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Kubuntu/Pulseaudio: Record both mic and system audio

Submitted by Druss on Fri, 2016-10-14 19:35

Today, I started dabbling in doing some screen recording in Linux and while I could find programs to record the screen, I couldn't get the audio working as I wanted. By default, the programs record either the system audio, or the mic audio (or if the program is shit, neither); they don't record both the system audio and the mic audio. The fix for this on my Kubuntu 16.04 (Xenial) system which uses the Pulseaudio system to manage audio is as follows:

  • Install PulseAudio Volume Control using:
    sudo apt-get install pavucontrol
    This program is actually quite nifty and can be run using the command pavucontrol. However, we don't need to run it to get this working.
  • Now, type
    alias micon='pactl load-module module-loopback latency_msec=1'
    and then,
    alias micoff='pactl unload-module module-loopback'
  • What this does is route (loop back) your mic input into your speaker output.

  • Now, just type, micon. You should be able to hear your voice through your speakers (or headphones).
  • Type micoff to turn off the loopback.
  • If you want to add these two commands permanently, simply add the two alias statements above to the bottom of your .bashrc file. That should make them persist across multiple sessions.