How to record sound in Racy Puppy?

[autumnleaves]

Is it possible to record sound on Racy puppy with Audacity or some other simple to use/instal recording software through a combo mic/headphone connector on a portable?
Thanks,

[darkcity]

it should definitely be possible

how does the combo mic/headphone connector work?

It would be useful if you tried it and reported back

[Flash]

Precord and mhWaveEdit can both record. The hard part will be figuring out how to configure them so they see your input. The problem is that you'll be learning how to use the program at the same time. Good luck.

mhWaveEdit has working VU meters, which greatly facilitate finding your input. They'll start bouncing around when you click the correct input in your mixer (Retrovol or Alsamixer.)

[autumnleaves]

Thanks Flash and Dark,
The headset plug on the HP Probook laptop is a single .3 inch that handles both stereo out and mic in, so I'm not sure how to connect to an external device. I will try testing later this week with the software you recommend. I assume these are available as pets??

Thanks

[darkcity]

if you right-click on the speaker icon on the bottom bar (this is retrovol)

select 'fullwindow' this will give you access to most sound settings.

alternatively use alsamixer in multimedia submenu

[autumnleaves]

Another frustrating day. Prerecord does not seem to record at all, so I installed Audacity and Mw. Audacity does not even start, while I was able to record with MW, though not with satisfactory volume level. I tried to change settings to see if this could be improved, and only managed to break the program so that it would no longer record at all (could not find ALSA hw file or something). Then I tried uninstalling and reinstalling, but MW did not appear in the menu anymore.

Not only that but Sea Monkey stopped working, so I guess I'll reinstall Racy or perhaps just use the laptop as a paperweight after all.

Thanks.

[autumnleaves]

After reinstalling I managed to record again with mhW, although there is a lot of noise in the recording. I suppose some of it could be removed/filtered with Audacity. Has anyone been able to run Audacity with Puppy?
Thanks

[Flash]

What kind of noise? Laptop speakers are not well isolated from the case, so they pick up fan noise and noise from whatever the laptop is sitting on. Also it's possible that the noise you are hearing is severe clipping. If by mhW you mean mhWaveEdit, its VU meters are fairly accurate and real-time. Are they hitting the stops a lot?

[autumnleaves]

Thanks Flash,
Actually I connected the 1/8 in line in to the record out of my stereo receiver. There is a lot of background noise, so I suspect that the impedance is a problem here. No doubt some kind of recording interface like a Firebox is needed here. Unfortunately I'm not an expert in this.
Cheers,

[Flash]

Again, what do you mean by "background" noise? Hiss? Crackle? AC line-frequency hum? If your stereo receiver has a headphone jack, try that instead of the record out. It might not work as well but it won't hurt to try.

[darkcity]

I can confirm Audacity works on Puppy 5.29. You can monitor the sound coming in by clicking on the down arrow near the mic icon and selecting 'Start Monitoring' - see pic

Did you use retrovol or alsamixer to set sound levels (it may need to turn up capture level if recording is too quiet.

alsamixer is in Mutlimedia submenu, or type 'alsamixer' into the terminal

I found this article useful-
http://www.seehuhn.de/pages/alsa

[autumnleaves]

Hi Dark and Flash
The sound is not so much a hiss or crackle as a rumbly background noise, and the actual sound has very little gain. I'll try using the headphone out to see if there's a difference.

With Audacity, after installation, the program does not even start. But if I can get good results with mhw I won't need Audacity, as I can do the sound processing on my Windows machine.

What I want to do is record audio direct from the console at local concerts to go with videos of the shows. I believe there are also dedicated recorders that do this sort of thing, so that might be a better alternative. I had hoped that my little laptop might be pressed into service.

Thanks again.

[autumnleaves]

I fiddled with the settings on Retro to get the meters in mhW to sit below the clipping level, but the sound remains muddied. It is also very impractical to test this way, as I must reset the sound card every time in order to hear the recorded sound. The sound is being recorded on the 1/8" input but the headphones are on USB, and it seems impossible to get both operating at the same time.
Some of the other programs listed might be worth trying, has anyone installed XMMS, Alsaplayer or Ardour on Puppy?

[disciple]

1. Using another program should not make a difference.
2.

I suppose some of it could be removed/filtered

It is mad to record with a whole lot of noise and then try to remove it.
3. If you upload a sample of your recording it is fairly likely we could tell you what is causing the noise.