[pulseaudio-discuss] Need help resolving audio recording/playback issues

[Rich Shepard]

On Wed, 16 Feb 2022, Sean Greenslade wrote:

> - The preamp gain knob on the Scarlett is set high enough. Dynamic mics
>  can have pretty weak signals. On mine, I need to pretty much max out the
>  preamp to get signals strong enough to light up the green ring.

Sean,

I turned the Scarlett Solo mic gain to maximum and the pre-amp green ring
flickers when I speak. So this part's resolved; I must have turned down the
gain without noticing.

With audio-recorder started pavucontrol shows it present in the Recording
tab, but the VU bar doesn't move when I speak into the microphone. Accepting
that pulse audio is not the issue and that what I don't know about audio on
linux would fill Wikipedia, could you suggest where I look to find why
audio-recorder saves an 86 Kb .mp3 file but pavucontrol doesn't show my
voice being recorded since nothing comes from the speakers when mplayer
processes that file?

Is it hardware? Software? Configuration? A missing component? I've no idea
where to start diagnosing the problem.

Thanks again,

Rich