Frank Barknecht writes: > > Not necessarily. Cassette tape is not exactly high end material. I > don't think, your recordings will suffer much by recording them with > the onboard card. But I don't know that special board and chip > combination, so I would recommend you just try it out. I'm not familiar with the capabilities of the chip either. Neither is it obvious how to interpret the following: arecord -l **** List of CAPTURE Hardware Devices **** card 0: CMI8738MC6 [C-Media PCI CMI8738-MC6], device 0: CMI8738-MC6 [C-Media PCI DAC/ADC] Subdevices: 1/1 Subdevice #0: subdevice #0 card 0: CMI8738MC6 [C-Media PCI CMI8738-MC6], device 2: CMI8738-MC6 [C-Media PCI IEC958] Subdevices: 1/1 Subdevice #0: subdevice #0 If I run amixer I get the following. Without knowing the capabilities of the chip it isn't clear what all the settings do. Is there a good HOWTO guide or tutorial available? Some are obvious, e.g., master volume, but others are not. I checked amixer(1) but it doesn't describe the options or define the terminology used. Simple mixer control 'Master',0 Capabilities: pvolume Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right Limits: Playback 0 - 31 Front Left: Playback 28 [90%] Front Right: Playback 28 [90%] Simple mixer control '3D Control - Switch',0 Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined Playback channels: Mono Mono: Playback [off] Simple mixer control 'PCM',0 Capabilities: pvolume pswitch pswitch-joined cswitch Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right Limits: Playback 0 - 31 Front Left: Playback 24 [77%] [on] Capture [off] Front Right: Playback 24 [77%] [on] Capture [off] Simple mixer control 'Synth',0 Capabilities: pvolume pswitch pswitch-joined cswitch Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right Limits: Playback 0 - 31 Front Left: Playback 24 [77%] [on] Capture [off] Front Right: Playback 24 [77%] [on] Capture [off] Simple mixer control 'Line',0 Capabilities: pvolume pswitch cswitch Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right Limits: Playback 0 - 31 Front Left: Playback 0 [0%] [off] Capture [off] Front Right: Playback 0 [0%] [off] Capture [off] Simple mixer control 'Line-In As Bass',0 Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined Playback channels: Mono Mono: Playback [off] Simple mixer control 'Line-In As Rear',0 Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined Playback channels: Mono Mono: Playback [off] Simple mixer control 'CD',0 Capabilities: pvolume pswitch cswitch Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right Limits: Playback 0 - 31 Front Left: Playback 0 [0%] [off] Capture [off] Front Right: Playback 0 [0%] [off] Capture [off] Simple mixer control 'Mic',0 Capabilities: pvolume pvolume-joined cvolume pswitch pswitch-joined cswitch cswitch-joined Playback channels: Mono Capture channels: Mono Limits: Playback 0 - 31 Capture 0 - 7 Mono: Playback 0 [0%] [off] Capture 0 [0%] [off] Simple mixer control 'Mic As Center/LFE',0 Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined Playback channels: Mono Mono: Playback [on] Simple mixer control 'Mic Boost',0 Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined Playback channels: Mono Mono: Playback [off] Simple mixer control 'IEC958 5V',0 Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined Playback channels: Mono Mono: Playback [on] Simple mixer control 'IEC958 Copyright',0 Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined Playback channels: Mono Mono: Playback [off] Simple mixer control 'IEC958 In Monitor',0 Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined Playback channels: Mono Mono: Playback [off] Simple mixer control 'IEC958 In Phase Inverse',0 Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined Playback channels: Mono Mono: Playback [off] Simple mixer control 'IEC958 In Select',0 Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined Playback channels: Mono Mono: Playback [off] Simple mixer control 'IEC958 In Valid',0 Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined Playback channels: Mono Mono: Playback [off] Simple mixer control 'IEC958 Loop',0 Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined Playback channels: Mono Mono: Playback [off] Simple mixer control 'IEC958 Output',0 Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined Playback channels: Mono Mono: Playback [off] Simple mixer control 'PC Speaker',0 Capabilities: pvolume pvolume-joined Playback channels: Mono Limits: Playback 0 - 3 Mono: Playback 2 [67%] Simple mixer control 'Aux',0 Capabilities: pvolume pswitch cswitch Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right Limits: Playback 0 - 15 Front Left: Playback 0 [0%] [off] Capture [off] Front Right: Playback 0 [0%] [off] Capture [off] Simple mixer control 'Four Channel Mode',0 Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined Playback channels: Mono Mono: Playback [on]
