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Audacity and a Logitech USB Mic on Ubuntu (Breezy)

Ok, so I know I should update Ubuntu and I’ve read that Breezy isn’t the best for sound but I’ve finally – after an afternoon of messing about – managed to coax Audacity to use my Logitech USB microphone.

First of all, I downloaded the (beta) source for Audacity 1.3.2 and following the helpful advice on mics in Ubuntu here, compiled the source with:

./configure --with-portaudio=v19 --without-portmixer

– which didn’t do the job. Not quite. The problem is that Audacity’s recording preferences appear not to let you change the device from /dev/dsp to /dev/dsp1. According to reports, Audacity won’t find /dev/dsp1 unless there’s a /dev/dsp0. And this is the final fix that worked for me; change to root and type:

ln -s /dev/dsp /dev/dsp0

which creates /dev/dsp0 as a symbolic link (like a shortcut to you Windows folk) to /dev/dsp

then Audacity picks up the USB mic and everything works. Check out this forum entry too.

Might do another podcast now that’s sorted. Still got a problem with my Olympus Digital Voice Recorder on Ubuntu, though.

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7 Responses

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  1. Anonymous says

    I’m running audacity 1.2.7 I’m running audacity 1.2.7 and it’s straight outta the feisty repos – merely doing the “ln -s /dev/dsp /dev/dsp0″ meant I could record! cheers for the heads up on dsp0

  2. Anonymous says

    Well I see the meter moving Well I see the meter moving when I make a sound in the microphone during recording (in audacity). But when I play it back I hear nothing. And there aren’t any waveforms visible in the sound created.

  3. Kevin says

    Hi! Nice guide! I’m new to Linux Ubuntu but when I installed it I accedently deleted the Windows partition O.o

    Oh well… Linux ownz =]

    Hehe, Once again thanks for the guide

  4. meka4996 says

    make sure the USB microphone works first (with skype…)
    quote from
    http://sudan.ubuntuforums.com/showthread.php?t=434169
    In Audacity: EDIT – PREFERENCES
    Playback: Device: ALSA HDA ATI SB: ALC883 Analog (hw:0,0)
    Recording: Device: ALSA: AK5370 :USB Audio (hw:1,0)
    Recording: Channels: 1 (Mono)
    Turn on the Logitech USB Desktop Microphone
    Check if you see the audio wave response, have fun!

  5. dxnamb says

    i hope. abcbab0044 thanks

  6. Rorkimaru says

    After months of on/off searching my mike finally works on my ubuntu PC

    thank you very much!!

Continuing the Discussion

  1. cloudsoup » Self-referential audio recording on Linux linked to this post on May 22, 2008

    [...] Youtube user called Beamoo seems to have found my advice on using a USB microphone with Audacity on Linux helpful. That’s very [...]



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