Low microphone volume (SOLVED)

[Ivanp]

My microphone volume is too low. I have set it in Kmixer to maximum, yet when I record something and play it the level is too low. Also when I use Skype I am barely heard. Did some research on this on the net and found out that this issue was reported by other people as well. However, I still do not know what the solution is.

Can provided whatever further assistance is needed.

BR,

Ivan

[myNigga]

Re: Low microphone volume

Hi, Ivanp.
Isn't there a "booster" in your kmix for the microphone? Do you have it's volume (not the master volume) cranked up?
Remember that if your mic plug is not perfectly attached to the sound card jack, it may cause low volumes because of bad contacts.

[Ivanp]

Re: Low microphone volume

Hi myNigga,

I have tried everything with Kmix - adjusting settings in Input tab, Output tab, muting / unmuting with no result.

I double checked the mic plug and it should be OK.

FYI - My microphone is part of the headset which I bought for Skype.

Anyway, thanks for your reply.

I will try the mic with Vista - lets see if it works there.


Ivan

[steve_pearce]

Re: Low microphone volume

Hey there, I picked up a headset specifically for skype too a few months back.

If you open up a terminal and open in it

alsamixer

then tab to "all" to display everything, and then hit right arrow along to the 'mic' and 'mic boost' options. Hit "m" to activate mic boost and mic and hit the up/down keys accordingly.

Kmix doesn't seem to max it out enough for me, this however does.

Hope this helps, first post :| hehe.

[Ivanp]

Re: Low microphone volume

I do not see 'mic boost options.' This is what I see in alsamixer, from left to right under [All view] :

Headphon, PCM, Front. Front Mi, Surround, Center, LFE, Side, Line, Mic, IEC958, Capture, Capture, Input So, Input So.

That is it. No mic boost.

I have both Captures set to 58. Hitting 'm' only works for playback devices and I think it does just the opposite - muting sound.

Any idea why I do not see 'mic boost options' ?

[Fintan]

Re: Low microphone volume

Try alsamixergui. its in the repos.

[Ivanp]

Re: Low microphone volume

Try alsamixergui. its in the repos.

I tried alsamixergui as well but again I do not see any 'mic boost option'.

BTW I tried my microphone on Vista and it works well there, so the mic itself is working properly.

[Fintan]

Re: Low microphone volume

mic boost +20% is right next to the mic column. Is kmix (alsamix) seeing the right card?

[Ivanp]

Re: Low microphone volume

mic boost +20% is right next to the mic column. Is kmix (alsamix) seeing the right card?

Right next to my 'mic' column is 'IEC958' column. I can not see any 'mic boost' column.

Alsamix says it is using HDA Intel card, and Realtek ALC888 chipset.

Here is some information from my Terminal :

$ aplay -l
**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: Intel [HDA Intel], device 0: ALC883 Analog [ALC883 Analog]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: Intel [HDA Intel], device 1: ALC883 Digital [ALC883 Digital]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

$ cat /proc/asound/cards
0 [Intel ]: HDA-Intel - HDA Intel
HDA Intel at 0xf9ff8000 irq 22

$ lspci | grep -i audio
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation Unknown device 293e (rev 02)

$ lsmod | grep snd
snd_hda_intel 21912 2
snd_hda_codec 205056 1 snd_hda_intel
snd_pcm_oss 44544 0
snd_mixer_oss 17408 1 snd_pcm_oss
snd_pcm 79876 3 snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec,snd_pcm_oss
snd_seq_dummy 4740 0
snd_seq_oss 32896 0
snd_seq_midi 9600 0
snd_rawmidi 25472 1 snd_seq_midi
snd_seq_midi_event 8448 2 snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi
snd_seq 52592 6 snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi,snd_seq_mid i_event
snd_timer 23684 2 snd_pcm,snd_seq
snd_seq_device 9100 5 snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi,snd_rawmidi ,snd_seq
snd 54020 14 snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec,snd_pcm_oss,snd_mixer_ oss,snd_pcm,snd_seq_oss,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq,snd_ti mer,snd_seq_device
soundcore 8672 1 snd
snd_page_alloc 10888 2 snd_hda_intel,snd_pcm

And my dmesg log contains the following
...
[ 15.176006] PCI: Setting latency timer of device 0000:00:1b.0 to 64
[ 15.391554] hda_codec: Unknown model for ALC883, trying auto-probe from BIOS...
[ 15.648700] fuse init (API version 7.8)
[ 15.720384] lp: driver loaded but no devices found
[ 15.762504] Adding 1959888k swap on /dev/disk/by-uuid/731c98a0-cf85-4b92-b9ee-da2db7c262bc. Priority:-1 extents:1 across:1959888k
....

I do not know if anything of this helps to identify the issue...

Anyway, thanks for your effort Gandalf. It is always nice to find an answer to your post, isn't it ?

[SheeEttin]

Re: Low microphone volume

Might as well mention that I have the same problem, and I don't have a mic boost either. After mic, I too have IEC958.

I suspect it's because of he card (or lack thereof)--I have an integrated ALC883 chip.

[dibl]

Re: Low microphone volume

Here's a thread that is referring to a similar-sounding sound chip:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=501422

[Ivanp]

Re: Low microphone volume

Here's a thread that is referring to a similar-sounding sound chip:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=501422

Thanks for the link, Dibl. I have read it, it has given me some hope, until I have come to reply #7 posted by angelinux an hour ago, who says :

It worked fine on a Fujitsu-Siemens AMILO PRO V3505, except for the microphone, that stills not working properly (too poor level).

I Also cannot use any softphone.

I followed the instructions, applyng the realtek19 patch (the last I can find).

Hope it can be useful to others

[Ivanp]

Re: Low microphone volume

Problem solved. All I had to do was to add a new line to /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base :

options snd-hda-intel model=6stack-dig

and reboot.

Now I see 'mic-boost option' in alsamixer. After boosting my mic it is working all right now.

[SheeEttin]

Re: Low microphone volume (SOLVED)

Works fine here too.
Only Audacity isn't playing it back... but that's probably just Audacity.

[Ivanp]

Re: Low microphone volume (SOLVED)

Works fine here too.
Only Audacity isn't playing it back... but that's probably just Audacity.

I had also the same issue with Audacity not playing back. In the menu - second column from the left I think it is called Edit (I am not at my computer as I am writing this) - I had to go to Preferences and set up the right playback device. Then it worked.