Hearing audio and microphone at the same time through headphones

[DatBoyDOG]

Okay, Ive purchases tascam with cubase
Heres the ProblemO

I have hooked up a microphone to the tascam us-122L , i can hear the audio music playing off the cubase but i can not hear the microphone and audio at the same time through the headphones, does anybody know if i need something else to hear the mic and music through the headphones at the same time? If you dont understand what im saying and you know alot about this devices i would really appreciate it if you could ask me to better explain this to you so i can figure this out :] thanks
-His Gal'

[brandondrury]

i can hear the audio music playing off the cubase but i can not hear the microphone and audio at the same time through the headphones

Do you have the "monitoring" button pressed?

There are a few monitoring button options. You should check the manual to see which one you prefer.

[jwhyrock]

I believe my question will be along the same lines as the original post. I'm new to the forums so I'm just jumping in here.

First off I don't record anything at the moment, but please refrain from ostracizing me as I do have desire to do so when I have a bit more research done, software/equipment, etc. It's a future project which I would like to be what I do all the time. I've grown up on music from the age of 4 on as my dad was a prominent radio DJ in SF when DJ's actually did something other than press buttons. I love music and have a very diverse collection. I am listening to Daft Punk at the moment.

All that being said I am an avid gamer, and I currently play an online game that utilizes voice chat as the primary form of communication (DDO - Dungeons & Dragons Online - Stormreach). I have a pair of Sennheiser HD 280s which I love, and I know they are not top of the food chain for headphones, but I broke them in over several weeks of cranked music on shuffle and let me tell you for those that haven't tried it and poo poo these headphones they sound pretty great. I also have a pair of Ultrasones HFI 780 on the way.

Finally to my actual question. Is it possible to be able to hear my voice through my headphones. If you are familiar with my Sennheisers they do a great job of noise cancellation which makes it difficult to use my mic and hear myself. I am not one to go the cheap route and get a headset with mediocre sound just to have the mic attached. I have a $7 Zalman mic and as ridiculous as it sounds it projects crystal clear sound and attaches to my phones. Surprisingly highly rated among mics. Why it's so cheap I have no idea.

Bottom line I have an attachable mic to my Sennheiser headphones and would like to be able to hear myself speak through my headphones.

Any suggestions?

My friend and I were discussing the possibility of getting a splitter and plugging my mic into them and then having one end to the mic input and the other to the line in. No idea if that is an option.

Edit: I may have posted my question in the wrong place so I will post this elsewhere and feel free to delete this. Sorry.

[tatteredstudios]

as Brandon asked, do you have the monitoring button pushed...it's the little button that looks like a speaker on the left side of your track that you are recording on.

[jwhyrock]

No there is no track. I am not using any sound recording software. In my case I am playing an online game and have a mic for voice chat & headphones because they're nice. Most people go for a headset for this kind of thing, but in my case I have an attachable mic and my headphones.

Trying to get a previous mic to work I fiddled with all my bare bones basic Soundmax options from my onboard sound. There are no options that I am aware of that would toggle mic sound for anything other than being muted or not.

No track being recorded. I also recognize this is probably the wrong thread for my question so I also posted in the misc area. Either way if you're able to help I appreciate it of course.

As far as I know maybe there shouldn't be any sound with my current set up as I just have my mic plugged into the mic jack. I think with headsets they must have the mic signal via wire going to the headset and then also to the computer.

[jwhyrock]

Ok Tattered I see where you were going with this. I'm a moron. Even though you were referring to a different setup it's the same thing. Yes the mute was on in my lame ass soundmax which explains why I couldn't hear myself on the mic. Mute wasn't on on my voice going in just on me hearing it.

LOL sorry to sound like a schmuck. I got it to work on my game and that was really the issue, and it made a huge difference. I appreciate the help man!

[tatteredstudios]

not a problem !

[jwhyrock]

So for all my envious naysayers who kept saying well there is a simple solution to your problem, buy a headset! I have proven them wrong. Now I have my own headset and to put it mildly it is usable. =)

I have a pair of Ultrasone HFI-780s on the way any day I should receive them. Why I would feel the need to buy another pair of headphones when I have perfectly good Sennheiser HD 280s, I love em', who knows?

I think I convinced myself that I would use the HD 280's for work and the Ultrasones for home, but I am not about to leave my 280's at work so really that doesn't make sense lol. I think what will happen is I will use my 280's for work and ferry them back and forth each day in protective bag (Rammstein mini rucksack which is cool) and definitely not move the Ultrasones around as they are the higher end pair.

Pretty good headset imo.

[brandondrury]

In recording land, there are two options. You can send a mic to a mixer as well as the audio output from the previous tracks to that mixer, combine them, and feed your headphones or you can combine the signals within the recording software itself (including the mic being recorded) and run that to the headphones.

In your case, I know nothing about the software, but I'm a confident a cheap mixer would do the job. You just have to make sure the mixer allows you to send your voice to the computer without sending the audio out of the computer back into the computer. Does that make sense?

Brandon

[jwhyrock]

Absolutely it makes sense. My situation pertained to mixing/recording in the sense that a microphone and audio output was involved. lol. For a game... Sorry to post that kind of question here. Especially considering how ridiculously easy the solution was. I just wasn't being thorough with the new mic I got. I will eventually get into actual mixing/recording music (not singing or playing an instrument myself). It's a bit of a long term goal as I won't be able to get any new toys/software for some time. I am very interested when I can though. Most of the music I listen to more frequently is electronic ranging from Manson/Rammstein to Enigma, Moby, Depeche Mode etc. Of course DJs and a very wide range of music.