But when I try to use something like gnome recorder, nothing it picked up. So, is it actually there, or is this some kind of bug? It’s not important at all, just strange.
Actually it is functioning. Look at the level swing But the thing about cheap mics is that they are practically unusable without noise reduction. See Noise Torch for example.
Yeah, that’s the weird thing. pavucontrol indicates that it’s actually working, but the recordings from the recording application don’t pick any noise up whatsoever, so matter how loud I get. Is there a way for me to find more information on the hardware aspect of this?
and audio capture controls for built-in audio device
alsamixer --card=1 --view=capture
To see audio devices detected in PulseAudio
pactl list cards
If you do not want to use the internal microphone, go to pavucontrolConfiguration tab and change the Profile of Built-in Audio device from Analog Stereo Duplex to Analog Stereo Output
Interesting commands, but I wasn’t able to really glean much more information than I already know. But yes, pactl clearly states that there is indeed an internal microphone, something that I was not aware existed. Now the questions remains as to why it doesn’t seem to actually work, despite pavucontrol showing that it does actually pick up sound.
If you do not want to use the internal microphone, go to pavucontrolConfiguration tab and change the Profile of Built-in Audio device from Analog Stereo Duplex to Analog Stereo Output
Thank you for this, I may indeed do that. Or maybe I’ll leave it alone, I’m really not concerned with it, it was just something I noticed and was curious about. So again, thank you
Just a notice: gnome-sound-recorder just pick the default input device, which is usually the first one. In that case it records sound of my internal audio (when playing music for example). You have to set the default device in pavucontrol for example .
Wow, it works. Interesting. Is there a way for me to block it at the software level? Perhaps something I could blacklist. If not, that’s perfectly fine.
User should be able to change recording source in pavucontrolRecording tab using drop-down menu. If that is not possible with gnome-recorder use another sound recorder
For PulseAudio, user could also just use module-loopback to route audio from a source directly back to a sink, so the microphone can be heard in headphones (do not use speakers for this test)
pactl load-module module-loopback
module-loopback is not very good for most use-cases because audio is delayed (similar to a VOIP call where someone has speakers turned up causing an echo for everyone else on the call trying to talk) but it does allow user to hear if microphone is working
To unload the module:
pactl unload-module module-loopback
All laptops are fitted with the same type of cheap, tiny microphones. The only change for modern laptops is that they have 2 (or sometimes 4) microphones (so Cortana can hear everyone in the room talking) but they are still basically the same sub-miniature microphone element stuck behind a tiny pin-hole. Slightly better audio quality than a cheap Bluetooth headset
But the thing about cheap mics is that they are practically unusable without noise reduction. See 
.