[HOWTO] Creative Audigy 4 & recording total mixed output

[konst1089]

I wrote this little howto because I had a problem with recording sounds from applications. According to the wiki page there are 2 ways to record total mixed output: hardware mixing and vmix loopback devices. My sound card (Creative Audigy 4) has neither 'vol' nor 'loopback' checkbox in ossxmix for recording, so I cannot record via method 2. Method 1 (loopback devices) is buggy for me and, as I have understood after reading these forums, many other users. Actually, you don't need it.
Now about how to get this working. Open ossxmix (e.g. type 'ossxmix' in the terminal) and change record source to 'aux1'.
Screenshot1
Then enable vmix if it isn't enabled yet. Otherwise you will not be able to record anything because this sound card can't play and record sound simultaneously or mix several sounds by hardware with OSS dirver.
Screenshot2
Then set up controls in the 'record' section. You need 'pcm' to capture sound output of ordinary programs that doesn't use any audio devices like microphone, TV-tuner, line-in etc. The good idea is to mute all unnecessary controls because they may produce noise and leave only 'pcm' and 'vol' (it controls total volume of the record).
Screenshot3
The TV-tuner is recordable via 'ac97' for me. 'Playing' with other controls seems to fix the problems if you want to record from any other device.
After configuring the mixer the only thing you need before you start recording is to ensure that your program uses /dev/dsp for record. In most cases this is a default setting. Enjoy your records !
This howto may be helpful in solving problems with other soundcards but I can't guarantee it because I haven't them.

[dev]

thanks for this. PM Cesium and have him link it up on the OSS wiki.

regards
dev