No Sound in Ableton Live? Fix These Settings
Work Through These in Order
Silence in Ableton is almost never a real bug — it's one setting in one of a handful of places. Check them in this order.
1. Confirm Your Audio Device in Preferences
Go to Options > Preferences > Audio and confirm the correct Audio Device is selected, along with the right driver type for your setup (ASIO on Windows, Core Audio on Mac). If you recently switched interfaces, changed USB ports, or updated drivers, this is the single most common cause.
2. Check the Buffer Size
Still in Preferences > Audio, make sure your buffer size is set appropriately for your system. This mostly affects crackling and dropouts rather than total silence, but it's worth confirming while you're already in that panel.
3. Check Your System Volume
Obvious, but easy to miss mid-session: confirm your computer's system volume isn't muted and is turned up, independent of anything happening inside Live.
4. Check the Track's "In" Button and Solo State
Inside Live, confirm the track you're expecting sound from doesn't have its In button engaged (which routes it to monitor input instead of playing back) and that no other track is soloed, which silences everything else.
5. Check Your Interface's Own Volume Knobs
If you're on an external audio interface, check the physical output/monitor volume knobs on the hardware itself — it's easy to have Live's internal levels correct while the interface output is turned down.
6. Check the Cue/Preview Volume
The small headphone icon at the bottom of Live's interface has its own volume control, separate from your main output. If that's turned down, preview and cue sounds go silent even when your main mix is fine.
7. Make Sure a MIDI Track Actually Has an Instrument Loaded
If it's a MIDI track specifically that's silent, confirm an instrument is actually loaded on it. An empty MIDI track with no instrument or sound source will play back the MIDI data with nothing to make sound from it.
Still Nothing?
If you've been through all seven and you're still not hearing anything, the culprit is very likely something upstream of Live entirely — a macOS/Windows sound settings change, a driver that needs reinstalling, or a cable/interface issue. At that point it's worth testing the same interface in another application to isolate whether it's Live-specific.
Related Fixes
If sound comes back but other things are still off, check tracks not lining up or missing files — and if the whole project wouldn't open in the first place, start here.