I want my microphone to directly output to my laptop's speakers. I'm able to do something along these lines by recording then playing, but I want to do it live.
Any suggestions how to do this?
In Windows 7:
1) Right click on the speaker icon 🔊
in your system tray (bottom right of your screen). Go to Recording devices
.
2) Locate your microphone in the list. I am assuming it is not disabled as you mentioned examples of it working previously. Right click, go to Properties
. (Or double click the same Microphone entry)
3) Switch to the "Listen"
tab, check off "Listen to this device"
. While Listen is checked, your microphone will be audible through your speakers, and in a more advanced facet, through stereo mix. So if you wanted to record your Mic and Stereo Mix, this is how you would do it, but at the expense of being able to still hear your mic (it throws most people off, like myself).
If you're using Windows, you probably need to un-mute the microphone. Go to Start -> All Programs -> Accessories -> Entertainment -> Volume Control. Uncheck the "Mute" box for Microphone. If you don't see a slider for the Microphone, go to Options -> Properties and check Microphone under "Show the following volume controls".
You have to take your time to find those options in your sound driver. Those who are using IDT HD sound drivers can go to the Recording menu, available on top of the main menu.
You will be provided with 3 options like
Go to an option of your choice and check "input monitor" (listen through the playback device).
I'm pretty sure he wants something akin to monitor speakers. Those are the speakers they place in front of the musicians onstage so they can hear what the microphones are hearing.
Depending on your audio drivers, this is possible. Usually, there is a separate tab under the Microphone's properties. There will be a setting like "I want to hear this device" and it will let you choose a default output device for your microphone.