Muted Vocals Help

[Rinarunine]

Hello there Audacity forums!

I'm new to Audacity, so far I love it. But I have particular and peculiar problem that I can't seem to find the fix or answer to. I've checked the forums, I've checked the FAQs. Googled, too. But it seems I'm the only one having this problem. Or maybe I don't know how to phrase it right. So I'm going to start from the beginning.

My friends and I want to start a podcast (nothing major, just something fun to do for our close circle of friends). We wanted to use Audacity.

Now, Audacity works fine. It records the sounds and I can split the tracks, time-shift them, whathaveyou. But I'm having a problem with the Mono settings.

If I make two recorded tracks as Stereo, one track comes from the left, one from the right. It would be fine, usually. Everyone can enjoy it I suppose. But my problem is that I'm not capable of hearing the left tracks, due to human error / by design. I was born unable to hear from the left ear. So you can see where this is a problem.

I tried to set it so both audio tracks are Mono, and all sound is equal in both ears. But the problem is, when I play it back, I hear static. I can hear my keyboard. But I can't hear my vocals at all. No speaking. But computer sounds and such I can hear.

Could someone help? Like I said, I really need to be able to hear everything in mono, and it won't be such a loss for everyone else.

[Rinarunine]

To better explain this, it's like if both Mono tracks canceled each other out.

[steve]

Edit menu > Preferences > Audio I/O
Set the recording to "1 channel (mono)"

[Rinarunine]

I set it to Mono.

If I have one track, i can hear it. Two mono tracks cancel each other out.

[steve]

Two mono tracks cancel each other out.

That should not happen (unless you are doing something to make it happen). It could be that something is wired up the wrong way round. It's not uncommon for people to have one of their speakers with the wires connected the wrong way round (red and black swapped over - if they are colour coded).

Do you still have a problem or is it OK now?