10.8 Audio Microphone Test

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A quick way to test the microphone is to run audacity. Once started click the record button (the red dot) and start talking.

We can also test the microphone from the command line using arecord. First, list the recognised soundcards and digital audio devices with --list-devices or -l for short.

$ arecord --list-devices
**** List of CAPTURE Hardware Devices ****
card 0: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 0: ALC285 Analog [ALC285 Analog]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: USB [ThinkPad Thunderbolt 3 Dock USB], device 0: USB Audio [USB Audio]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

Now record for 5 seconds using --duration=5 (or -d) from one identified device using --device="hw:1,0" (card 1 device 0).

$ arecord --duration=5 --device="hw:1,0" -f S16_LE -r 16000 /tmp/test-mic.wav

To listen to the recording:

$ aplay /tmp/test-mic.wav

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