# External USB audio HyperX - microphone recording issue



## quakerdoomer (Jul 30, 2022)

This is regarding an external USB audio card.
Since none of the attempts to use the internal microphone worked, I tried an external one. I am using a HyperX USB sound card and it records and plays fine on Windows. It plays the audio well on FreeBSD 13, but when I record something, the output is garbled and incomprehensible. Is there a way to fine tune this to make the microphone usable or is it unsupported?

The USB audio card shows as *uaudio0: <Kingston HyperX Virtual Surround Sound>
 
pcm3: <USB audio> on uaudio0
*
`cat /dev/sndstat
Installed devices:
pcm0: <Realtek ALC257 (Analog)> (play/rec) default
pcm1: <Realtek ALC257 (Right Analog Headphones)> (play)
pcm2: <Intel Kaby Lake (HDMI/DP 8ch)> (play)
pcm3: <USB audio> (play/rec)`

I also set
`sysctl hw.snd.default_unit=3`

Do I need to set some hints to make the mic usable? Kindly advise if possible.


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## bsduck (Aug 16, 2022)

Try with an increased `hw.snd.latency` (maximum is 10).
Make sure `hw.snd.latency_profile=1` (it is by default).
Also check `hw.usb.uaudio.buffer_ms`.

Also try with `dev.pcm.3.bitperfect=1` and `dev.pcm.3.rec.vchans=0`.

Run `# service mixer restart` and restart your recording program after setting sysctls so that changes are applied before testing.


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## quakerdoomer (Sep 11, 2022)

I think FFX ESR has issues. As advised here ( https://forums.freebsd.org/threads/complex-internal-microphone-on-freebsd-13r.86181 ), I used the non ESR FFX and used virtual_oss and it works now.
I shall keep your notes handy. Thank you.


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