# Off-Topic Discussion > The Lounge > Tech Talk >  >  Need Help With Audacity

## SKA

I have this simple Sound Recording/editing program called Audacity. I&#39;m sure someone round here knows it.
Since quite some time now I&#39;ve been having problems recording:

When I record a Track it immediately gives feedback Sound Creating a terrible echo-effect. It&#39;s much like when using Audio-Conversations on MSN and having both the Microphone and Your Boxes-Volume turned up to the max. You know that sound. 

Now when I record Music I record 1 track, then I play it again while I record another piece of Music over it, playing on the beat of the 1st recorded track. Now that isn&#39;t possible anymore since that maddening Echo-effect turned up.

Can anyone who has any knowledge of Audacity tell me how I might stop this feedback echo effect from happening while I&#39;m recording a track?

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## Ynot

I&#39;ve had this problem before with soundforge

mute all of your soundcard outputs
(control panel -> sound & audio -> volume tab -> advanced button)

and use something else to listen to yourself play, rather than your computer
(speaker amp, headphones, whatever works for you)

a lot of soundcards will capture their own speaker output - sort of a virtual input, if you like
(so you can capture the music off of computer games and such)

but it means flange effects if you record and listen to stuff at the same time

there will be a way to sort it out properly
but it&#39;s just easier to mute your outputs, tbh

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## mollyrulz9999

> I have this simple Sound Recording/editing program called Audacity. I&#39;m sure someone round here knows it.
> Since quite some time now I&#39;ve been having problems recording:
> 
> When I record a Track it immediately gives feedback Sound Creating a terrible echo-effect. It&#39;s much like when using Audio-Conversations on MSN and having both the Microphone and Your Boxes-Volume turned up to the max. You know that sound. 
> 
> Now when I record Music I record 1 track, then I play it again while I record another piece of Music over it, playing on the beat of the 1st recorded track. Now that isn&#39;t possible anymore since that maddening Echo-effect turned up.
> 
> Can anyone who has any knowledge of Audacity tell me how I might stop this feedback echo effect from happening while I&#39;m recording a track?[/b]



Actually, that happened to me in Audacity once. It went like that, then the recording went slow and it echoed, then the computer shut down. Lost all my files.  :Sad:  You lucky guy it probably hasn&#39;t quitted on you yet lol.

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## pj

What you are hearing is the latency inherent in your sound card in combination with your drivers and computer. 

Make sure the "Software Playthrough" in preferences is not checked when recording and don&#39;t try monitoring through the computer&#39;s sound card.  You&#39;ll find your recording doesn&#39;t have an echo.

With Audacity, each subsequent track you add is going to have to be re-aligned because it doesn&#39;t auto-correct for latency.

You might want to download and try Reaper - it&#39;s uncrippled shareware, and a fantastic little tracking package with latency correction.  Audacity is really more of an editor than anything else - it just happens to be able to multi-track with some effort.  http://www.cockos.com/reaper/download.php

High-end sound cards use ASIO drivers to get that latency down to almost irrelevant... but you can make do with just about anything with a little fiddling around.

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## mollyrulz9999

lol, Reaper&#39;s pretty good, but It&#39;s a tad bit hard to understand. The sample song in it is the best&#33;  ::D:   :tongue2:

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