Help!!

Oooh, the mobile post worked. Nice.
-coughs-
On to business!
Now, I realise that the reason why, although humans improve greatly after hearing their recorded voices ( nothing's as healthy for a novice singer as a good audio slap in the face screaming "DUDE YOU SUCK BUT YOU CAN FIX THIS SO NO YOU DON'T SUCK THAT BAD YET BUT YEAH FOR NOW YOU SUCK" which was exactly how I started off -_-b ), you guys are saying you can't hear the recordings, that the timings are off because Audacity lags, etc etc.
You can fix this with a bit of basic mixing. Hopefully, with this, you can hear yourself better, and pick up on parts to improve, parts that are good, and parts that stink as much as cheese in M.Lee's laundry basket.

Firstly, let's tackle the "OMFG I CAN'T HEAR MYSELF OVER THE MUSIC THE MUSIC IS TOO LOUD AND IT'S YOUR FAULT BECAUSE YOU TOLD ME TO PUT MIC SENSITIVITY TO 0.4 INSTEAD OF 1.0 OOOH LET'S DO THAT NOW-"
I will tackle you, burn you, marinate you, and feed you to Hachune Miku. Srsly.
I tell you to put it at 0.4/0.5 for a reason, darlings. The reason: mic sensitivity ≠ recorded volume. Mic sensitivity is the "strength" of the recording it picks up. If the mic's sensitivity is set to 1.0 and you sing, say, Love is War, your ears will face a lot of pain and suffering. Additionally, your sexy/powerful "AAAAAAAAAAAAAH" will go to waste. Lowering mic sensitivity ensures that all your audio is still picked up, but spiking does not occur while the volume remains the same. If you can't hear yourself even slightly, you're possible not singing loudly enough. Half of loudness comes from energy, while the other comes from your own willingness to actually open your mouth and enunciate.

If you're curious, what I'm saying is "Testing testing 123".
The first chunk is Mic Sens 1.0. The second chunk is Mic Sens 0.4.
As you can see, there's not a single difference in volume, but a slight difference in "softness". These frequency lines depict your frequency range, which is not exactly your loudness/softness.
(Pssst. If your singing is that size, go jump down a building. Naah. Just... If it's not optimally:

then ooh, mixer-kun is going to tsundere-slap you.
Also, the words are wrong - the waves shouldn't be any higher than that, and if they're a little lower, they're good too. Whoops.)

Someone's mic sensitivity having to be higher than yours does not mean you suck. Mic sensitivity does not 100% rely on your projection ability, and is about 40% reliant on your frequency range, which has nothing to do with skill. Additionally, if you're recording halfway through and then you see that OMFG IT'S SPIKING LIKE THERE'S NO TOMORROW don't lower your singing volume, lower your mic sensitivity by 0.2. If you're at 0.6 and it spikes, try 0.4, and if it spikes, try 0.25. So on so forth.

Yume: 0.4, plzthx, because your mic is a special case, ack. You can do your amp by 2.4, plus minus a bit Nothing over 4.
Ahika: 0.5 for your current headset mic. Will update when you get a new one and send me a demo.

Ryuji: 0.5, congratulations on having a new headset.

Choco: 0.5 for now, turns out I can't lend a headset to you because it's gone wtf. Good job parents.

Secret Guest: 0.4 because your room is super weird/awesome and soundproof.

Me: 0.4, yaay.

Next, getting your recording to be hearable! :D

There are various mixer techniques ranging from simple to complicated to a mixture of both, but since we don't want you making mistakes (a mixer's job is not only to make you sound good, but to make you blend with others) that will make your mic stand out too much, let's do it the "other way round".

Do this for the karaoke track, not your recording. + obviously means an increase in volume, - is the other way round. Adjust your karaoke soft enough so that you can hear both the recording and the karaoke equally. Now, your recording can be heard! And if you think, "Why not max my recording instead of the karaoke track? If I minimise the karaoke, it'll be so sooooft", there's a counter for that. 1: Likely chance you'll forget to push it back to the middle if it's on the recording. 2: Your recording will drop in clarity and quality. 3: If you save it with the lever not in the middle, you're going to have to redo it (or fix it if, luckily, Audacity is still open). 4: Better to hear good vocals over good karaoke music. 5: Just follow the instructions lah, it'll make your life better too. -_-b

Now, on to the problem with Audacity giving you lag.

First, zoom in on your recording with the magnifying glass tool by about 2-3 quick clicks.

Then, select the Time Shift Tool and grab your track and drag it as shortly a distance as you can towards the left.

Press the button next to the green play button in the above picture, play, see if it's in timing. If it's gone too "in front" or "behind", adjust accordingly. If you find that the singing starts at the perfect timing, but somewhere along inside the recording something is off-timing, it's a personal mistake. Very occasionally it's a technological mistake, but that won't happen if you close all under-running programmes that cause lag, like MSN, your IE/Firefox/Safari/WTFari, the likes.

Hope this post has helped.

♥