

If hardware playthrough is required, usually only needed for overdubbing, it is best to use an external USB or FireWire audio device that has a headphones jack for no-latency monitoring (such as the Behringer UCA 202 USB or Zoom H2 USB). Linux distributions specifically for music or media applications are likely to have JACK pre-installed, in which case low latency software playthrough can be configured in QjackCtl. ALSA has the optional alsaloop playthrough module in alsa-utils and PulseAudio has an optional module-loopback, but these modules may have noticeable latency and audio breakup. Linux: Most modern Linux systems use ALSA and Pulse Audio with no software playthrough module installed.This usually has less latency than Audacity's Software Playthrough. Windows: On some machines you can instead select your input in Windows "Sound", choose "Properties" then on the "Listen" tab, choose "Listen to this device".

