properly configuring alsa

[Shawn Kirkpatrick]

Hello. Depending on which emu-based card you have the controls you need to 
set can be a little different.
If the card is an sb live (emu10k1) then these steps should work:
Set the capture source to Mic:
amixer cset name='Capture Source' Mic
Turn up the AC97 capture volume:
amixer set AC97 capture 100
This should enable you to record sound from the Mic without hearing it from 
the speakers. If the sound is too low then you will have to turn on the mic 
boost:
amixer set 'Mic Boost (+20db)' on
If you want to hear the sound being captured then turn up the AC97 playback 
volume:
amixer set AC97 playback 100
If your source is set to Mic then you'll most likely get feedback as the mic 
hears itself. Turning up this volume can be useful to hear other sources 
like line or cd as they're being captured.
To get any playback out of the card you'll have to turn up the Master and 
PCM controls.
If the card is an Audigy (emu10k2) then the setup is a bit different, you 
usually just have to enable capture on the source you want.
When using amixer to get and set controls you have to watch the case and 
spacing in the control names. You can also use alsamixer if you want to 
adjust these controls in real time to see what effect they're having.
When you get things working as you'd like you might want to run alsactl 
store to save your settings so they're restored at system boot.
Hope this helps.


On Mon, 1 Jun 2015, covici at ccs.covici.com wrote:

> Hi.  Since upgrading to kernel 3.13, I am having some strange also
> config problems.  What I would like to do is have the Microphone be able
> to record a file, or otherwise be used by an application, and at the
> same time have the rear jack which seemsto be controlled by Master, to
> hear a file being played or other application.  Now what is happening is
> that if I turn up the capture volume sufficiently, I get feedback, if I
> turn Master playback off, no feedback, but Master hears nothing.  The
> volume on the Mic does nothing at all itself.  I have an old emu10k1
> sound card.  So, how do I get the Mic to work at some decent level, but
> not going through the line out jack which eventually goes to speakers?
>
> Thanks in advance for any ideas.
>
> -- 
> Your life is like a penny.  You're going to lose it.  The question is:
> How do
> you spend it?
>
>         John Covici
>         covici at ccs.covici.com
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