For cheap Mikes, no matter what you do, the amplitude will still be way too
low.  After making your recording use the Amplify Effect with default settings.

KMix
    Green button:  dark = mute
    Red RADIO button:
        red = selected for recording (but seems to have no effect).
    Can "hear" from output system as long as input device is not "muted".

    Standard Mic Jack.  Red.

    Crucial setting (at least for Audacity to work) is for Capture to be turned
    up for the desired input device.  (Unlike the other level sliders,
    Audacity does not have a slider selection to match Capture).
    Make sure that Mix or Mix Mono are activated under Switches tab.

    Problem with USB may be that the Mixer has no Capture slider (no Input
    settings at all for USB, without Camera).  The Audacity input slider/sel
    seems to have no relationship to the Camera device sliders/sels in KMix.

AUDACITY
    Great looking FAQ:
     http://wiki.audacityteam.org/index.php?title=Troubleshooting_Recordings#Recording_cursor_stuck
    Level goal:  Want the highs to reach + and - 1.0.
    I DON'T KNOW WHY THESE COMBOS WORK!!!
        KMix: Only Capture on.
        Audacity:  Vol selected.

    The meter and pulldown to right of the Microphone icon duplicate KMix
    Input sliders/selection, except that Capture and the 3D settings are
    missing and "Vol" means output volume (both for monitoring input and
    for playback).  (The speaker slider only effects Playback volume).
    The sliders don't match KMix perfectly.
    The Aud. will show a setting as live though it is dead in KMix, but
    if you select the device in Audacity, it will activate it in KMix.

    Ouput device of OSS:/dev/dsp or ALSA:default work fine.
      (Hm.  Today OSS:/dev/dsp1 is not working at all)

    Can only record Camera USB Mike at all by choosing device OSS:/dev/dsp2.
    Very low level.

    Cannot "merge" or "split" tracks in native format (other than 2 mono tracks 
    into a stereo track; or vice versa).  Just cut and paste to accomplish this.

    HOME and END keyboard buttons are very useful.

    Native files are stored in a xml file named x.aup, and a subdirectory of
    .au files.

    N.b.!  Do not run "audacity file1.aup file2.aup" or all of the .au files
    of file1 will be moved to the data file of file2, and file2 will be opened.

To play mp3s
    Amarok
    Realplay

Thu May 29 09:41:34 EDT 2008
Kmix works very differently with kde-core (a.o.t. Kde-backports).
Output of Front is the only one that needs to be one to hear playback.
Output of Line needed to MONITOR the INPUT line.
INPUT:  Leave all buttons on, because they turn themselves on anyways :(.
Switches:  Headphone On, IEC958 Off.


.wma -> .mp3  Use pcapl

List audio devices:  aplay -l


Splitting audio file:
into 10 minute segments:  sox k1.wav soxed.mp3 trim 0 600 : newfile : restart
SYNTAX:  ... trim <START> <LENGTHEACH>
Lengths in format:  hh:mm:ss.frac.  or just seconds.
For overlapping use my script "splitAudioWithOverlap.bash" or script an incrementor...
    durationEach=4  # (fixed)
    sox INPUT.wav part-${f}.mp3 trim $newstart $durationEach
If input shorter than requested duration, it will do what you want.
If start point is beyond end of file, then returns error value but
unfortunately writes a short output file too.

Specs:
sox filename -n stat  # Mostly amplitude details, but also length.
soxi filename


PULSE AUDIO
DEFINITELY install and run pavucontrol!!!
SKYPE works if you adjust microphone with pavucontrol!

Audio format conversions:
To mp3:  lame input.file output.file  # Supports ID3 tag switches
ffmpeg -i input.file -acodec <DEST_CODEC>  output.file
DEST_CODECS:
    .ogg  libvorbis
    .aac  libfaac
    .mp3  libmp3lame
    .ac3  ac3
    .wav  <NONE>

For dedicated mp3 concatenation and stuff,
can use mp3wrap and mp3splt but beware *WRAP*mp3 file contains
extra non-portable stuff.


Recording from Kindle
Turn up volume all the way.
Connect headphone out to sound card microphone input.
Record with Audacity.
The volume will be low, but use Amplifiy function afterward.
TODO:  Looks like output is all on left channel???


ID3 Metadata
To add while converting to mp3, use lame switches --ta, --tl, --ty, --tg, --tt
ffprobe reports the metadata name/values
Can't add metadata inline, but can write a new file with ffmpeg or lame:
    ffmpeg -i in.avi -metadata title='my title' out.flv
    lame --tt 'my title' in.avi out.flv
    Lame doesn't know genres (--tg) above 147 from 1998, so can't do 183 Audiobook.
ID3 keys (seem to be case-insensitive):
    TPE2  Non-standard specifies album artist.
    title
    artist
    album
    track  #/#
    encoder
    genre  Podcast OR Speech OR Rock
    encoded_by
    date  ####
Example adding id3 for my audiobook files:
NO WORK:
lame --tt '09/09 Im Gasthaus Zum tänzelnden Pony' --ta 'J.R.R. Tolkien gelesen von Achim Höppner' --tl 'Der Herr der Ringe: Die Gefährten' --ty 2008 --tn 9/9 d08/01* 09_imgasthaus.d/09_09-imgasthaus.ogg
TO just friggin remove id3:
ffmpeg -y -i d08/01* -map_metadata -1 -c:a copy 09_imgasthaus.d/09_09-imgasthaus.ogg