I am using the latest release of Audacity as of posting, 2.4.2, and I record using an XLR microphone plugged into a steinberg UR22 mkII interface. Recently, I got some new headphones which it turns out had a 1/4 stereo plug as opposed to the smaller plug I was expecting. No problem for the most part as I could plug it into the interface, and recording and listening back worked just fine. However, recently I recorded a podcast, and when testing out the audio before we officially started, I realized that no matter what I set as the playback device in audacity, as long as the headphones plugged into the interface were set as my default headphones for the computer, audacity was also recording any output from there as well as input from the microphone. At the time, my best solution was to just use some earbuds I had and plug them directly into my computer tower, and that solved it. Is there any way at all for audacity to recognize the input and output of the interface separately and only record the input when I want it to? I only really see this being an issue with podcasts or other recording scenarios where I want to have both input and output recorded, but in separate recordings.
The [u]Device Toolbar[/u] allows you to select the recording and output/monitoring device separately. I believe your interface allows you to monitor directly (without going through the computer).