Problem with echo when using microphone

[AlamedaTom]

Good new and bad news!

First the good news. As an angst-ridden newbie I was really sure that when I installed my new M-Audio Audiophile 192 card, and thereafter installed Cakewalk Home Studio 2, nothing would work right, or worse that my whole computer would crash and burn.

Well, I am elated to report that everything works just peachy except for the "bad" discussed below. I did all of the Cakewalk digital audio tutorials, which were loads of fun. In addition, I used my new Behringer B-1, with ART MP tube amp to record an acoustic guitar track, which really turned out nice.

The bad news is that when I tried to record a second track vocal while listening to the guitar track on headphones, I got a pretty horrible lag between what I was singing into the mic and what I was eventually hearing through the phones. The end recording had no lag between the two tracks, but the vocal of course fell apart because I could not stay with the guitar track hearing my voice in echo.

My phones are plugged into the left main out of the M-Audio 192 breakout.

Today, I tried just arming a digital audio track and talking into the mic, and I got the same echo effect. Obviously, I'm doing something wrong here because my M-Audio literature boasts of no latency, and I am using a 3 ghz processor with lots of memory and disk space. If I can wrestle this last problem to the ground, I will be a happy and satisified camper, but I obviously need some help here. How can I hear the input from my microphone through my earphones in real-time? I need to hear what's coming out of my lips and what what's coming into the phones in the same instant, and that sure ain't happening now!

The solution-bringer will have my undying gratitude.

Tom