Audacity Forum

hi
can anyone help please...what it is i am working on a project in audacy and every thing was fine yesterday but today i can't seem to hear the music in the background when i'm singing on the mic...i don't no if i've pressed something by acident....can anyone help please...also i would like to use my usb mic for better sound quality but the same thing keeps happening

Most likely you turned off "Play other tracks while recording new one" in Audacity's Edit -> Preferences -> Audio I/O menu. That needs to be ON for your purposes.

I'm not sure why your USB mic isn't working. These are the basic steps to follow to get a USB mic working:

0) Close Audacity if it's open (don't forget to save)

1) Plug USB mic in, wait about 10 seconds to make sure the computer recognizes it.

2) Open Audacity, click Edit -> Preferences -> Audio I/O menu. Here, you need to make sure the Playback device is set to whatever your speakers are plugged in to. Make sure the USB mic is selected in the Recording Device. Make sure the number of recording channels is set to '1 (mono)'. Finally, make sure "Play other tracks while recording new one" is still checked.

Now you should be able to record with your USB mic and also hear any other tracks that are playing along.