Question: How do I monitor the microphone audio when using an AT2020USB+ or audio interface?

Answer: You have an AT2020USB+ microphone and want to sing or perform a voice-over along with a prerecorded track. But when you do you discover a delay or a reverb sound, making it impossible to record. So how do you fix this?

What you are hearing is called latency. It takes a bit of time for audio to be digitized and processed during recording, which introduces a bit of delay in the audio. There really is no way around this other than to monitor the audio from the microphone before it is processed and recorded. So how do you go about this?

First, make sure that you have turned off monitoring of your input in whatever recording program you are using. All recording programs have this option, so consult the documentation for your program to learn how to turn the monitoring off.

The 1/8" (3.5 mm) headphone jack on the rear of the AT2020USB+ allows you to directly monitor your voice on its way into the computer – before it is processed and without the delay that occurs when monitoring through your computer’s headphone output or through your recording application. It will also allow you to hear prerecorded material from the computer. When your preliminary setup is completed, and your AT2020USB+ microphone is connected to your computer’s USB port (the microphone’s blue LED is illuminated), plug your headphones into the headphone jack on the rear of the microphone. While talking into the microphone, you should hear yourself in the headphones.

While recording, the AT2020USB+ allows you to monitor previously recorded tracks as well as the new audio going into the microphone itself. There is a Mix Control on the microphone that lets you control which is louder, the microphone or the prerecorded audio from your computer. To adjust the Mix Control to balance levels of live and prerecorded audio, turn the Mix Control dial towards COM (computer) to hear more prerecorded audio; turn the dial towards MIC (microphone) to hear more of your voice or instrument in the mix.

Now for audio interfaces. Almost all audio interfaces that you use to connect an analog microphone to a computer have the exact same mix control function as the AT2020USB+ built into them. How the functions are labeled on a particular interface may be different, but they perform in exactly the same way. (For additional information, see our previous post on USB audio interfaces.)

Hopefully, you now have a better understanding of how to monitor your microphone when recording into a computer. As always, feel free to contact the Audio-Technica Audio Solutions Department for more information.