On Thu, 14 Feb 2013 00:22:51 +0000, Davey wrote:

On Thu, 14 Feb 2013 00:11:13 GMT unruh wrote:

On 2013-02-13, Davey wrote:
On Wed, 13 Feb 2013 09:45:53 +0000 (GMT)
Jim Lesurf wrote:

In article , Davey
wrote:
On Tue, 12 Feb 2013 16:39:20 +0000 (GMT) Jim Lesurf
wrote:


http://www.audiomisc.co.uk/Linux/ALSA/ALSAforUsers.html


I shall test-drive it, and see how well it reflects the problems I
had, and you fixed!

You'll probably need the 'next' page - which I've not written yet!
:-)

That will cover things like using aplay to investigate your card
playout devices and how to write a suitable .asoundrc to control and
direct output. Thought it best to start with alsamixer, etc, as it
means starting with a nice graphic display showing users what they
have.

However, first, I intend writing a magazine article. Needed a wepage
in place first so I could give a URL to point readers toward for
more specific data. Once the article is done I'll have a while to
add another page or two to the above, and then all will be findable
by someone who reads the magazine.

Slainte,

Jim


Having read the whole article now, one question:
Can I use the Mic Input on my laptop, which already has a built-in
Mic, as a Line Input, or is there going to be some horrid mis-match?
I have a tape deck nearby, and I would like to send its output into
the laptop, but it only has the Mic Input.

In principle yes. However most mic inputs have a dc voltage on them to
power the FET on the microphones. Thus your line out should make sure
it has a capacitive output or you could have a fight.



Thanks. That's just the sort of thing I was looking out for, not knowing
enough about these things.
The line out in question is from the headphone-out socket of an AIWA
cassette deck, I'll see if I can find a spec. sheet anywhere. Or is it
likely to be typical in some way?

Alternatively, you might want to look at using an Ion U-Record, just
under 30 squids from Amazon. Its a USB stereo ADC, accepts line-in or MC
pickup levels and is powered off the USB connection. Works well with
Audacity. RCA connectors on the analogue side. I got mine because it was
cheap to see if this was a good way to digitise some tapes and vinyl and
have kept it because I can't see any reason the replace it with a more
expensive device.

Caveat: mine was working well in March last year with whatever the semi-
current Fedora was (probably F15) and Audacity (probably 1.38). When I
tried it a day or two ago (F17, Audacity 2.0.2) no joy: looks like
there's a problem with either the OS or Audacity and the USB codec. This
might be specific to the U-record but it could equally apply to all
external USB sound cards. I bugged it against Fedora but no resolution as
yet.

However, I reckon its hard to go wrong at that price, especially as it
uses a decent Burr-Brown ADC.


--
martin@ | Martin Gregorie
gregorie. | Essex, UK
org |