since this is the place for stupid questions...

[Big Shot]

this is makin me feel stupid so I need some help.

first the problem(s)
I can't hear myself recording, or my recordings get beat noise.

heres what I'm workin with.
regular xp computer with cool edit
yamaha mixer
behringer ucontrol usb interface
a crappy mic(for now, but I'm positive this doesn't have anything to do with it)
2 rca audio cords that have headphone jacks on them
and some headphones

set up 1 is like this (can't hear self while recording)
mic to mixer to rca cable to line in/ usb interface to headphones.

set up 2 is like this (recording with beat noise)
mic to mixer to rca cable to line in/ usb interface to mixer to headphones

I have cool edit set to record from the stock sound card in mono thru the left channel(can't remember where, but I heard it was better to record this way and mix down to stereo)

I read on the cool edit forum something about cool edit not lettin you hear yourself while recording unless you have a duplex soundcard or unless you tap into the mic signal before it gets to the computer. so I set it up the 2nd way to do this and when I record for some reason it records the beat with the vocal even if I turn the volume all the way down for the beat channel on the mixer. I'm gettin frusterated. please somebody help.

 

[TheChikenMaster]

why not do setup one with one ear not in the headphones you might hear yourself.

 

[Big Shot]

lol

I do that at times man, but I want to get a happy middle ground. so I can hear both the beat and my voice thru the headphones(I just got a nice pair of sennheiser closed back studio headphones. lol)

if someone could suggest a way for me to hook up my exsiting equipment to do this that would be awesome, or help me find a good reasonably priced soundcard that would do this. my range is between 25-75 bucks for what I can spend on this. I'm tryin on my own to find one aswell, but I'm not really that tech savvy.

 

[johnnymegabyte]

Does your Yamaha mixer have direct outputs for each channel ?

I have been using my Yamaha 4-track MT3X as a mixer into my Pentium 4 and I have the Behringer UFO202 USB interface. It has the headphone jack with Volume control (bonus feature)
Inputs from channel 1&2 to Behringer Line IN and Behringer Line Out to 5&6 of the mixer. I am contemplating adding another Behringer to 3&4 for 4-track to PC recording. Others have reported it works.
5&6 can be on or off, depending if it's for recording or playback, and whether monitoring is On or Off in you recording software.

1. use ASIO4ALL drivers
2. Make sure you turn "On" Monitoring in your DAW software. I use REAPER. Uncrippled Demo version, too.

I also have a SB Audigy ZS soundcard, and you could have the output coming back through your soundcard. Optional. Behringer USB can do it all.