Voice Recording with TC Helicon Voiceplay

Hello to everyone!

I’m new to the world of voice recording! I have a problem with recording my voice while listening to an instrumental track on Audacity. I have my mic linked to a Tc Helicon Voiceplay, which is then linked to my computer (and set as the predefined audio). After I choose the mic and audio output as Voiceplay, I load an instrumental track on audacity, as my intention is to listen to the track in my headphones and to record a voice track. I would like also to listen at the same time to the instrumental track and my voice (in my headphones) while recording, but when I press record in order to sing on the track I am not able to listen to the track in my headphones, and Audacity cannot record my voice or perceive it at all. How can I fix this? I hope I was enough clear to be understood. Thank you very much in advance.

Do you have overdub selected in the Audacity preferences?

Audacity > Edit > Preferences > Recording > [X]Overdub.

The Overdubbing setup in the Audacity instructions has you making a simple recording and simple playback before you try both at once in an Overdub session. Can you do that? You didn’t actually say that in your post. Trying to unscramble a full overdubbing session without that can be a challenge.

Forums and people with super unusual systems usually don’t get along very well together. The Audacity forum elves can guess at a solution, but really, you’d be waiting for all the people who use Audacity on a Tc Helicon VoiceLive Play to drop in and help.

Koz

Yes! I tried the Overdub option but when I press record, I can’t listen to the track in my headphones, and my computer can’t record anything. If I listen to the instrumental track alone it works, and it works also when I try to record just my voice. But when I open the Instrumental track and then press record to record on it, it doesn’t work at all! How can I fix this bug?

it doesn’t work at all!

What does that mean? The cursor on the timeline doesn’t move? It moves but you don’t get any blue waves? Do you get an error message?

Does the Helicon have the ability to let you hear yourself in your Helicon headphones while you perform? Sometimes that’s called Direct Monitor.

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I plugged in my USB Microphone Interface. Behringer UM2 (if you’re keeping score). Microphone and headphones are both plugged into the UM2.

Start or Restart Audacity.

Set the Audacity Recording (microphone symbol) and Playback (speaker symbol) for the interface. In my case it’s called USB Audio CODEC. Some interfaces have a custom name for this connection. Some don’t.

Audacity > Edit > Preferences > Recording:
Overdub
Record on a new track
Don’t select anything else on that page.

I pressed the Audacity red record button and recorded a simple voice track. The bouncing sound meter bounced and I got a new blue wave track. You may not hear anything right now. It depends on your interface.
Stop.
I pressed record again and I heard my first voice playing in my ears while I was recording a fresh new voice at the same time.
Stop.

I now have two voices one above the other and I can play them both at once or SOLO one or the other.


If I pressed Record again, I would get a third track while I was playing the first two.

What happens to you?

Koz

I’m gonna show what I see when I try to record a new vocal track on a instrumental track I’ve loaded on Audacity. So:
Immagine2.png
When I don’t select the Overdub option and I try to record a new vocal track, of course I can’t hear the music playing in my headphones but I can hear my voice at the microphone and the computer can also recognize the recording as you can see from the microphone monitor. After I stop the new recording and I play both tracks at the same time I can hear both the recordings synced in my headphones.

But when I select the Overdub option and I try to record a new vocal track again, this is what happens:
Immagine.jpg
In this case I can’t hear neither the instrumental track nor my voice in my headphones while recording, and the computer does not perceive the mic and my voice as well. Also the tracks seem to be freezed as the cursor is stucked at the beginning of both tracks. When I stop the recording and I play both tracks at the same time, I can only hear the instrumental one, while my new vocal recording doesn’t play and seems to be not recorded.


I hope I made myself a little bit clearer on the situation. Thank you very much for your time and kindness.

I hope I made myself a little bit clearer on the situation.

No. You should forget about the music mixing job for a while and make sure all the separate parts of the system work as they are supposed to.

Do you have an answer to this?

Does the Helicon have the ability to let you hear yourself in your Helicon headphones while you perform? Sometimes that’s called Direct Monitor.

Koz

The single parts work fine! I do think my voiceplay live has the direct monitor function! However I’ve tried to ask to the care support service at Helicon in order to have the correct and definitive answer. Thank you so much for your help!

You should forget about the music mixing job for a while and make sure all the separate parts of the system work as they are supposed to.

What I meant was make sure the individual pieces work fine when you’re in overdubbing. They don’t, do they?

Close and restart Audacity.

Set overdubbing like this.

Audacity > Edit > Preferences > Recording:
[X]Overdub
[X]Record on a new track
Don’t select anything else on that page.

Forget the music track.
Press record in that fresh, blank Audacity. What happens?

Koz

The forum elves have been comparing notes and we think it’s suspicious that a lot of similar failures have posted at about the same time. Almost like we’re fighting an operating system update. You’re Windows 10, right?

Koz

I have the same problem and nearly the same setup except I’m on Windows 11. It seems like the record head is stuck if both the audio input and output are set to the USB device (VoiceLive Play). If I set the output device to my laptop speakers then I can record while listening to other tracks…but I want both the playback of the other tracks AND my device connected to the USB device to be output on the same device. Any thoughts. Supposedly all the drivers are up to date.

Ok…I figured out a solution. Basically the usb connection is only used to get sound from my USB device (VoiceLive Play) into the computer. So I make sure the input in Audacity has my USB device selected. I use the computer “speakers” as output BUT I run a wire from the headphone jack on the computer to the Aux In on my USB device. Then on the VoiceLive Play I went into setup and found the setting for Aux In which was set to “Live” but I changed it to “Monitor”. My headphones are plugged into the back of the VoiceLive Play so it gets sound both from my instrument/mic AND the computer…but the computer is only getting input from my instrument/mic via the USB.