Audacity Forum

I will be doing voice over work using Audacity and I need to hear myself as I'm recording.
I am using Windows XP and Audacity 1.3.
When I try clicking on Software Playthrough: Play new track while recording I get an annoying delay.
I am new at this and need some simple step by step instructions. Thanks.
Dan

It sounds like you may be better to try overdub rather than playthrough.
I don't think you can avoid a delay in hearing playback of what has been recorded (though latency settings may influence the delay).
You can listen to the input being recorded by turning off playthrough in audacity and turning on 'listen' to the relevant source within windows sound control.

Sadly, I'm a novice and don't know what overdub is or how to use it.

Software Playthrough invariably causes a delay so that should be switched off.

How are you recording? Are you using a USB microphone?
What exactly do you mean "I need to hear myself as I'm recording"?

I'm using a usb microphone and headphones plugged into my computer. By listening to myself, I mean as I would in a studio where I can hear my own voice as I'm speaking into the microphone. By hearing myself live, I can hear my tonal adjustments as needed by the script.

Audacity help is excellent on these things. Look under Help > Quick Help > Reference > Preferences > Recording.
This will take you somewhere like-

C:Program FilesAudacity 1.3 Beta (Unicode)helpmanualrecording_preferences.html

and

C:Program FilesAudacity 1.3 Beta (Unicode)helpmanuallatency_test.html

Hopefully all will be explained.

dvargas wrote:I'm using a usb microphone and headphones plugged into my computer. By listening to myself, I mean as I would in a studio where I can hear my own voice as I'm speaking into the microphone. By hearing myself live, I can hear my tonal adjustments as needed by the script.

I thought that might be what you meant. Unfortunately you will not be able to do that.

The problem is that there is no hardware route (no wire connections) between the USB microphone and the computer sound card. The only way that the sound signal can get from the microphone to the sound card (and hence to the headphones) is through software, but software is much slower than electrical signals through wires and that is why there is a delay.

Some USB microphones have a headphone socket built into the microphone itself so as to get round this limitation, but I guess your microphone does not.

The best suggestion that I can make is that you use another "studio technique" which is to record with one headphone pad over one ear and the other headphone pad moved to the side so that your ear is free. (Sometimes you will see pictures of singers holding just one side of the headphones up to one ear). That way, you will be able to hear any other tracks that are playing (through the headphone on one ear) and you will be able to hear yourself acoustically through the other ear. This technique takes a bit of getting used to, but many professional artists prefer to record this way.

As you are using Windows XP, the alternative suggestion is to try recording with Audacity 1.2.6. You will still get a bit of delay when using Software Playthrough, but it is likely to be a smaller delay and may be small enough to not be a problem. After recording you can save your project and open it in Audacity 1.3.12 to take advantage of the improved editing features, but note that once a project has been saved by Audacity 1.3 it can no longer be opened by Audacity 1.2.6