[linux-audio-user] arecord question

[Florian Schmidt]

On Mon, 28 Jun 2004 21:23:05 +0200
Hans <hansfong at zonnet.nl> wrote:

> The problem is that is doesn't work for me. It will write a 44 byte file 
> called file.wav and exit before you even say "a". I 'have' to use the -d 
> switch, which I think is a waste.

weird. what version of arecord? 

> 
> The problem also is that I can't use oss-emulation to record. /dev/dsp 
> is good for signals out, but not signals in. That means legacy programs 
> like wavtools, sound-recorder of rawrec can't be used. 

Hmm, i can use audacity fine for recording [another oss app].. i can also record with sox.. it sounds to me as if you have a hw problem.. what driver module are you using? 

> I don't know how 
> I can check the mapping from alsa devices to oss devices, because I 
> suspect that there must be something wrong there, but then again I'm 
> guessing as I am by no means an expert on these matters. 

http://alsa-project.org/~iwai/OSS-Emulation.html
http://alsa.opensrc.org/index.php?page=OssEmulation

> Apart from 
> arecord I don't know of any other cli program that can record sound from 
> alsa devices.

hmmm, well there isn't one because usually it does everything one needs :)

> 
> To be honest. I think alsa sucks on this point. When I want to record 
> via line-in I use my old Pentium 200 with SB AWE64 and the oss/free 
> drivers. Works like a charm, never needs special switches or pointers to 
> devices. I know the statement that alse sucks is very subjective and 
> totally biased, but until now I haven't been able to record anything 
> decent on my new system (Athlon 2500+ with Audigy1) with alsa drivers. 
> Midi and sequencing works like charm, so I am happy with that, but I 
> need a problem free way to record. Audacity does only /dev/dsp 
> recording, ReZound can record but is too unstable, so what else is 
> there? I want a KISS solution. Any hints?

if arecord doesn't work for you then either your hardware or the version of arecord you use is faulty.. actually plughw:0,0 is afaik the default device so

arecord -f cd file.wav

should usually work like a breeze..

flo

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