Microphone recording problem - Partial Solution

[Alan Dayley]

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Alan Dayley wrote:
> 
> I don't have those options.  That coupled with the absence of a second
> microphone control, and these issues, makes me think the sound driver
> for this hardware is not quite right.  I'll have to try the alsa project
> next.  Although alsa is used from the command line too so maybe KDE is
> to blame?

I got in touch with someone close or part of the ALSA team via
linuxquestions.org (Excellent site!).  We went back and forth a bit
reaching the following conclusions and results:

- - My sound system is not explicitly supported by ALSA yet.  The latest
development version just added support for a similar Toshiba notebook.
By downloading, building and installing the 1.0.14rc1 snapshot and then
explicitly specifying "model=toshiba" the new drive improved things.

- - There is still the screech in KRecord but no longer in Audacity.  (Huh?)

- - Audacity recordings are clean but playback 1/2 live speed.  (Huh?)  By
applying a +100% speed effect, it sounds fine.  Clumsy work-around but
at least it is not screaming at me there.

- - The alsamixer and therefore KMix options now make more sense to match
the hardware.  Still no "mic boost" but I can disable the built-in mic,
which is a good thing.

- - Communication via Skype is now good.  I have not tried other VOIP type
applications yet.

I'm going to play around more with this as I take the time and have the
need.  Maybe I can do more debugging for the ALSA team to finally get it
all ironed out.

Alan

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