hldj.org

1) Does HLDJ launch the game correctly for you? Yes
2) Does "HLDJ Loaded Successfully" appear in console on starting the game (with no errors)? Yes
3) What is the console output after selecting a song, or issuing other HLDJ commands such as "hldj_next"? Host_WriteConfiguration: Wrote cfg/hldj_cmd_c.cfg
Loaded : Erectin a River
4) Create your own local server and set the appropriate sv_ commands (see above), then:
4-a) Load one of the sample audio files and perform a search of your Steam directory (without stopping HLDJ) for the file "voice_input.wav" - does it show up, and if so, where? Yes, in the team fortress 2 folder.
4-b) If it exists, open it in an audio player: does it sound like the audio file you loaded? Yes
4-c) If it exists, return to the game, and enter the following into console:
voice_inputfromfile 1; voice_loopback 1; voice_forcemicrecord 0; voice_modenable 1; voice_enable 1; +voicerecord
Does the audio file start to play? No
5) Does voice normally work for you? If not, or you do not have a microphone, have you remembered to set up any applicable options in your operating system and/or the game? **
No, yes

Whenever I decide to use hldj with tf2, I currently have to plug something into one of the microphone jacks. After I enter a server (personal or not) I can use it. If I disconnect and rejoin or the map changes HLDJ will no longer work as I have tried pressing the audio key I have set. I've tried troubleshooting this issue in a personal server and have set sv_use_steam_voice to 0 and sv_allow_voice_from_file to 1 yet with no results. I have also tried the following:
- closing HLDJ and delete any ".hldj" files you find in the Steam directory
- turning off Steam Cloud (in case it's trying to restore config files it shouldn't be)
- re-download and re-install both the game and HLDJ
- testing it on another game
I assume it's the computer detecting that there is nothing in the jack and preventing hldj from playing audio of any kind. Help would be appreciated.

your assumption is probably correct. The game for sure checks on start-up if a microphone is present (and disables voice comm if not), but it's possible it also checks on every map load. You can either leave whatever you plugged in in permanently or dig around either Steam's voice options, the games voice options, or preferably your operating systems Recording options to force it to always enable a recording interface even if none is present. See the note on step 5 in the sticky.

It seems you set me on the right track. Apparently there was no stereo mixer drive in this computer which was apparently what I needed to force the computer to always enable the recording interface (which a friend brought to my attention). Thanks for the help you could offer.