Bug 149376

Summary:	Low microphone volume, how to boost it ?
Product:	[Applications] kmix	Reporter:	Ivan Pupák <ivan.pupak>
Component:	general	Assignee:	Christian Esken <esken>
Status:	RESOLVED NOT A BUG
Severity:	normal
Priority:	NOR
Version First Reported In:	unspecified
Target Milestone:	---
Platform:	unspecified
OS:	Linux
Latest Commit:		Version Fixed/Implemented In:
Sentry Crash Report:

Description Ivan Pupák 2007-08-30 11:27:55 UTC

Version:           2.6.1 (using KDE 3.5.6, Kubuntu (feisty) 4:3.5.6-0ubuntu14.1)
Compiler:          Target: i486-linux-gnu
OS:                Linux (i686) release 2.6.20-16-generic

My microphone volume is too low. I have set it in Kmix 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.

BR,

Ivan

P.S. When I boot MS Vista the mic volume is OK so the issue is not in the mic itself.

Comment 1 Bram Schoenmakers 2007-08-30 13:05:24 UTC

Please use a forum or mailing list for this kind of issues. This is rather a configuration issue than a bug in KMix.

Comment 2 Ivan Pupák 2007-08-30 13:26:56 UTC

Actually before posting this as a bug, I posted it on one forum. But since I still do not know how to solve this I decided to report it as a bug. Fine, it is not a bug, I agree. 

Honestly, I spent hours and hours solving this. In MS Vista I solved it in 5 seconds and 3 clicks. Sorry to write that but that is just the case. I did my very best to switch to Kubuntu but Skype is just the application I use far too often and I just need to get the sound correct. So what do I do ? I boot Vista...

Comment 3 Christian Esken 2007-08-31 18:58:24 UTC

If many peple suffer from that, it is probably not possible due to driver limitations. You could open a bug report on the soundcard driver project page. In case of ALSA this is http://www.alsa-project.org/ .

In any case, please try to increase all relevant volumes, especially the PCM, Master, ADC, DAC, Microphone and Capture volumes. Also check all Switches, especially controls like "Mic Boost (+20dB)". If it doesn't help, you are unfortunately on your own.

Comment 4 Ivan Pupák 2007-08-31 22:16:15 UTC

Thanks, Christian, for your suggestion. Unfortunately I do not see "Mic boost" column in Kmix nor in Alsamixer. Some other people do not it see it either - for example reply n. 9 on the following thread : 

http://kubuntuforums.net/forums/index.php?topic=3086138.0

Comment 5 Ivan Pupák 2007-09-03 10:22:52 UTC

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.