12.04 audio recording not working

[hobleydd]

Hello, when I try and use the Sound Recorder in Ubuntu 12.04 (or Skype) etc, while it is recording my voice, there is an incredible screaching sound which all but drowns out my voice. Is there anything I can do to improve this? I moved the (USB) Webcam/Microphone onto a Windows box to test and it worked fine, so it must be something in the PulseAudio config, but after fiddling around with the Sound settings for ages, I can't fix it.... Cheers, David

[flemur13013]

I'm not sure this will be a fix, but you might try installing "pavucontrol", which shows who is recording, input levels, etc. I couldn't get recording thru wine to work without it.

[hobleydd]

Yeah, I tried that, but I don't really know what I am trying to do with it. Certainly playing around with various levels didn't help at all.

[grahammechanical]

So, you are using Sound Recorder to record your voice through a microphone and you get a screeching sound.

Where are your speakers? I would say that you are getting feedback. The sound from the speakers is going into the microphone and then coming out the speakers again and so it goes around and around.

Regards.

[hobleydd]

I am using headphones for listening to the sound and the webcam microphone for audio input.

I'd be surprised if it was feedback through the headphones,

Cheers,
David

[VanillaMozilla]

OK, try this. Go to the Sound Preferences panel and select a different input device. You might also have to adjust the gain (volume) somewhere. It may take some trial and error.

[hobleydd]

So I have tried adjusting the gain, changing devices (although while it comes up with an "Analogue Input" device, there is no actual microphone, so it doesn't work as I would expect). I took the gain down and put it up, but neither has any impact. Given other people appear not to be having this sort of issue, how can I investigate further to pinpoint the cause of the problem? Cheers, David