I am new with both Linux and Audacity (before I used Windows and Goldwave). English is not my native language
I have installed Audacity and PulseAudio, as I wish to record and treat radio stream. Though I have now found a way to act in the input volume level, via the PulseAudio volume control program, I am annoyed by the fact that the input level sliding potentiometer on the Audacity dashboard appears to be dead: blocked in extreme right position and impossible to move.
How can I solve that problem, keeping in mind that I am not an expert in programming and so onā¦
After that I will come again with a matter of tooltip characters colour (white on pale grey is far from idealā¦)
The recording level slider is deliberately disabled because our PortAudio and PortMixer interfaces donāt (yet) properly support PulseAudio, and ALSA-libās PulseAudio plugin doesnāt support its mixer control. This means that if the Audacity recording level slider was enabled, all it would do is scale down an excessively loud (clipped) signal, merely making the distortion quieter. That would be dangerous and misleading.
What version of Ubuntu and Audacity are you using?
I suggest you install PulseAudio Volume Control (pavucontrol) from your repository if you have not already done so, then you can select the input and control its level there.
Or choose the (hw) device as recording device in Audacityās Device Toolbar instead of choosing the pulse recording device, assuming you are recording a physical radio. Then hopefully the Audacity recording level slider would ungrey.
Thanks for your quick answer, which gives a clear reason to my problem! I do listen webradios, so I understand that for the time being I must manage without that sliderā¦ No problem.
The console tells me that I avail an ubuntu 16.04.1 LTS Is that correct?
Audacity is the 2.1.2 issue.
I have a Behringer UFO202 USB āsound cardā, which I hope to use to record from a phonograph and from a tape player. (Iāve not been able to get sound input to work, at all, on my system for recording purposes, so I purchased this device hoping it would allow me to do it.)
So, I saw your posting above and tried doing what you suggest, re āchoose the (hw) deviceā¦ā. First time I did that, I saw the USB device in the list, could select it and then the recording slider worked. Before trying to record, I did some experimentation, i.e., chose a different device (I think it was pulse) and the volume slider became inactive (as it apparently should have, according to your post). thereafter I have not had the USB device shown in the list of devices. Iāve tried everything I can think of: unplug the USB device, reinsert (no go); stop and restart Audacity (no go), combinations of those two steps in different orders (no go), and even a system reboot. still no go. The usb device no longer shows up in Audacity.
I have Audacity 2.1.1 for Centos-7, from the epel repo.
itās not a total loss: I can record by using pulse, but I have to turn up all the record/playback levels along the chain, and even then I canāt get the record level up into the high end of the safe region. I suppose I could insert an audio preamp and crank its volume.
Iād LIKE to be able to use the USB device as the input device, but if I canāt, I canāt. but Iām puzzled by the fact that it appeared once then disappeared and wonāt reappear.
Audacity only looks for audio devices when Audacity is launched, and when you explicitly tell it to rescan for new audio devices (in āTransportā menu http://manual.audacityteam.org/man/transport_menu.html). When using a USB device, connect the device first and then launch Audacity. The USB device should then be available in the device toolbar.
well. this is embarrassing. without doing the log out/in bit, I fire up audacity, and there it is, right in the toolbar where it belongs.
as I think back on what Iāve been doing this past week I canāt say for sure that it hasnāt been there and that I was just too stupid/blind to see it. but I donāt think it has been there.
but now it is.
I note that even when I select it, that the recording level slider remains greyed out, and the first time I selected it (as mentioned in my earlier posts) the slider was accessible.
but Iāll do some recording tests this afternoon and see how it works.
When you select (in the device toolbar) a specific named device that has a ā(hw:ā¦)ā suffix, you are telling Audacity to access the device directly via its ALSA drivers, bypassing PulseAudio. Generally this is the preferred option for Audacity, but there is a limitation: For most hardware, the ALSA drivers will only support one client application at a time, so if any other software is accessing the device, then that device will not be available to Audacity.
The other issue affecting USB devices is that Audacity only looks for audio devices when Audacity is launched. If the USB device is connected while Audacity is running, Audacity will not see it until you either: (a) Close and restart Audacity (b) āTransport menu > Rescan Audio Devicesā.
That is normal. USB devices donāt have software gain control. Some operating systems will provide a kind of fake gain control by scaling the digital signal (exactly equivalent to using Audacityās āAmplifyā effect but in real-time during recording. ALSA on Linux, and Core Audio on Mac donāt provide gain control for USB devices.
Mystery Itās not supposed to be able to do that.
Thanks for your assistance I have been able to capture good audio from a cassette deck and have converted a number of tapes. thanks!
but one thing still puzzles me:
To make it work I had to choose pulse. If I chose the USB device, it allowed only mono recording. If there is a way to enable stereo with that device, it wasnāt obvious to me.
Itās not supposed to be able to do that.