Can't get Simple Screen Recorder to record sound

[ereru]

I'm using Slacko 5.6 on a Thinkpad laptop and I'm trying to get Simple Screen Recorder (v0.3.3) to work correctly.

No matter what settings I adjust, it will record what's on the screen but not any sound.

I have "ALSA" set as my audio backend and "default source" as the source. I've tested various different codec and bitrate options but with the same result.

In Retrovol, I've tried turning on Capture but this doesn't seem to make any difference either.

Anyone know what the problem might be here?

Thanks

[Moose On The Loose]

I'm using Slacko 5.6 on a Thinkpad laptop and I'm trying to get Simple Screen Recorder (v0.3.3) to work correctly.

No matter what settings I adjust, it will record what's on the screen but not any sound.

I have "ALSA" set as my audio backend and "default source" as the source. I've tested various different codec and bitrate options but with the same result.

In Retrovol, I've tried turning on Capture but this doesn't seem to make any difference either.

Anyone know what the problem might be here?

Thanks

Listen to the thing carefully to see if you hear any sort of noise.
If this is an external microphone make sure it is plugged in correctly.
Check for having a front and rear microphone.
I expect you tried this already but the simple stuff needs to be checked.

[ereru]

Thanks for the reply. I should have added that I'm not trying to record anything from a microphone, just whatever my soundcard is outputting at the time of the screen recording.

I thought that the "Capture" setting in Retrovol might have something to do with it, but turning this on/up doesn't appear to make any difference. There is also a "Digital" volume shifter in Retrovol (which comes on automatically with Capture). With this on the highest setting I can hear white noise when I play back a video recorded with Simple Screen Recorder, but nothing else.

This is what the program outputs when I start a recording:

Code: Select all

[PageRecord::StartPage] Starting page ...
[PageRecord::StartPage] Started page.
[PageRecord::StartOutput] Starting output ...
[Muxer::Init] Using format mp4 ().
[Muxer::AddStream] Using codec libx264 ().
[VideoEncoder::PrepareStream] Using pixel format yuv420.
[BaseEncoder::EncoderThread] Encoder thread started.
[Muxer::AddStream] Using codec libvorbis ().
[AudioEncoder::PrepareStream] Using sample format f32p.
[BaseEncoder::EncoderThread] Encoder thread started.
[PageRecord::StartOutput] Started output.
[Muxer::MuxerThread] Muxer thread started.
[Synchronizer::SynchronizerThread] Synchronizer thread started.
[PageRecord::StartInput] Starting input ...
[X11Input::Init] Using X11 shared memory.
[X11Input::InputThread] Input thread started.
[ALSAInput::Init] Warning: Period size 1024 is not supported, using 940 instead. This is not a problem.
[ALSAInput::Init] Warning: Buffer size 8192 is not supported, using 7526 instead. This is not a problem.
[PageRecord::StartInput] Started input.
[ALSAInput::InputThread] Input thread started.
[FastResampler::Resample] Resample ratio is 1.0000 (was 0.0000).

[greengeek]

Hi ereru - without knowing the specs of the Thinkpad and it's sound card I am going to hazard a guess that your sound system does not have a "loopback" function in it's mixer.

In other words - it can record from an external source such as mic or maybe line in - but cannot record it's digital stream out.

My laptop is exactly the same.

In cases like this it can be possible to modify the ALSA configuration to create a "soft loopback" control in the mixer settings.

This is exactly what I do when using simplescreenrecorder on Slacko 5.6
(This is based on a thread by SFR regarding loopback controls - I will post back if I can find that thread)

I have made a .pet which does two things:
1) it loads a new /etc/asound.conf file which adds a loopback mixer to ALSA
2) It adds a couple of scripts in /root which can be used to start and stop recording of the sound card output via the loopback mixer.
(You don't need to use these scripts with Simplescreenrecorder but they are there for some other simple recording tasks if needed - such as recording the audio stream from browsers without recording the video stream. ie: turning a video into a podcast).

WARNING The attached script was originally intended for use on a system that has NO SAVE FILE so please consider it experimental and hide/backup your savefile so that my .pet does not make permanent changes to your system.

HowTo:

1) Before you load the pet you need to set your mixer correctly first:
- Turn on capture and set an appropriate volume. This depends on hardware but use half volume as a start point.
- Turn off internal and external microphones.

The pet creates a loopback mixer that Simplescreenrecorder will select as it's default. Recording of audio from sound card output should then work fine:

2) Load the pet.

3) Start Simplescreenrecorder and during the initial setup you should see that the default ALSA setting is now "Loopback" (bottom of first config screen). If it is not already defaulted correctly just scroll through the options and see if you can select Loopback.

Should now have audio.
If not let us know and we can do some troubleshooting.

(PS if you dont feel happy loading the pet you could just grab the /etc/asound.conf file that is inside it - load that manually and remove if you don't like the result)

NOTE: pMusic does not like the format of this asound.conf file and may not run at the same time as the browser - or may not run at all. May have to use a different player to listen to the recorded sound. I simply load the pet when I need it and leave it out when I don't.

EDIT: the original thread from SFR regarding setting up the soft mixer is here
(Easier to load the pet )

Remove the fake .gz suffix before installing pet

[Mike Walsh]

Hallo, ereru.

Hm. Mm-hm. I'm going to hazard a guess here; your mention of the 'Digital' slider in Retrovol makes me suspect your Thinkpad's running an Intel sound card, yes?

I've got the very same issue, albeit in a much newer hardware setup.....an HP Pavilion mini-tower, only built last year. First 'puter I've ever had where it's impossible to record the soundcard's own output..!

Mine has a selector to enable/disable 'Loopback mixing', but there's no way to select the internal sound card as 'source'; the only two options I have are either 'Mic' or 'Line'. And that's it.

However, unlike you I don't want to record audio from the soundcard as 'backing' to a screen-recording. In my case, I use this and various other screen-recorder apps available for Puppy purely for making tutorials.....to which end I use a Logitech H340 digital headset, with its own, built-in 'boom' microphone.....and its own, built-in soundcard.

Which makes sound recording, at least for me, a 'non-issue'...

(Not much help, I know..!)


Mike.