Can't Hear Yourself in Logic Pro? Try This!

Can't Hear Yourself in Logic Pro? Here's How to Fix It

One of the most common problems new Logic Pro users run into isn't a plugin or a mixing question, it's much more basic than that: they simply can't hear anything. You've got a track loaded, you're playing your keyboard or singing into your microphone, and nothing is coming through your speakers or headphones. The good news is that this almost always comes down to a small number of settings, and once you understand where to look, it's a quick fix. In this post I'll walk through the most common causes and exactly where to find each setting.

Start With Your Audio Preferences

Before troubleshooting anything else, confirm your basic audio settings are correct. Go to the Logic Pro menu, then Preferences, then Audio. Here you'll find two settings that control everything: your output device and your input device.

Your output device controls what you hear during playback. If you're listening through headphones connected to an audio interface, select that interface here. If you're using your computer's built-in speakers, choose Built-in Speakers, and if you're on Bluetooth headphones, select those from the list instead.

It's worth knowing that Logic Pro's audio settings are completely independent from your Mac's general system sound preferences. You might have your Mac's system output set to your audio interface, but if Logic Pro's own preferences point somewhere else, Logic Pro will always use its own setting rather than following your system-wide choice. This trips up a lot of people who assume changing one automatically changes the other.

Your input device works the same way but controls what Logic Pro is listening to. If you're recording through a microphone plugged into an audio interface, select that interface. If you're using your computer's built-in microphone, select that option instead. One important note if you're using a built-in microphone: always use headphones at the same time. Without headphones, you'll very quickly create a feedback loop between your speakers and microphone, which is not a sound you want to experience twice.

No Instrument Loaded on a Software Instrument Track

A very common beginner mistake happens right after creating a new software instrument track. It's easy to assume that because you've created the track, you should already hear sound when you play your MIDI keyboard. But a freshly created software instrument track has no actual instrument loaded into it yet. If you check the Instrument slot on that track and it's blank, that's exactly why nothing is happening when you play.

To fix this, click that empty Instrument slot and choose something from Logic Pro's available instruments. As an example, opening the Sampler and loading a piano patch will immediately give you sound the next time you play your keyboard.

The External MIDI Track Mix-Up

A related and equally common mistake happens when creating a new track and selecting External MIDI instead of a standard software instrument track. You might see a piano icon on this track type and assume it's ready to go, and MIDI data will even show as being received when you play. But you still won't hear anything.

This is because an External MIDI track doesn't generate any sound inside Logic Pro at all. Instead, it's designed to trigger sounds on an external hardware synthesizer or sound module, which would then need to be routed back into Logic Pro through an audio track to actually be heard. For the vast majority of home studio setups, this track type isn't what you want. If you're trying to play sounds that live inside Logic Pro itself, stick with a standard software instrument track instead.

Confirming MIDI Is Actually Reaching Logic Pro

If you've got an instrument properly loaded on a software instrument track and you're still not hearing anything, the next thing to check is whether your MIDI keyboard is actually sending data to Logic Pro at all. Play a chord on your keyboard and watch the small MIDI activity display near the top of the Logic Pro window. If you see note information appearing there, MIDI is reaching Logic Pro correctly, and the issue lies elsewhere. If nothing appears at all, the problem is with your MIDI connection itself.

If you're connecting your keyboard via USB, double check that the cable is properly connected at both ends, your keyboard and your computer. If you're using traditional MIDI cables instead, confirm those are properly connected between your keyboard and your audio interface.

Checking Your Audio Track Input

The same kind of troubleshooting applies to audio tracks, just with a different set of settings to check. When you create a new audio track, you need to enable the Record button on that track before you'll see any incoming signal at all. If you click that button and still see nothing, confirm you have the correct input channel selected on the track.

It's worth understanding that the name of a track has no bearing on what input it's actually receiving. A track named Audio 1 can be set to receive input from any channel on your audio interface, whether that's input 1, input 2, or beyond. If your microphone is physically plugged into input 1 but your track is set to receive input 2, you won't get any signal, even though everything else about your setup is correct. Always double check that the input selection on the track matches the physical input your microphone or instrument is actually connected to.

Input Monitoring and Software Monitoring

If your input signal is showing correctly on the meter but you still can't hear yourself, the next thing to try is the small "i" button on the track, which toggles input monitoring. Clicking this should let you hear yourself immediately.

If you'd rather not have to click that button every time, there's a preference that controls this behaviour. Under Logic Pro's Audio preferences, in the General tab, you'll find a setting called Software Monitoring, which should generally be checked so that Logic Pro is able to let you hear yourself at all. Below that is a separate Input Monitoring setting. If this is checked, you'll need to manually click the input monitoring button on each track before you can hear yourself. If it's unchecked, you'll hear yourself automatically as soon as you enable record on a track. Which of these you prefer is really down to personal workflow preference.

It's worth understanding what software monitoring is actually doing. When enabled, your audio signal travels from your microphone or instrument, into your audio interface, into Logic Pro, through any plugins loaded on that track, and then back out through your interface to your speakers or headphones. This means you'll hear any effects, like reverb or EQ, applied in real time as you play or sing.

There's an alternative approach worth knowing about too: monitoring directly from your audio interface rather than through Logic Pro. In this setup, your signal goes into the interface and straight back out to your headphones without passing through the computer at all. The advantage is reduced latency, since there's no round trip through Logic Pro's processing. The downside is that you won't hear any of the plugins or effects you've applied in your session, just the dry, unprocessed signal. Some interfaces, particularly higher end models, include built-in effects processing that lets you apply things like reverb directly from the hardware itself. But for most home studio setups, monitoring through Logic Pro using software monitoring is the more practical choice.

Checking Your Output Routing

If you've worked through everything above and you're still not hearing playback, the last place to check is your output routing in the mixer. Open the mixer by pressing X, or by clicking the mixer icon in the control bar, and look at the output assignment on your master channel. In most cases this will be set to Stereo Out, which typically corresponds to outputs 1 and 2 on your audio interface.

This is where things can get a little more complicated depending on your specific interface. Many audio interfaces have more than two physical outputs, and it's not always obvious which pair is actually active. Some interfaces, for example, route headphone output 1 to outputs 1 and 2, but headphone output 2 to outputs 3 and 4. If you happen to be plugged into headphone output 2 while Logic Pro is only sending audio to outputs 1 and 2, you simply won't hear anything, even though everything in Logic Pro itself is working correctly.

To resolve this, open your audio interface's own control software and check how your outputs are routed. Look specifically for the settings controlling your main speaker output and headphone output, and make sure they're routed to match what Logic Pro is sending to, typically outputs 1 and 2. Some interfaces also have a physical switch on the hardware itself that toggles between different output pairs, so it's worth checking for that as well.

Bringing It All Together

Almost every "I can't hear anything" problem in Logic Pro comes down to one of the issues covered here: an incorrect audio device selected in preferences, a missing instrument on a software instrument track, a misunderstanding around External MIDI tracks, an unconfirmed MIDI connection, an incorrect input selected on an audio track, monitoring settings that need adjusting, or output routing that doesn't match your physical connections. Working through these systematically will resolve the vast majority of cases, and understanding why each setting exists will make future troubleshooting much faster.

TIMECODES:
00:00 Intro
00:29 Audio Device Settings
02:26 Software Instruments & External Midi
05:05 Audio Tracks
06:03 Input Monitoring
07:11 Software Monitoring
08:52 Outputs
10:33 Final Thoughts