Hear yourself while recording?

[Pbas43]

Hello all, I am a beginner to the world of audio and Pro Tooks so forgive me if this is a dumb question with a simple answer. I am using Pro Tools 11 with an Mbox solo, how do I set it up so I can hear myself while I am recording? Also how can I set it up so I can hear myself with an effect while I'm recording (like Autotune or reverb). And preferably with as little to no latency as possible.

Thanks, and try not to be too harsh on me with crazy audio terms as I'm a beginner and might get confused, lol.

[themightyjaymoe]

I would start by researching studio monitors. You can find a reasonably priced pair for under 200 bucks. I have a fast track solo so they may or may not be similar. You can set up your system to use your interface as your sound output so all your computer audio will go through your monitors. I'm on my iphone right now but when I'm at my mac i'll pm you some links with resources that might answer your questions. I'm sure others can chime in if they think their might be a better fit. It's not difficult just a little complicated. I'm sure you'll get it.

[albee1952]

For sure, you will want some monitors, but for hearing while tracking, you need some headphones. They don't need to be great, but you should get closed-back phones so that sound from the phones doesn't get picked up by the microphone. Some interfaces include monitoring/routing software so check the manual on that. The simplest way is to listen to everything FROM the session. To do that and not be distracted by delay, you should set the buffer as low as you can. Different interfaces offer different buffer settings, but they should all include 128, 256, 512, etc. Using a 128 buffer(or lower if available) will make the latency(time it takes for audio to enter, convert to digital, get processed, convert back to analog and out to the phones) small enough so you don't perceive a big delay. Let the learning begin

[Darryl Ramm]

You dont' have an Mbox Solo, there is no such thing, you might have an FastTrack Solo.

read what was said above and start by just creating a session, creating a stereo audio track, and dragging your favorite MP3 or similar file onto that track and gettign that to play back before you try anything else. Then try creating a mono audio track, assigning the input of that track to the mic input on the Solo and you must record enable that track to hear (click the red record enable button/light, it needs to be blinking) anything. If things still do not work as expected try toggling Track>Auto Input to Track>Input Only.

And you should also understand the function of the direct button on the Solo, that gets you zero latency monitoring via the interface hardware. Start at the product documentation. But if you want to hear what you are tracking with effects from Pro Tools you have to use software monitoring through Pro Tools (as described above) not direct monitoring. So its a common trade off of tracking with plugins vs. latency.

Being able to track reliably with a small buffer size/low latency software monitoring is especially dependent on you having a proper spec system, with the computer properly set up and optimized (described in the Pro Tools install documentation).

[Pbas43]

Thanks guys, I do have a good pair of headphones, some 150$ pair of closed back Sony's I forget the model. And I've recorded but basically I've just never been able to hear my voice in the headphones as I'm recording it. I dunno what settings to play with or if I need extra hardware or what. That's all really.

[Darryl Ramm]

I just described the settings to play with and pointed you at the user documentation... and you tried all that? What exactly did not work as expected/described/documented? Describe what instructions you are following and exactly what you are doing and exactly what happens, include screen shots of your mixer window showing all tracks and their inputs and outputs, legible enough to read the text. You should be starting with a new empty session to make things easy.