Speakers playing when recording even when set to headphones

Audacity 3 Help Forum
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I am using a Behringer Q802 USB mixer with my PC and two sets of speakers. I have never been able to hear myself while singing through the headphones and made the adjustment in preferences which solved that problem. However, now it is always playing through the headset and speakers when recording, which of course messes up the recording. It never used to do this, and I have checked and unchecked various boxes, and I cannot solve the problem. My head set/headphones are recognized as well as my microphone and speakers. I have the headphones set to run into the headphone connector on the back of my PC. I attempted to go directly to my mixer with my headphones, which didn’t work and I also attempted to eliminate using the USB cable, but it didn’t recognize the microphone or headset. I would prefer to stick with the USB, but I’m at a loss as to what to do. I did take a moment and refresh audacity which did not help solve the problem. Any help would be appreciated and your thoughts as well. Many thanks.

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I’m going to guess that the speaker or headphone is getting sound directly from Windows and the other from Audacity. Unless something is “broken” in your computer, Audacity can only monitor/play to one device.

Can you hear yourself (through one or the other) without Audacity running? If so, make sure Windows Listen To This Device is NOT enabled or turn off Audible Input Monitoring in Audacity. But there are other paths for the sound.

I attempted to go directly to my mixer with my headphones, which didn’t work

The mixer should work, even without the computer. But you may have to figure-out how to hear the backing track (from the computer) through the mixer. That’s better since you won’t get latency (delay) between the mic and headphones.

1 Like
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Thanks for your reply Doug. Suddenly the headphones stopped working but I was able to find that they had been disabled in Windows. I enabled them and now have my backtrack music playing while I am singing but it still plays through the rear speakers. Temporarily I’ve turned them off while recording but still need to get to the bottom of it. While the problem’s not yet solved, I just wanted to acknowledge you nice reply and will keep working on a permanent solution.