Hearing yourself as you play is called input monitoring. This is a completely software dependent issue. For example “Sound Recorder”, the recording program that comes with the Microsoft operating system that lets you record a short clip, does not allow for input monitoring. You can only hear yourself during playback. GarageBand on Apple however has input monitoring built in. You just need to make sure that you turn it on when creating a new track or you can go back into track info and turn it on after creating the track. Each piece of software is going to be different; this is why the splitter is built into the LightSnake cable. This way you can connect a standard guitar cable between the splitter and your guitar amp and use your amp for real time monitoring.