Ubuntu Sound Card HELL !!!
Hello people passing by my blog. Today I finally broke down and decided to fix my sound card issues with ubuntu linux. Let me start by saying that I was using a creative sound blaster audigy SE and the sound was fine but as hard as I tried there was no mic recording on audacity. I just want everyone to know that the only reason i bought the new card was because I beta-ed Microsoft Vista a year back and believe it or not, my SB Live card was concidered LEGACY HARDWARE and wasn’t supported. This meant no sound on vista and grey hair. When the beta ended, I switched to ubuntu fiesty faun and all was better or at least i thought it was alright.
Installing a new OS can lead to little problems with sound and video but most of it is just a little tweak to alsamixer or jumping into a file and adding a few lines. On Ubuntu most of the problems can be solved with apt-get or synaptic package manager, but this isn’t where my problem was solved. I tried everything and the bottom line was that booting up my XP partion got the mic working, so last night I gave up and created my first podcast on Windows XP … i wanted to cry.
Then in the middle of the night i had a dream about making another show but this time on ubuntu and something clicked. I remembered that i had a SB live card in my closet from when i needed to upgrade for Vista. This was my shining light and guiding saviour back to completely using Linux. After installing my Live card, I loaded up audacity and alsamixer and started recording sound without a hitch.
Final thought for this blog entry would be that any Linux user using a sound blaster audigy SE card should think twice before tinking with the mic or any recording because alsa does not like this card. Perhaps its just too new but the thing has been around for a while and alsa usually does not discriminate, so who knows.
Keep a look out for my new all linux made audio blog coming soon!
-Jonathan
