Christoph Eckert wrote: > as soon as I try to record audio from the mic in of my cheap > onboard sound chip, I never can intuitively set the mixer > settings so it will work right now. Every time, it's a > struggling with the settings and a trial and error action. > > So, my question is, is there a user documentation how > soundcards work and which parameters affect which aspects of > the signal flow in basic consumer cards? Each card is different. Onboard chips are supposed to be AC'97 compatible, so you can look into the AC'97 specification to find out what your chip doesn't work like. If you have luck, there is a datasheet for your codec chip. HTH Clemens