Many of us that use alsa for a number of different purposes tend to write little scripts to change settings for various needs. For instance I have a one line script I use to change the volume on secondary audio channels I have running while listening to the reflector or something else. Getting your mike volume set correctly is probably easiestly done on the reflector with someone talking you through how it sounds. cvs -d:pserver:anonymous at bumpy.braille.uwo.ca:/usr/src/CVS login (password please) cvs -d:pserver:anonymous at bumpy.braille.uwo.ca:/usr/src/CVS checkout speak_freely Should take care of getting the cvs version of speak freely. Kirk -- Kirk Reiser The Computer Braille Facility e-mail: kirk at braille.uwo.ca University of Western Ontario phone: (519) 661-3061