[beagleboard] Audio issue

Hello all,
I have seen a few threads where people have had issues getting audio
working on the beagleboard. I am facing the same problem, where I can
get audio out working, but I cant seem to record audio using a
microphone. I have looked at the diagnostics here:
http://code.google.com/p/beagleboard/wiki/BeagleBoardDiagnostics

As per the diagnostics, when I record something using arecord, I get
the expected messages on the console, but it doesnt really seem to
record anything. I have made sure audio out works fine by playing an
existing sound file.

Has anyone got around this problem?

Thanks,
Kshitij

The microphone needs to be amplified. The audio input is a line in audio, like you get from a PC. A microphone won’t work. Try it using the audio output from a PC first. Then find a way to amplify the audio from the microphone.

Gerald

I know this is gonna sound a bit silly, but using speakers or
headphones as a dynamic microphone sort of works (i.e. just plug it in
and turn the gain up fairly high). At least you can tap it or shout
at it and get some sort of response to indicate the input is actually
working, even if not much more than that.

You are going to have to tap real hard and shout very loud for the board to detect it. I have tried a regular microphone and it does not pick it up when you shout into it.

Gerald

I have used a powered condensor mic with beagle, it works for sure.
My mic is an old but reliable Sony something or-other (a bit like
this: http://www.sonystyle.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?catalogId=10551&storeId=10151&langId=-1&productId=11035340)
and it works pretty well.

That's why i said use a headphone or speaker, which isn't a microphone!

It worked for me to pick it up and display a waveform.

I used a slightly better microphone ($25, from radioshack) and it
works. Thank you all for your help.