Hype Take-to-mp3 converter

[steve]

only a curiosity about why the Hype and the system aren't "talking" to hear sound outside Audacity

The "Hype" does not use your computer sound card for recording. It has its own analogue to digital converter built in, so that digital data is sent directly to the computer, effectively bypassing your sound card. In order to hear the sound through your computer, there needs to be some program running (Audacity) that forwards the audio data from the USB stream through to your sound card, and that's what the "Software Playthrough" in Audacity does.