Ubuntu
alsa-driver package

What is the expected behavior when plugging in a microphone?

Asked by komputes

The expected behavior when plugging in headphones is that the headphones are detected, the speakers are muted and the audio is channeled to the headphones.

What is the expected behavior when plugging in an external microphone?

I would expect the answer to be the same as for headphones, but I have not experienced this recently. It seems that every time I plug in an external microphone I need to change the input source. The alsa mixer is not clear and many times multiple input sources not distinctly differentiating them for the user.

I am wondering if I should file a bug asking that capture switch from internal microphone -> external microphone automatically when a microphone is plugged in.

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midnightflash (midnightflash) said : 		#1

I think this is a good idea to fill a bug-report.

Else you could file it in brainstorm.
http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/

Greetings
mid

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komputes (komputes) said : 		#2

Hi midnightflash,

I think you misunderstood. I do not want to file a bug, I want to gather opinions and experiences from the community to understand what they expect happens when they plug in an analog microphone into their computers.

For example midnightflash, if you have a laptop with a mic built in and you can find an external microphone, can you test to see if it works when you plug it in? Is this the expected behavior, or would you like it to be different?

And to all audio developers, is there specification or standard which is applied to this process. I am looking for more of an official ALSA document which states how capture should change when an analogue microphone is plugged in (i.e. should it takeover from the internal microphone or not)

Thanks.

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Rajinder Sandhu (sandy744) said : 		#3

first of all understand this we are using condenser mic and dynamic mics for speaking into that is generally.
All condenser mic needs phantom power to energise that is supplied in the laptop whereas in desktop it is not there at least in my desktop in home and office both.
Behavior side it has nothing to do with any configuration you may feed one is giving more output than other thats all ... headphones are not having dc voltage so you can connect all headsets from 1400 o0hms to 500 ohms waith out much noticeable difference

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