gnome Microphone

[Bob <spam@homeurl.co.uk>]

Hi I'm trying to get the inbuilt mic on my USB webcam to be the default 
mike so it works in pidgin, empathy, sound recorder & other applications.

This is easy with ekiga as it lets you select the desired mic but most 
other software doesn't.

I've done some googleing and most posts either lay out some complicated 
option using alsa config files or suggest that it's possible by 
selecting it in some way in Volume Control, I can't get the latter to 
work & haven't tried the former as I've never had much luck getting alsa 
to do what I want. See my Oct 2007 thread "Simultaneous AC3/DTS 
passthrough & stereo analog output"

Am I missing something?  It can't be that unusual a request but I can't 
find an easy solution.

Thanks.