Not Hearing Any Sound? (Audio Interfacing Issues)

As the complexity of interfaces, DAWs, and computers all go up, so too does the frustration of getting them to work together cohesively. 

By default, Mixbus should "just work":  when you start a new session you are asked what device(s) to use for recording and playback. And then Mixbus connects your soundcard inputs to any new tracks, and Mixbus connects the Master bus output to your first 2 soundcard outputs. So if you have trouble, it's often a good idea to create a "new" session, and see if it works with the default settings.

Secondly, please consider the difference between hearing the track playback, and hearing "yourself"  ( the live input of your voice or instrument ).  If you have trouble hearing track playback, then the problem is likely in the signal routing or mixer settings.  If you have trouble hearing "yourself" then this is called "monitoring", and you can learn more about it here.

If you don't hear sound from Mixbus, it can be remedied with a full understanding of Mixbus's operation and signal flow.  Reading the manual is a good place to start.  But if you want to skip directly to the most likely fix, you might try these steps:

1. You should understand the difference between DISK monitoring, and INPUT monitoring. We have a great manual entry on this topic, but the gist of it is this: every track in your session is either monitoring playback (disk) or the input to the track (i.e your microphone or guitar). This can be changed by clicking the switcher at the top of the channel strip
   1. If you are not hearing any output after you just recorded yourself, take the channel out of record mode. This will automatically change it's monitoring status back to the disk. You should now be able to hear your recorded material
   2. If you're not hearing your output from your microphone, it's likely that the track isn't record armed, and therefore not monitoring it's input. You should select your mic input in the channel's switcher page, and then enable recording for that channel. It will now be monitoring it's own input and you should hear the microphone.
      • Note: if you have set either the disk or input monitoring modes manually by clicking on them it will not automatically switch when in and out of record arm.
   3. If you're STILL not hearing output after checking both of those things thoroughly it's likely that you have cut off that track's send to the master channel. This can happen for a variety of reasons like... using an auxiliary send, or not wanting to double the loudness while sending to a bus, but all of them are user controlled and easily fixed.
      
      • If the channel is not sending to a bus, and it's master send: is disabled, you will not be able to hear it, because it's output it has no destination.
      • If the channel is sending to a bus, and the bus is not sending to the master, you will not be able to hear it, because it's bus output has no destination.
      • If the channel is using an auxiliary send, and is not sending to a bus or the master, and the auxilary send destination is also not sending to the master or a bus who's not sending to the master, you will not be able to hear it, because it's send it has no output destination
   4. If, after checking all of the signal flow and monitoring cases, you are still not hearing output, it is likely that your Master/Monitor channels are not set to output to your interface.
      • You can check this easily by looking at the Master's output and/or checking the Monitor's output
      • In the vast majority of cases, you'll want this to go to your device's output 1&2 (stereo output), but you should send it to wherever your monitors/headphones are hooked up.