It’s happened to all of us: you’re in the middle of a session, everything’s flowing, and you’re in the creative zone. You quickly use your DAW to record a flowing melody, lay down a virtual instrument part, or capture a killer guitar riff. But—suddenly—for no obvious reason, you can’t hear what it is you’re trying to hear. You tickle the keyboard controller and…nothing. You “check—one—two” on the mic and it’s quieter than an anechoic chamber. You try to playback your vocal track through your “hit single” effects chain and the only thing you hear is your computer humming away. At this point, even crickets would be a welcome reprieve from the deafening void. You run through the troubleshooting checklist in your mind and hope it’s something easy. Mute? Solo? Wrong input? Nada. Nothing. Complete silence. So, what do you do when you’re in the middle of an important session and you just can’t make a sound?
There are almost a hundred reasons for silence in a typical DAW setup. Think about everything that could go wrong from sound source to monitor output. From the time it takes to open a session and become immersed in the sonic world of the song, the probability of making little engineering mistakes is high. Something technical is bound to go wrong, especially if creative frenzy has banished left-brain thinking into the naughty corner.
Speaking as someone who is simultaneously a songwriter, engineer, producer, AND performer, sometimes I don’t have the tenacity necessary to successfully unify all four personas with terminator-like precision. Usually the technical hat is the first to blow off into sloppy land. When something goes wrong, I am not in the frame of mind to systematically troubleshoot that kind of issue.
To help me stay in the zone, with minimal tech-think, I’ve compiled a simple checklist of categories of the myriad of things that could be wrong when I can’t hear my track, mic, instrument, virtual instrument, effects, send, or can’t record what it is I’m trying to record:
• Is the volume up?
• Is it routed correctly?
• Misc.
• Is it plugged in?
• Is it powered up?
• Bad equipment?
• If all else fails…
I explain all seven in the following post.
I’m speaking from a DAW perspective and as a ProTools user, but I’ve tried to make my checklist as universal as possible. My advice is geared toward the average home-studio owner. I’m assuming everyone has some combination of computer, interface, pre-amp, external hard drives, controllers (surface, pad, keyboard), guitars + amps, keyboard/synth, mics, DI, headphones, and monitors. I’ve organized the list with the most probable cause at the top and the least likely cause toward the bottom.
Checklist: Why Can’t I Hear What I Need to Hear?
1) Is the Volume Up?
This has to be the number cause of madness because it’s so hard to sort through. Think about how many volume-type controls there are in a typical DAW set up? You have a gain/trim knob on your pre-amp and your interface. Are those sending enough level? On the ProTools M-box, the mix knob controls input level verses mix level. Is that where it needs to be? Then your interface probably has controls for monitoring level and possibly separate controls for headphones. Are they loud enough? Maybe your headphones or monitors have individual volume controls? Is your instrument’s volume control where it needs to be (guitar, synth, keyboard, controller, etc.)? Did you accidentally knock a slider, push the wrong pedal, or rub a volume knob the wrong way? If you’re tracking a guitar playing through a pedal board and then through an amp, all being captured by a mic, think about the various places the volume could be hindered. Has the pad switch on your mic, interface, or DI box cut your volume dramatically? Is the fader on your control surface at unity gain?
Internally you must consider the level of each individual track, including audio volume, MIDI volume, aux tracks, etc. Has a track been muted? Is solo engaged somewhere in your session? Do you have any submix buses to worry about? Are your sends at the level they need to be? Is a send muted? Soled? If you can’t hear an effect on a soloed track, did you forget to solo-safe the aux effect? Are your plug-in effects and/or instruments giving you the output you need? Has something been bypassed? Is your master fader at unity gain? Did you forget about previous automation moves that either mute the track or lower the volume? Did you mute regions or MIDI notes?
2) Is it Routed Correctly?
For the beginner, routing just plain hurts your brain. For the seasoned recordist, it still is a source of frustration at times. Externally, is the right cable going into the intended input? Internally, have I assigned the correct input and output on each track? Did I send the output to a submix or group bus that I forgot about? Are all my sends meeting up with the right aux track on the same bus? Is the headphone mix actually going to the vocalist? If a ProTools user, has the track been record enabled? After tracking, did you remember to take it off record-enable? Did you record-safe the track a while ago and forgot? What about MIDI? Think about how many communication failures can happen when syncing external MIDI devices or internal virtual instruments. Are the MIDI inputs and outputs assigned correctly? Are you communicating with your DAW on the right channel(s)? Is your MIDI track communicating with your virtual instrument through the correct channel(s)?
3) Misc.
Some common issues don’t neatly fall under the volume or routing category but can still trip you up during a session. Did you accidentally press or depress a weird button on your controller or MIDI device? Is a plug-in acting weird? If you can’t open a plug-in, is your iLok plugged in? Do you have input only monitoring engaged? Did you make inactive some of your tracks or plug-ins and forgot about it? If you have too many tracks, sometimes a DAW will freeze them or make them inactive. Did you pile on the tracks and forget about sequencer limits?
Then, you have to worry about computer glitches. Is your audio being routed through your computer correctly? Maybe the volume is down, muted, or the output is routed improperly? Maybe a driver needs to be initiated? Maybe a MIDI device needs to be set up internally before it can be used. If you plugged in your MIDI device after a session was opened, will your software allow this? (ProTools wants you to turn on drives and MIDI devices on before powering up or starting a new session.)
4) Is it Plugged in?
This sounds silly, but believe me, it’s happened to all of us. Is the cable plugged into your instrument or mic fully? Is that plugged into your interface/pre-amp/DI completely? Are your headphones plugged in? Monitors plugged in? Are all usb and/or firewire devices securely attached to both the device and the computer? Have any of the cables gone bad?
5) Is it Powered Up?
Is the power at the wall turned on? Is the power switch on your power conditioner, battery back-up, or surge protector leaning in the right direction? Do you have a device that requires external power or a battery, like a synth, MIDI keyboard, DI box, guitar pedal, etc.? Did you turn that device on? Is your guitar/bass active and require a fresh battery? Are the pedals on your pedal board connected securely to their power source? Maybe a power cable got yanked out somehow? Is the usb hub plugged in? Did you forget to switch on your external drives? Did you forget to engage the phantom power switch after plugging in your condenser mic? Monitors got juice? Finally, have any of the power cables gone bad? Did you blow a fuse? If there’s been an outage, sometimes I’ve had to unplug all powered devices from their power source and then plug them back in.
6) Bad Equipment?
This category comes near the end because it rarely happens. But if it does, it’s usually the last thing you consider. Failing equipment generally gives you some kind of indication that it’s on its way out, but not always.
Are you trying to play through a dead guitar jack? Did a tube give out in your amp? Has your interface finally given out or have a dead jack? Have your MIDI devices stopped communicating? Did your hard drive give up the ghost? Has your computer gone bonkers? Do you have the most current drivers or software update? Did your computer’s latest automatic update interfere with your recording software? Are your plug-ins compatible with your software’s most recent update? Is your sequencer too much for your outdated computer? The list could go on and on…
7) If All Else Fails…
I can’t give a technical explanation for this one, but computer geeks everywhere know the magic power of the restart. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve gone through the above checklist to no avail only to have a restart solve the problem. If a simple restart doesn’t work, then unplug all your powered devices and connections and wait a few minutes. Then plug them back in and Restart your computer and DAW. Why? Just trust me.
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I have by no means created an exhaustive taxonomy of all the issues that could cause silence in your DAW environment in each of the seven categories. The explanations were meant to be suggestive. Hopefully the seven checklist items will save you from those “Oh, duh!” brain-fart moments where the obvious is playing hide and seek. Those moments are especially common in the throes of musical inspiration. If the checklist allows you to troubleshoot without thinking too hard about problem solving, I’ve succeeded with the goal of my post. With your brain successfully spared from functioning you can quickly return to your creative work. [Oooo, diss...insert sarcastic “ha-ha” here.]
Happy Recording!
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