How to test microphone with Audio Linux Sound Architecture

The objective of this article is to provide the reader with an information on how to test microphone on Linux system.

In this tutorial you will learn:

How to test Microphone
How to record audio via microphone
How to play recorded audio

How to test microphone on Linux

Software Requirements and Conventions Used

Software Requirements and Linux Command Line Conventions
Category	Requirements, Conventions or Software Version Used
System	Any GNU/Linux distribution
Software	Alsa
Other	Privileged access to your Linux system as root or via the `sudo` command.
Conventions	# – requires given linux commands to be executed with root privileges either directly as a root user or by use of `sudo` command $ – requires given linux commands to be executed as a regular non-privileged user

How to test microphone step by step instructions

First step is obtain a list of all microphone devices. To do so execute:

# arecord -l
**** List of CAPTURE Hardware Devices ****
card 0: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 0: ALC662 rev3 Analog [ALC662 rev3 Analog]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 2: ALC662 rev3 Alt Analog [ALC662 rev3 Alt Analog]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: Q9000 [QuickCam Pro 9000], device 0: USB Audio [USB Audio]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

Next record a short 10 seconds audio by using the following command:
```
# arecord -f S16_LE -d 10 -r 16000 --device="hw:1,0" /tmp/test-mic.wav
```
In the above example we have recorded audio via microphone using the QuickCam Pro 9000 as specified by --device="hw:1,0" as in card 1 and device 0 from the arecord -l output in the previous step.
Now confirm that the source was recorded correctly using aplay:
```
# aplay /tmp/test-mic.wav
```

Software Requirements and Conventions Used

How to test microphone step by step instructions

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