No Sound? Start Here

Silence always has an address — somewhere between the source and your ears, one link in the chain is broken. This checklist walks the signal path from start to finish; at each step, a meter tells you whether sound made it that far. Work top to bottom and you will find the break.

source → channel INPUT meter → channel VU → routing → bus VU → device → ears

1. Is the engine running?

Look at the status bar (bottom). It must say Running | 48000 Hz | ….

Says Stopped → press ▶ in the monitor bar (top right).
A ⚠ next to the engine buttons → hover it; the message usually names the problem (often a missing device).

2. Does sound reach the channel? (INPUT meter)

SELECT the silent channel and open its HOME tab. Watch the INPUT meter while the source makes noise.

INPUT meter dead? The source isn't arriving. Check on the SETUP tab:

A device/process is actually selected (not — none —).
The dropdown doesn't show ⚠ … — disconnected — if it does, reconnect the device or pick another.
PHYS (microphone): is it muted on the hardware? Does another app have exclusive control of it? Check Windows Settings → Privacy → Microphone access.
APP: is the program running and actually playing sound? Click ↺ to refresh the process list, and try enabling Include child processes — browsers and games often play audio from a helper process.
LOOP: is anything currently playing on the captured device?

INPUT meter moves → the source is fine; continue.

3. Does sound leave the channel? (strip VU)

Look at the channel strip's VU meter in the mixer.

Fader all the way down? Double-click it to reset to 0 dB.
M lit? Unmute.
Is some other channel soloed? Solo mutes everything else — check the monitor bar: if ● CLR SOLO is lit, click it to clear all solos.
Did the GATE eat the signal? On the HOME tab's signal-flow strip, see whether GATE is ON. A threshold set too high silences quiet sources — open the gate panel and lower THRESH (or switch the gate off to test).
A ⭐ Premium badge on the channel? It's locked by your plan and won't pass audio — free a slot or upgrade (Accounts & Premium).

4. Is the channel routed anywhere?

Open the Routing matrix (menu bar). Find the channel's row and confirm the crossing point with your output bus (usually Main L+R) is enabled. While you're there, check the channel's SENDS tab — a send pulled fully down is an effective mute for that bus.

5. Does the bus produce sound? (bus VU)

Look at the output bus strip on the right.

Bus VU moves but you hear nothing → continue to step 6; the mix is fine, delivery isn't.
Bus VU dead despite a live channel → the bus is muted, its fader is down, or the routing/send from step 4 still isn't feeding it.

6. Is the bus reaching a real device?

SELECT the bus → SETUP tab:

A device is selected under Output Device, and it isn't marked ⚠ disconnected.
The device itself: powered on, cable seated, hardware volume up? (Bluetooth headphones love to reconnect to a phone instead.)
Windows side: the device isn't muted in the system mixer?

7. Are you monitoring the right thing?

The monitor section can fool you into hearing silence that isn't there:

MONITOR dropdown set to a different bus than the one you're testing — or to — none —.
Monitor VOL at the bottom, or DIM engaged (its button glows when active).

Still silent?

Restart the engine: ⏹, wait a beat, ▶. This clears most transient device weirdness.
Restart the app (right-click the tray icon → Quit, then relaunch) — remember ✕ only minimizes to tray by default.
Still stuck? Ask on Discord — include what the meters did at each step above; that's exactly the information that makes it solvable.

stuck? ask on Discord