Ubuntu
audacity package

Audacity--input device selection

Asked by Robert Carroll

I am a relatively new user of Ubuntu Hardy Heron. I have used Audacity for a long time on Windows systems and have installed it via apt-get. It installed without a problem (version 1.3.4-beta). I would like to use it to record streaming audio. I cannot figure out how to tell Audacity where to get its sound input. I have seen a similar question asked, but there was no real answer. There seems to be no to select the sound source in Audacity. Under Audacity help, there is an audio device info selection but it is "empty" which says to me that Audacity is not seeing any audio devices. Can someone suggest how to solve this problem? In the Windows version of Audacity you select from the various inputs of the sound card, including non physical inputs such as "what you hear" etc.

Bob <email address hidden>

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David Henningsson
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Best David Henningsson (diwic) said : 		#1

First; if you're interested in recording streaming audio; you should have a look at VLC, which can receive a lot of formats and also save them directly to disk if desired.

Anyway, Hardy has Pulseaudio enabled by default, which does not work well with a lot of things, including Audacity. :-( You can try entering the command "pasuspender audacity" in a terminal to see if that helps. It should turn off Pulseaudio while Audacity is running.
Moreover, the standard volume control (right-click the speaker icon on the top panel) might help you to select the right input source. The "settings" button is the key to selecting the input source.

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Robert Carroll (w2wg) said : 		#2

Problem solved. Thanks for the very useful information.

Bob