Install qjackctl and look at the connections between "client" and "server" appz in the connections panel, probably there's something wrong in there. Be sure that your mic is the only source/input for audacity... maybe system playback is routed to audacity ins
however I suggest you to use ardour-gtk on etch
regards
However, I think I've got something set wrong in the mixer. When I am
recording, anything playing in another program will get picked up by
the audio capture (e.g. playing a background track in Audacious while
trying to record a solo track through Audacity, the background track
will show up in the recording). I can tell I'm not just picking up
speaker sounds on the microphone, since this happens even with the
speakers off. I tried disabling one of the two "capture" devices in
alsamixer, but one of them has no effect and the other just kills all
recording, both internal sounds and microphone.