10 Reasons You Can't Hear Audio in Ableton Live

[@AroundtheBendBand-iw3jy]

Another reason which should be noted is that if you have a Plug-in turned on which does not have an active license or is not installed on your computer, the track on which that plugin is assigned will not play any audio. This issue drove me crazy! A bandmate put an EQ plugin on the master track and then sent me the session to work on. I opened it up on my computer (which was running the same Live 11 Suite) and everything was looking great. All the routing was correct, all inputs were active etc. Basically went through your 11 troubleshoots and could not figure it out. Finally I started to remove plugins to see if that would help and WALLA! While the plugin was still assigned to the track, I simply turned it off and the audio started to route to the master track again. Im sure others have had this issue so I wanted to share and hopefully save someone some time!

[@kayamoosic]

oh my god thank you

[@jimpurcell]

You have been lifted up to life-saver status!!! Coming over to Ableton from Logic Pro for a family project. My frustration level was high. Thanks for solving problems for me today!!!

[@jdstewart9689]

after watching numerous videos..yours was expert and accurate..got my audio issues completely fixed..thanks again Man!

[@pablofranciscodelamotatori9180]

One week full frustration because of back to arrange button was not disabled. Huge thanks for putting out this content!!

[@fromstudiotostage]

Glad to help!

[@jeffreyconboy1626]

i never sub on youtube but you solved two of my problems on two different videos in 5 minutes without wasting time with some cheeky banter. cheers you got a new sub

[@zlrichardson]

New user to Ableton Live and the "Back to Arrangement" button was the culprit preventing playback for me, thanks so much for posting this!

[@PallomaIzidio]

You helped me a lot, I was starting to feel overwhelmed and frustrated with this problem. Thank you very much!!!!

[@AndresonChikusebenzmusic]

Thank you so much for this video. My issue was different but it helped me solve my audio input problem. I was getting a signal but it was distorted. I don't know how, but I had managed to change the Mic settings to isolation instead of standard. I was so confused because it was only affecting Live. if you are having this issue as well, click the icon with orange light (not sure what it's called) at the top right corner. The menu has an icon called mic mode. If the mic icon is orange then it's in isolation mode. click the icon, change it to standard and the mic will be grey. I hope that it makes sense and that it helps someone else. I almost lost my mind.😆

[@INESHBUENO]

I cannot test it right now but your comment was the most helpful one. I'm having a huge problem recording audio (specially Instruments, because everytime I'm using XLR it works but if I change it to a jack - same input tho- I have a little signal but is just distortion) I can't test it atm but you gave me a little hope

[@VideoGeo55]

Excellent video! Very helpful. Thanks very much!

[@Kayb44]

Thank you very much... simple solution was right in front of my eyes.🙏

[@mmacak08]

You are great, and I am silly. Thank you for helping to realise I didn't load the MIDI sound, cause my sound was recorded, but not playing. Liked and Subscribed.

[@JM-pu8pl]

for sure the most complex video about sound issues with ableton thank you so much i can record with my midi but i never load a instrument because i though was needed once was signal on the track so im gona track everything on my laptop as i use windows 11 and ive got a ssl 2 interface and hopefully ill be cracking it on haha thanks alot

[@enonu]

Downloaded Ableton Live Lite and opened for the first time. Recorded from mic. Played back nothing. Google searched. Found this vid. Thank you.

[@fromstudiotostage]

So glad it helped!

[@lsuenaert]

Thanks. The first reason saved the world, or at least kept me from endless search mode

[@mybrotherskeeper2128]

The pesky orange button was my problem...thank you!🙏🏾

[@ZdenoMucina]

I didn't have the instrument loaded :) thanks, finally solved my issue

[@emiliehenriksdatter5238]

THANK YOU! One of these solutions solved the problem I was having :D

[@fromstudiotostage]

Glad I could help!

[@808BOT_Beats]

This is a amazing video I thought I was goin have to go buy a push 2 because my midi komplete m32 would start work but after workin in my second track it would stop playin

[@maryelljazz]

thank you this solved my issue 🥰🙏

[@chrisw1462]

Mute and Solo are even more insidious when they're hidden in the chain of an Instrument Rack / Effects Rack. Make sure to put everything back to normal before going on to another section (or worse, saving it that way, and wonder why it doesn't sound right when you load it back in the next day...).

[@fromstudiotostage]

Yeah that can be a major pain if you’re trying to track down an issue !

[@OYMInternetRadio]

Well done and thank you. Adding an instrument changed my orange to green! Another issue I still have, when I load Ableton on my laptop, I cannot play KZbin videos as the audio is obviously taken by Ableton. Is there a fix for this so I can hear audio in Ableton and external videos on KZbin?

[@ramoncordova3435]

So helpful! Thank you so much!

[@fromstudiotostage]

Thanks for watching and glad the video helped!

[@MichaelHonsinger]

There is at least one more reason: if you have multiple takes you may have one of the takes soloed. Every time you record over a part in a track it creates a new Take Lane. If your take lanes are hidden, right click beneath the name of your track (in arrangement view) and choose Show Take Lanes. Scroll down through the different lane and if one is soloed then the little speaker icon will be orange. Click the icon and voila; you’ll be able to hear again. You can’t access Take lanes when you’re in Automation Mode which is accessed at the top of the tracks to the left of the lock icon. It will be highlighted blue if turned on. Also if you are trying to paste into a track and it isn’t working check to see if you’re in Automation Mode!

[@allancerf9038]

Michael this is so kind of you. However, this is not the issue. The audio I can't hear is in Session View. I didn't use the new comp tool as I said. I did it the old fashioned way. What I FORGOT to mention is that after I recorded the solos into arrangement view FROM session view I used my CONSTANT favorite feature in Ableton for some time now - consolidate time to new scene. This creates as you know copies of the clips. Back in session view, the new scene has the guitar solo on it. But suddenly the audio stops. It is not muted in anyway, It plays a bit then stops. The .wav looks normal and is not damaged (I'll have to try playing it in another DAW). In reply to your other wonderful message, yes, comping is welcome but very late. I had it in Cubase years and years ago.

[@BuiltDifferent-i8e]

Thanks so much! You solved my issue :D

[@fromstudiotostage]

awesome!

[@orenm1454]

Yey you saved me. Thank you!

[@Critical-Vibrations]

I'm on MacOS, and in my case, I couldn't get audio into Live from my audio interface....I had to go into _System Preferences>Security & Privacy_ and even though Ableton Live was already authorized to use the microphone, I had to uncheck the box (deauthorize Live from using the mic) and check it again (grant permission to use the mic again). Also, I don't know if this part was necessary, but I also quit and restarted Live after each step, to make sure it recognized each change.

[@alexc2259]

Yes, def life saver. Thank you! (I had not loaded an instrument haha). Subscribed.

[@fromstudiotostage]

Thanks for the sub!

[@MA.musicwoman]

You saved my life!

[@CJFuentes]

Your a lifesaver!! Thank you!

[@fromstudiotostage]

you're welcome! Thanks for watching!

[@DamonZenDrummer]

I love your videos. Amazing job . Much respect and love

[@fromstudiotostage]

Thanks so much!

[@Da_k_King]

Thank you, big help!!!!

[@fromstudiotostage]

you're welcome!

[@vsell6595]

like your videos.very helpful to a newbie like me. can you recommend any training for Ableton and home studio recording?

[@fromstudiotostage]

Check out my buddy illFactor and Beat Academy!

[@Letty06la]

You are a life saver!

[@guitarwithjamesoffical]

Thank you!

[@themansplainers9927]

Thank you so much

[@cbakes777]

This was so helpful!!! Thank you!!!

[@fromstudiotostage]

Glad it helped! Thanks for watching!

[@ArtCarrasco-fk7wj]

Hello! Great video. I’ve checked everything but I can’t pick up any recording. I can only hear myself through my headphones what can that be? I’m using my Asus vivobook 14 laptop. Could that be the issue?

[@MichaelHonsinger]

Doubtful it’s your laptop. What kind of recording? MIDI, microphone, plugging direct?

[@lunalucas5995]

Thank you thank you !!!

[@jarekmn]

Some VST synths don't give sound when I am in its active window (Diva), difficult to browse presets. I have to activate the track. The track is armed all the time. In contrast, Thorn plays sounds, so it's easy to browse presets.

[@otoniels]

So I've search your videos and didn't found the 11th reason.. It never came out? I have checked everything in this video, even the interface is monitoring right and I still can't record anything via audio. It seems like a gate is enabled or something and it's annoying not being "able" to find why.. Great video, btw

[@Badong321]

Lifesaver!

[@anna-kaisasuvanto]

Thank you! Soososo incredibly helpful! 💖

[@fromstudiotostage]

I’m happy to help!

[@piposanchez]

I've recently started having an issue where sound will randomly cut out. I don't touch anything and it just stops until I relaunch. Then it works again. VERY FRUSTRATING and I can't seem to find any answers/solutions, other than restarting, which really slows down my workflow. Any ideas what this could be? Once it cuts out, I've tried choosing different output settings / audio devices, but nothing works. I still get a signal from my guitar but nothing out of the speakers (sound works fine in other apps).

[@ellaferguson9638]

hey im having this same problem, i have a mac. Did you figure it out?

[@DefektiveEnvy]

I’m still having trouble even when my audio output device is set as my focus right Scarlet. Ableton doesn’t seem to recognize it. There’s no green light indicating it’s hearing audio. I’ve played with settings on the audio page, but it’s just not working and I don’t know where to go from here.

[@benjaminmcelwain162]

I'm still having issues. I am receiving sound from Ableton, I can hear the metronome when I play it, but each track lacks sound. They are not muted and I am seeing no green in the mixer section on the right side of the screen. Instead, the mute button is grey as are the bars in the mixer section. I also do not have an audio effects window that pops up at all when I click on any track, the bottom area is an empty grey square. Any help would be appreciated. I am new to Ableton (I have lite) and probably hit the wrong button somewhere along the road.

[@K_wood]

I made a audio loop yesterday and was working fine but now when i jump back into the session im getting no sound what so ever from anywhere? My audio track wont play back and i cant hear any midi examples playing when i click on a set of drums or anything:(

[@Lumpygroovy]

Same here

[@Lumpygroovy]

Did you figure yours out?

[@K_wood]

@@Lumpygroovy yeah i did in the end mate, dont ask how😂it just…worked

[@daveo2992]

I'm still having issues, I've been told to use asio4all on Windoows 10 but it isn't giving me any sound back, I can see the sudio going in and recording but no sound is getting returned, but if i use MME/Directx I can see and hear my recorded audio

[@MichaelHonsinger]

Asio4all is a pain. You might need to open up asio4all’s controls which are very complicated and confusing. I used it years ago and it took a lot of putzing around to get it to work. Spare yourself the headaches and get something like Audiobox Usb96 which has built in Asio. It should be only $100 or less but well worth the money!

[@allancerf1232]

fromstudioto stage, excellent video. Just the guy I was looking for! I've used Live for years; am on the latest version of Suite 11, 11.1.6 build. I did a long solo and in arrangement mode, months ago, comped together the pieces I liked best. NOT using the new comp tool, I merely listened to the solo and when I found a section I like I looped it, then cut it out of the longer solo. So, I got out all the good bits, the rest of the solo is not usable. Then I found another long solo. It's 3-4 minutes long. There is a constant wave form runing through it. But say from .11-.22 it plays. Then it stops. There is no audio; the master channel meter falls to zero - then further down the track, it plays. Etc., etc. Obviously, the track is not muted nor is it visibly muted on the parts where there is no sound. Either this is a serious bug, or, moths ago, I somehow drew mute curves in from Arrangement view because I didn't like the parts that can't be heard and knew I couldn't use them. But there is no evidence of such volume mute curves 'drawn' in. Can you please provide an answer if you have time or a guess? Thanks!!

[@beaglebob4943]

Ditto, my hero, lol.

[@MichaelHonsinger]

When you record over a take it creates another Take lane. Rather than cutting and pasting you should right click below the name of your track and choose “show Take lanes” make sure you’re not in Automation Mode first. It’s the icon left of the lock icon at the top of your tracks above their names. When your Take lanes are visible and pen tool is selected (default with Take lanes)Just hit “b” If it isn’t, then just drag over to highlight which piece you want to be active and it is instantly pasted it into the track at the top of your lanes. It is amazingly quick and easy to piece various parts together seamlessly. I guarantee it’ll be your newest favorite feature in Ableton!! To solo a take lane click the speaker icon over in the section where the track names are and you’ll hear all the music but you’ll only hear that Take lane even if something else is pasted in the main track. Hope this helps.

[@sinabean9135]

Hey, I downloaded from the link and everything was working perfectly, but for some reason I can't unsolo my masters channel. The sound is being picked up for my guitar but not my mic. And the phantom powers on, but nothings recording. My interface is Behringer U-Phoria UM2. PLS HELP *waves white flag*

[@stevieathome4942]

When drawing one's attention to somewhere on the Ableton screen, the speaker voice over uses a little black cursor that is literally 1/4" on a desktop monitor screen and 1/8" on a laptop! Very difficult to follow when the cursor is barely visible.

[@apurvbhargava]

Thank you so much for this video. This was very useful. I spent tons of time trying to figure it out and this really made it simple

[@fromstudiotostage]

Glad it helped!

[@BeniaminKis]

still haven't heard your beautiful beautiful flute part. :))

[@fromstudiotostage]

haha.. trust me it's better that way

[@DamonZenDrummer]

Love the jazz flute reference! Made me think of Anchorman Will Farell

[@fromstudiotostage]

@@DamonZenDrummer such a great movie!

[@DjStatusss]

i added a completed wave file with instruments and vocal on it already mixed and now i want to remix loaded in bottom and i cant play it tried all here.

[@adirkse]

But how can I skip to any mid track and automatically play along with the loaded instrument, without hearing them all at ones? Now I first have to arm a track and if I wanna go to the next I have to arm that one... I've tried arming them all, but then you hear all different instrument when hitting the notes... If you "scroll” through the tracks in other DAW’s you (let’s say Tr1 Piano - Tr2 Bass) you hear them individually when doing so. What am I doing wrong?

[@fromstudiotostage]

Check out my video showing how to do that in arrangement view , and why I don’t like doing that

[@daniilbondar7895]

thank you so mucj=h!

[@fromstudiotostage]

Thanks for watching!

[@Musikmaker658]

Sorry to say but it doesn’t help for me. .I made a beat .Recorded vocals .Played the vocals back and back .Suddenly the audio of the vocal is being recorded but not played back .No monitoring .No mute/solo .No signal issue, no greys when recording .No master solo/mute .MIDI is not the issue as we are talking voice recording here .Everything else works fine the microphone records as well .opening a new file, I cannot reproduce the problem I have encountered most problems you have talked about before and wasn’t expecting them to help anyway. Sadly my suspicion was proven right. I can work around this issue it seems but if this turn out to be a permanent problem it’s going to be a big one. The only point of error I can see is that right before the issue I was hitting the record button "blindly" (hovering with my index over the hotkey) That’s the only point where I have lacked oversight. Is there any hotkey I might have fat-fingered in the f9-f12 region?

[@louisbenx721]

You the man !!!

[@fromstudiotostage]

Happy to help!

[@outpost31737]

Why on earth are my wav files not playing on my keyboard. I got these from Ghost Hack. I've added a string wav to an audio track but there is no sound.

[@thebreakroom4195]

I can hear it when I play but it won't record and multiple videos haven't helped. So frustrating

[@JuanMaTeJuega]

I can only hear the playback from my Piano/Midi device. But I can't listen to playback from the software. I have headphones connected and can't hear anything.

[@Unknown2theworld2x]

I recorded a song I can hear a beat but not the lyrics what’s wrong?

[@WithHeroes]

Thanks man

[@BoeJiden-dg4rm]

My problem is I get signal in and it shows it's being played, but I get no sound at all through the interface, sound comes from the laptop itself or if I plug headphones into the laptop but I cannot figure a way to get the sound through the interface, followed all the steps correctly as well but no sound.

[@fromstudiotostage]

you'll have to check the control software for your interface

[@discoHR]

What to do if Ableton Live records super quiet audio (about -60, sounds like it's ducking it for some reason) from all audio interfaces but Logic Pro, Garage Band and Audacity all record perfectly fine from the same audio interfaces?

[@fromstudiotostage]

my guess is you've got "isolate audio" turned on in Mac for your microphone in Ableton. Disable that and you're set

[@discoHR]

@@fromstudiotostage Actually, it started working couple of days ago as soon as there was something playing through that input before selecting the same input in Ableton. When there was silence at that specific moment then it never worked correctly. Weird bug, I guess. Started happening with MacOS Sonoma. Thanks anyway.

[@bakaboi3086]

Lmao solved my issue within two minutes. Thank you :')

[@fromstudiotostage]

Happy to help!

[@coyoteserranoband]

Hey I thought to my self, why can't i see macro audio waves in Ableton? Like the crests and troughs ??

[@MichaelHonsinger]

Are you in session view? Hit ran to get to arrangement view

[@GalaxiaDeFavio]

I found the problem It wasn't well conected to the adapter

[@paulemerson4090]

Legend

[@fromstudiotostage]

thanks for watching!

[@masterreif]

There is another reason why you cannot hear anything. I don't know exact the reason, but I solved the problem. All was configured wright, but I could not hear anything. I restarted ableton live, but no success. For the audio I configured my FM9 as Audio Interface. Normally I should here something through my phones, which I plugged-in in the FM9. But this time, nothing to hear. I checked the audio setup in the fm9 and it also looked fine. So what helped me to hear something? I restarted the fm9. And then the fm9 gave me sound. So maybe, the connection via usb-midi cable does not work. I don't know why this happens, but a restart of the device can help.

[@fromstudiotostage]

Restart always works wonders!

[@ArthurKlisiewicz]

You forgat one other reason. ABLETON has bugs ! I have a project which worked perfectly fine (30+ tracks). Opened it month later - no sound ! All the meters are active. Finally I restored another older version and everything works. ABLETON SUCKS in that respect !

[@jmatthewsas]

For the life of me, I can't get midi to show up. So frustrating

[@Anthony-so1nw]

This did not help

[@alexanderalbayero1055]

did u ever figure it out bro i need help did everything he told us to still nothing

[@all-stargamingentertainmen1157]

I can't hear my vocals and the beat at the same time.

[@andersonjonathan3325]

damn ableton is a land full of mystery

[@BigChinaski]

Thanks bruv. An unrelated note, respect yourself and others, clip those guitar strings.

[@fromstudiotostage]

Nah... Live Free.. I haven't been clipping them for over 10 years... never going back :)

[@sergetalianski3290]

?

[@jesusvillalobos5447]

Rip kmart😅

[@xDearLy]

12 mins? wtf are you talking about in that hours?

[@fromstudiotostage]

i ask myself everyday wtf i'm talking about. Thanks for watching and thanks for commenting. Have an awesome day!

[@Hasserfyllt]

please make chapters - especially for videos like this. its almost 13 minutes long, jeez, i just wanna know what i may have missed out already. won't watch it.

[@HurryUpandDie]

I’m sure this comment keeps him up at night.

[@RyanWeaver-i3j]

so far i hate ableton compared to logic or fruity loops. total buttcheeks

[@johnschmidt2670]

I still can't hear sound. Your flute jokes were so annoying I'm not going to even watch your "bonus" video.

[@fromstudiotostage]

Thanks John! Have a great weekend

[@AngeloBetrulas]

@@fromstudiotostage Well, I loved the flute jokes! But...I still can't hear my audio (midi or audio) even after your great video. Trying to hear my HPD20 Handsonic through Live 10. More than a little frustrating. (Maybe I should stick to recording Jazz Flute only. )

[@matthewarendse1913]

If this helps bro, I was struggling to preview sounds on ableton. What needed to happen was the headphone icon below the inventory of sounds needed to be turned on.

[@BenzoConzo]

Watched this whole video then realised my speakers were just muted lol