KDE 3.2 and recording with KRec

[Kevin]

Hi All-

As far as I can determine, I have KDE 3.2 and alsa and 
aRts all set up properly for sound.  I can play mp3 
files (using xmms and Noatun, maybe some others), CDs 
(using KsCD), and I hear system notification sounds 
when I get alert boxes.

However, I'm trying to learn how to use KRec for 
recording from the microphone of the sound card, and 
having some difficulty.  I've read the KDE Manuals for 
KMix, KRec, aRts Control Tool, and a couple of others, 
but KRec is not working as described in it's Manual.  
I do see the KRec::In and KRec::Out in the aRts 
Control Tool (Audio Manager), and they are set up as 
described in the KRec Manual (KRec::In connected to 
the in_soundcard bus with type record).

One thing I'm not clear on is this, from the Manual:

"1)  First you have to select the recording source in 
your soundcard. You need your favorite mixer (KMix), 
where you should select the source you need for 
recording."

This is probably so simple that I'll kick myself when I 
figure it out, but just how do I select the source for 
recording?  I have KMix open, I've read it's manual, 
but it doesn't talk about selecting a recording 
source.  I see the right-click pop-up menu and it's 
item to "Set Record Source" but I don't think I'm 
understanding how to use it.  Every slider that I 
right click on (Line, Microphone, CD, IGain, Line1, 
PhoneIn, etc.) shows that the "Set Record Source" menu 
item has a check mark next to it.  When I select it 
(thinking it's a toggle) to turn something off as a 
record source, I would expect that the check mark 
would disappear from beside the entry for whatever 
component I've chosen.  That's not what happens.  All 
of the sliders have check marks next to that entry, 
and none of them turn off.  When I do the same thing 
for the "Muted" entry in that menu, it works as I 
expect, and plus, I see the green light at the top of 
the slider turn on or off when muting is checked or 
not, respectively.  Is the red light at the bottom 
supposed to correlate with the selected recording 
source?  The Manual gives no insight into that 
question, and it doesn't even mention the "Set Record 
Source" entry in that context-sensitive pop-up menu.

My ultimate goal is to select the sound card's 
microphone as the recording source (as is described in 
the KRec Manual above), and then move on with steps 2 
and 3 below (also from the Manual).

"2)  You also need to configure the aRts server for 
full-duplex (and your soundcard and drivers should 
support this too). If you need to restart aRts you 
should also restart KRec "

I'm not sure how to verify that aRts is in full-duplex 
mode.  Any clues on that?

"3)  If everything worked you now should see something 
moving inside KRec — the VU-Meter showing how loud 
your recording is. For good recordings without 
clipping it should be yellow to orange but not red. 
The slider right of the VU-Meter controls the volume."

Everything in 1 and 2 seems to work, but I don't see 
the recording level bouncing on the KRec recording 
level meter.  Even if I try to choose the sound card 
output as the recording source and play an mp3 file 
using Noatun, I hear the output from the sound card 
speakers, and see the recording level bouncing in the 
aRts Master Volume levels, but not in KRec.

Any suggestions would be most welcome, and if there are 
better sources for reading than what I've listed, then 
perhaps someone could send me pointers.

TIA.

-Kevin

PS. Some system details:

distro: Gentoo