trying to record sound with 'arecord'

[tom arnall <kloro2006@gmail.com>]

i am trying to record sound with 'arecord': 

	arecord -d 5 file.wav
	
this gives me a file with a size of about 100k. but when i try to play it 
with:

	aplay file.wav
	
i get no sound. but aplay works fine with the files in /usr/share/sounds. 

is there a problem with arecord or aplay? is there another program which is 
better for this?

thanks,

tom arnall