Is pulseaudio required for audio playback and capture?

[stan]

On Thu, 04 Nov 2010 17:16:28 -0500
Kevin Martin <kevintm at ameritech.net> wrote:

> The subject says it all.  Is pulseaudio required for audio playback
> and capture?
> 
> I have a Toshiba Qosmio that has a built-in microphone that I can't
> get to work and I'm about half convince my problem is pulseaudio
> related.

Short answer.  No.  Pulseaudio uses alsa under the covers, so you can
too.  Depending on what you want to do, it might not be as convenient.

It would help other people who have this hardware, though, if you opened
a bugzilla against pulseaudio and described your problem in enough
detail that someone could fix it.  Or at least tell you it is or isn't
pulseaudio.

Perhaps you should describe here on the list what behavior leads you to
believe that your problem is pulseaudio.

Have you used pavucontrol to turn on the microphone for pulseaudio?

Is your recording app set up to use pulseaudio?  Is it using the input
(source in pulse speak) your mic is assigned to?

Has alsa recognized your device?

aplay -l
or
arecord -l

Do you see any mic in the output?