monitoring without recording???

[mcuosver]

so, i recently upgraded from Audacity to Reaper Free Trial. i wanna do an overdub like with two guitar parts such that i record Track A first, then record Track B on top of Track A. however, when i record Track B, it seems to record the earlier track as well. is this something to do with my monitoring settings? i brought this back to Audacity, and realized the same problem, how did I not notice this before...

eg.
1.Track A->record->done
2.Track B->record(records what i'm playing + Track A in the background)->done[Track B+Track A mixed = very noisy]

btw,i record with line in direct to pc from my amp's output.

 

[Fauxfire]

Hmmn... Did you disarm the first track prior to recording the second track?
If not, when u start recording on the second track, it might overlap the first track as well, hence making it "noisy".

 

[mcuosver]

yea, Fauxfire bro, i disarmed first track before recording track 2. anyways, i tried putting a usb soundcard from my old headset between guitar cable and pc, and tweaked the driver settings under Audio, now the recordings dun overlap. but now got new problem - there is a huge delay during recording.
like for eg. i hit record for the first track and then play my guitar , abt 2 secs later then the recording start registering in Reaper, recording my 8th bar or more in my progression. its worse when i aadd another track - never even record.

btw this is not the usb thing, monitoring wise,i still get that mini delay everyone always associates with usb interfaces. the delay during recording is more unstable

update: man i realize when my reaper is doing playback, the tracker(that line in the time line that shows u which bar u're at) is spasming - it goes forward,then jumps back and moves back forward again. after awhile becomes normal.

 

[xfigox]

I think the problem might be that the track might be recording what ever that is coming out of your speakers, and since you are hearing the 1st track being played back, it might be picking that up too. One way to check is to mute the 1st track and try recording again.

Check if the input is the mic/line in, also you can try to turn off the stereo mix thingy(depending on your soundcard), in control panel, sounds.

 

[mcuosver]

cheers xfig, that stero mix thing worked

 

[xfigox]

Glad it worked for you