Configure and test audio

Test Raspberry Pi speakers and microphone

Plug in your speakers and microphone to test if they are working. If both are working you can skip ahead to the next section. If not, you will need to manually configure the audio.

Right click on the speaker icon and select your speakers:

In a terminal, run the following command, and speak into the microphone for about five seconds.

    

        
        
            arecord -d 5 test.wav
        
    

This will record a five second audio clip using the default microphone and then save a file named test.wav in the current directory.

Next, run the following command to attempt to play back test.wav using your default speakers:

    

        
        
            aplay test.wav
        
    

If the record and playback worked correctly and you heard what you had recorded, you can click to the next section of this learning path. If the test did not work, you can manually configure the audio settings.

Manual audio setup

Try the steps below to manually configure audio.

Find the audio devices for speakers and microphone

Use the following commands to find the card and device for your microphone and your speakers:

    

        
        
            arecord -l
aplay -l
        
    

The output should look like the following:

In the example above, you can see a USB microphone on card 3, device 0 (3,0)

USB speakers are card 2, device 0 (2,0)

To find out if the devices are running correctly, you can run arecord and aplay again but this time with the card and device information.

Change your card and device numbers in plughw to match your configuration, and try recording a five second clip by speaking into your microphone again.

To record:

    

        
        
            arecord -D plughw:3,0 -d 5 test.wav
        
    

To play back:

    

        
        
            aplay -D plughw:2,0 test.wav
        
    

If you can hear what you recorded, you can create a configuration file.

Troubleshooting

If the above doesn’t work, you’ll have to investigate further.

Here are some steps you can take:

1. Verify that the speakers and microphone are properly connected and check for loose connections

2. Use alsamixer or amixer to check that your devices aren’t muted and that the volume levels are high enough

3. Check online and see if your microphone and / or speakers are Linux compatible

4. Try other speakers and microphones

Create a configuration file to set the defaults

Use a text editor to create the file /etc/asound.conf and add the appropriate information from aplay -l and arecord -l

Copy and paste the information below into the file, changing the pcm.!default playback and ctl.!default to match the aplay -l output. Change the pcm.!default capture section to the arecord -l output:

    

        
        
            pcm.!default {
    type asym
    playback.pcm {
        type plug
        slave.pcm "hw:2,0"
    }
    capture.pcm {
        type plug
        slave.pcm "hw:3,0"
    }
}

ctl.!default {
    type hw
    card 2
}
        
    

Save the file, exit your text editor, and reboot the Raspberry Pi.

    

        
        
            sudo reboot
        
    

After rebooting, try the commands again to verify everything is now working:

    

        
        
            arecord -d 5 test.wav
aplay test.wav
        
    

Your speakers and microphone are now ready to use.