offtopic: Digitize and record Audio via Line-In Jack or via USB adapter?
=== Terje:===== 1) My Behringer UFO202 USB Audio interface has arrived. As a first and easy test I have connected it to a PC USB port, the RCA IN L+R to RCA OUT on a Toshiba videoplayer playing an Audio music CD, and third connected earphones to UFO202. 2) Yes, I hear the playback sound in the earphones, however no sound if I plugin the earphones to the normal rear PC backplane's Jack, and no sound in the corresponding speakers. Correct so far? =========== That is normal. By default, incoming (line) signals are not rerouted to outputs, some software must do that. === Terje:===== 3) pavucontrol Configuration | *PCM2902 Audio Codec* Profile: Analog Stereo Duplex * Input Devices | Hardware devices | Hardware Input Devices: PCM2902 Audio Codec Analog Stereo, Port: Analog Input response Built-in Audio Analog stereo, Port: Rear Microphone (plugged in) Respons!? ================ Looks good. Here I have for the non-PCM2902 device (HD audio controller analog stereo) port Line 1, and plugged in. === Terje:===== 4) UFO202 is discovered on my Leap 15.3 as *Device 4 **Texas Instruments PCM2902 Audio Codec* as follows: ... ================ Looks good, same here, except here the video HDMI is the first device and the motherboard HD audio the second. PCM2902 is third also. === Terje:===== pacmd list-sources | egrep '^\s+name: .*alsa_input' ================ Output looks fine. === Terje:===== 5) I am unsure how to practically go from here to record the Audio music files. ================ 8) Which tab/buttons for input in Audiacity (possibly tape/noise filters) - I could not find the PCM2902 input or see any sound response here I suggest to try Audacity first. In Edit->Preferences->Devices, Host Alsa, playback device pulse, recording default (or pulse), 1 or 2 channels as desired. Edit->Preferences->Recording, record on new track (each time you start a recoding you get a new audio track). Then, on the main menu, click on the filed that says "click to start monitoring", this will send input to output, so if your output device is line out it will come out there. For recording, the red button starts recording, the black square button stops. The advantage of using Pulse is that pavucontrol will show recoding applications, you should also see the signal coming in when an application is recording (has opened the input channel). This can be seen on the Input Devices tab. You don't see the device as such, it is "abstracted" by both Also and then PulseAudio. === Terje:===== 9) Would it be reasonable to record and archive in lossless FLAC format and afterwards convert with ffmpeg? to smaller files format of good quality, typical MP3 at 320 kbps (for car usb player) and MP4A for home HiFi? ================ FLAC is very good, it itself is lossless. Audacity can export to a variety of formats (File->Export), I usually use mp3 or wav. Note that if you do a lot of editing on a recording is it better to save the project, that avoid converting back-and-forth between flac and the interanl Audacity 32 bit floats. Audicity is a good editor, you record first, save the original recoding, then apply filters/effects/cuts etc . Like CinGG, keep the original intact. Offhand, I'd say you must have extremely good hearing to hear differences between MP3 320kbps and the original. For cars, I myself would not go above 128 kbps. MP3 at 320 kbps is much better than most home HiFi. And if the source is not digital, (but tape or cassette), 128 kpbs MP3 is already much better than the source material. ========= In CinGG, you could try Alsa, CinGG shows the device directly. Preferences->recording tab. Record driver Also, then you get in the Devoce dropdown box multiple devices, look for something like USB Audio. If you have webcam also connected, you are likely to see two of them. I did have some problems there, my settings are Record driver "Pulse Audio" , leave the device at default. Then pavucontrol determines which devices. I am not sure if the sample rate is set corretly for the device by CinGG, if it does not work or you get lots of errors, try 44100 instead of 4800, the UFO202 supports both. Good luck, Mat
Mat Thank you for your time and effort to reply: Den 05.10.2021 21:26, skrev mat via Cin: ........snip
=== Terje:===== 5) I am unsure how to practically go from here to record the Audio music files. ================
8) Which tab/buttons for input in Audiacity (possibly tape/noise filters) - I could not find the PCM2902 input or see any sound response here
I suggest to try Audacity first. In Edit->Preferences->Devices, Host Alsa, playback device pulse, recording default (or pulse), 1 or 2 channels as desired. Edit->Preferences->Recording, record on new track (each time you start a recoding you get a new audio track). Then, on the main menu, click on the filed that says "click to start monitoring", this will send input to output, so if your output device is line out it will come out there. For recording, the red button starts recording, the black square button stops. The advantage of using Pulse is that pavucontrol will show recoding applications, you should also see the signal coming in when an application is recording (has opened the input channel). This can be seen on the Input Devices tab.
You don't see the device as such, it is "abstracted" by both Also and then PulseAudio.
=== Terje:===== 9) Would it be reasonable to record and archive in lossless FLAC format and afterwards convert with ffmpeg? to smaller files format of good quality, typical MP3 at 320 kbps (for car usb player) and MP4A for home HiFi? ================ FLAC is very good, it itself is lossless. Audacity can export to a variety of formats (File->Export), I usually use mp3 or wav. Note that if you do a lot of editing on a recording is it better to save the project, that avoid converting back-and-forth between flac and the interanl Audacity 32 bit floats. Audicity is a good editor, you record first, save the original recoding, then apply filters/effects/cuts etc . Like CinGG, keep the original intact.
Offhand, I'd say you must have extremely good hearing to hear differences between MP3 320kbps and the original. For cars, I myself would not go above 128 kbps. MP3 at 320 kbps is much better than most home HiFi. And if the source is not digital, (but tape or cassette), 128 kpbs MP3 is already much better than the source material.
........snip I understand and aggree with you regarding MP3 128 kbps for tape and cassette sources. Rather than highest bit-rate often variable bit-rate is used. I just wonder what is the original recording format used by Audiacity, i.e something compatible for playback by other programs? In the meantime, and before I continue with Audiacity, I recorded a few simple test clip (from my Audio CD through UFO202) with two small audio recording programs. Of interest regarding MP3 format, "gnome-sound-recording" looks to apply 320 kbps Variable, while "audio-recording" rather uses 48 kbps Variable (tool dependent). audio-recorder describes flac, mp3, m4a (aac) 44khz) as "cd-quality". File format output as follows: ======================= *gnome-sound-recorder* ~/Recordings> file *.* Clip-5.ogg: Ogg data, Vorbis audio, stereo, 44100 Hz, ~112000 bps, created by: Xiph.Org libVorbis I Clip-6.flac: FLAC audio bitstream data, 16 bit, stereo, 44.1 kHz, length unknown Clip-7.mp3: Audio file with ID3 version 2.3.0, contains:MPEG ADTS, layer III, v1, 320 kbps, 44.1 kHz, JntStereo ~/Recordings> mediainfo *.* | egrep 'name|Format|bit rate' Complete name : Clip-5.ogg Format : Ogg Overall bit rate mode : Variable Overall bit rate : 103 kb/s Track name : /home/terje/Recordings/Clip 5 Format : Vorbis Format settings, Floor : 1 Complete name : Clip-6.flac Format : FLAC Format/Info : Free Lossless Audio Codec Overall bit rate mode : Variable Track name : /home/terje/Recordings/Clip 6 Format : FLAC Format/Info : Free Lossless Audio Codec Complete name : Clip-7.mp3 Format : MPEG Audio Overall bit rate mode : Variable Track name : /home/terje/Recordings/Clip 7 Format : MPEG Audio Format version : Version 1 Format profile : Layer 3 Format settings : Joint stereo ================ *audio-recorder* ~/Lydopptak> file *.* 2021-10-05-21:27:18.flac: FLAC audio bitstream data, 16 bit, stereo, 44.1 kHz, 4428081 samples 2021-10-05-21:42:41.mp3: Audio file with ID3 version 2.3.0, contains:MPEG ADTS, layer III, v1, 48 kbps, 44.1 kHz, JntStereo 2021-10-05-21:44:29.wav: RIFF (little-endian) data, WAVE audio, Microsoft PCM, 16 bit, stereo 44100 Hz 2021-10-05-21:46:39.wav: RIFF (little-endian) data, WAVE audio, Microsoft PCM, 16 bit, mono 22050 Hz ~/Lydopptak> mediainfo *.* | egrep 'name|Format|bit rate' Complete name : 2021-10-05-21:27:18.flac Format : FLAC Format/Info : Free Lossless Audio Codec Overall bit rate mode : Variable Overall bit rate : 1 145 b/s Format : FLAC Format/Info : Free Lossless Audio Codec Complete name : 2021-10-05-21:42:41.mp3 Format : MPEG Audio Overall bit rate mode : Variable Overall bit rate : 31.8 kb/s Format : MPEG Audio Format version : Version 1 Format profile : Layer 3 Format settings : Joint stereo / MS Stereo Complete name : 2021-10-05-21:44:29.wav Format : Wave Overall bit rate mode : Constant Overall bit rate : 1 411 kb/s Format : PCM Format settings : Little / Signed Complete name : 2021-10-05-21:46:39.wav Format : Wave Overall bit rate mode : Constant Overall bit rate : 353 kb/s Format : PCM Format settings : Little / Signed ------------ Terje
To complement my last post above: I discovered the recordings with the second program above, 'audio-recorder' were 'fake files' quiet without sound when playback with vlc or other programs. Loaded in Audacity showed only straight lines. Possibly there is some gstreamer related issue on my current system, because a warning complained about missing gstreamer plugin, when I tried to save audio as mp4. However, I don't care to debug this program issue for now. The audio clips recorded with 'gnome-sound-recorder' worked fine. For one or another reasen I had to unplug the usb connection from UFO202, before playback sound could be heard in speakers and earphones plugged to the mobo backpanel jacks. *Audacity* I saved a testproject with Audacity and exported some test clip with the following properies: ~/Audacity_project/export> file *.* testproject-1.flac: FLAC audio bitstream data, 16 bit, stereo, 44.1 kHz, 1058356 samples testproject-1.mp3: MPEG ADTS, layer III, v1, 128 kbps, 44.1 kHz, JntStereo testproject-1.ogg: Ogg data, Vorbis audio, stereo, 44100 Hz, ~160000 bps, created by: Xiph.Org libVorbis I testproject-1.wav: RIFF (little-endian) data, WAVE audio, Microsoft PCM, 16 bit, stereo 44100 Hz ~/Audacity_project/export> mediainfo *.* | egrep 'name|Format|bit rate' Complete name : testproject-1.flac Format : FLAC Format/Info : Free Lossless Audio Codec Overall bit rate mode : Variable Overall bit rate : 715 kb/s Format : FLAC Format/Info : Free Lossless Audio Codec Complete name : testproject-1.mp3 Format : MPEG Audio Overall bit rate mode : Variable Overall bit rate : 227 kb/s Format : MPEG Audio Format version : Version 1 Format profile : Layer 3 Format settings : Joint stereo Minimum bit rate : 32.0 kb/s Complete name : testproject-1.ogg Format : Ogg Overall bit rate mode : Variable Overall bit rate : 158 kb/s Format : Vorbis Format settings, Floor : 1 Complete name : testproject-1.wav Format : Wave Overall bit rate mode : Constant Overall bit rate : 1 411 kb/s Format : PCM Format settings : Little / Signed ============ Terje
On Wed, 2021-10-06 at 21:05 +0200, Terje J. Hanssen via Cin wrote:
To complement my last post above:
I discovered the recordings with the second program above, 'audio-recorder' were 'fake files' quiet without sound when playback with vlc or other programs. Loaded in Audacity showed only straight lines. Possibly there is some gstreamer related issue on my current system, because a warning complained about missing gstreamer plugin, when I tried to save audio as mp4. However, I don't care to debug this program issue for now.
Saving is different from recording. If you have set up Audacity for PulseAudio, then while you are sending in a signal, look at the pavucontrol input devices tabs, if you see the signal coming in. Click the "fallback" icon if needed.
The audio clips recorded with 'gnome-sound-recorder' worked fine. For one or another reasen I had to unplug the usb connection from UFO202, before playback sound could be heard in speakers and earphones plugged to the mobo backpanel jacks.
That is normal. If you plugin an USB soundcard, PulseAudio switches to that as the default input/output. In pavucontrol you can select which becomes the ative one, click on the "set as fallback" icon. I have to do that also when I plug it in. MatN
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Terje J. Hanssen