Problems with audio recording

[Daniela]

Probably a stupid question:

I need to record sound and it just won't work. I set the recording level to 
75:75 and the recording source to "Line" (I'm not sure this is correct), and 
I tried sox, cat /dev/dsp > file, aurecord and numerous graphical recording 
utilities. I don't get any error messages, I just get silence.

I have already searched the mailing list archives and documentation, but 
nothing helped.

Best regards,
Daniela