The red light under the mic level on KMix

[David Goodenough <david.goodenough@btconnect.com>]

What does the red light under the microphone level on KMix mean?

I tried to run krecord but nothing seemed to be happening, so I 
started kmix and noticed that this light was on.  So I tried the
help, but all I got was help about help, and Ctrl-F1 did not seem
to work either.  The hoverhelp says "Recording", but nothing was 
going to krecord, and the light is still on when krecord and
all other multimedia apps are not running, is this the CIA perhaps?

David