[23:32] <tdrr> Hello. I've been trying to get my headset + microphone working on Ubuntu MATE. The headset has a single plug, and comes with a splitter for hardware that may need it (my PC does). The headphones work, but the mic doesn't show any activity on the sound preferences, nor do they work anywhere really. I can unmute the playback in ALSAMixer and I can hear the microphone but it doesn't work anywhere else 
[23:32] <tdrr> still.
[23:33] <tdrr> I have no idea what to try now, I've been puzzled on this for days now. Couldn't get them to work in Fedora KDE, Debian XFCE, nor Xubuntu, and this is the closest I've gotten (which is very sad to say the least lol).
[23:38] <tdrr> Something that may be useful to know, is that `arecord -d 5 -f cd test.wav` results in an infinite loop, and never stops "recording" at all. Audacity recording is also stuck at 0:00 and never advances.
[23:44] <sixwheeledbeast> tdrr: have you proven the headset works elsewhere with the same lead. are you aware of AHJ vs OMTP and how that would effect splitter cables? If the splitter came with the headset it's less likely to be that but worth checking with the symptoms you mention.
[23:46] <tdrr> The splitter came with the headset, and I'm certain it does work on other systems. Works on a Windows 7 machine I tested on earlier.
[23:46] <sixwheeledbeast> I am using pipewire in the latest UM so don't need to play with alsa or pulse anymore, everything seems to just work.
[23:47] <tdrr> I come from using pipewire and I couldn't even hear it at all, so it was even worse.
[23:47] <tdrr> Same issues other than that.
[23:47] <sixwheeledbeast> I have a USB DAC for my system tho
[23:49] <sixwheeledbeast> I assume you have input set correctly in settings.
[23:50] <sixwheeledbeast> sound prefs
[23:51] <tdrr> Correctly as in? I do have "Analog Stereo Duplex" as the profile for my sound card, and "Rear Microphone" is selected as input and unmuted. None of the other options (Line In and Front Microphone) do anything either even if I plug my microphones into them.
[23:51] <sixwheeledbeast> Choose the correct hardware make sure it's duplex (or input), input - set device and connector. 
[23:53] <tdrr> Yeah that's set up correctly but no dice.
[23:56] <sixwheeledbeast> was it the same hardware/pc for windows
[23:58] <tdrr> Not the same PC. I'm not 100% sure the issue isn't hardware related, but I'm far less worried about it now that I can at least hear the microphone via ALSAMixer and confirm it's doing something.