You bounced or exported a track and the file came back silent, or only part of it made a sound. The export ran without an error, which is why it is confusing. Nearly every case is one of a few ordinary things, and one of them catches self-playing and generative instruments in particular.
This is DAW-agnostic, with Logic Pro named as the example. The idea is the same in every host; only the menu names differ, so check the wording in your own bounce or export dialog.
Because something stopped the audio from reaching the file, and the export ran anyway without warning you. A bounce or render only writes what actually arrives at the output it is reading, so if nothing arrives, you get a silent file that is exactly as long as you asked for. Almost every silent or half-silent export is one of these:
Work down the checklist next and stop as soon as sound appears.
Run these in order and stop the moment the export makes a sound. They are listed by how often each one is the real cause.
Because an offline bounce renders faster than realtime, and a self-playing or generative instrument makes its sound against the live audio clock. When the host renders offline it is not playing the project in real time, it is calculating the result as fast as it can, and an instrument that generates its notes and audio as time passes does not get the running clock it depends on. So it produces nothing, or only a fragment, and the file comes out silent even though the instrument plays perfectly when you press play.
A plain recorded audio region is fixed samples, so it renders the same whether the bounce is offline or in real time. A self-playing instrument is not fixed. It is composing and producing audio while the transport moves, and that only happens properly when the clock advances in real time. A faster-than-realtime render skips past that, which is where the silence comes from.
Bounce it in realtime. Use your DAW's realtime or online bounce option instead of the default offline one, or record the instrument's output live to an audio track and export that. In real time the instrument runs against the live clock exactly as it does on playback, so the whole performance is written to the file. This one switch resolves almost every silent bounce of a self-playing or generative instrument, and it is the single most common support question about them.
Turn on the realtime option in your DAW's bounce or export dialog, or record the instrument's output onto an audio track and export that instead. Either way the instrument gets played through in real time, which is what it needs.
In Logic Pro, the Bounce dialog offers Realtime as an alternative to Offline. Choose Realtime and Logic plays the project through as it writes the file, so a self-playing instrument is captured live rather than skipped. Other hosts have the same idea under their own names, an online or realtime bounce as opposed to a faster-than-realtime one, so look for that wording in your host's bounce or export dialog rather than accepting the default offline render.
If you cannot find a realtime option, the method that always works is to record the instrument's output onto a plain audio track. Route the instrument to an audio track, arm it, play the project through once in real time so it records what it plays, then export that recorded audio. Because it is now ordinary samples, it exports cleanly whether the render is offline or online.
One trade to expect: a realtime bounce takes as long as the music itself, because it plays through in full. That is the cost of capturing an instrument that plays itself, and it is worth it for a file that is not silent.
Most of this page is about the general case. The one place it bites hardest is an instrument that composes on its own, because that is exactly the kind of sound an offline bounce tends to drop.
ARGISH is a self-playing drone synth. You set a mood and a key, build a progression on the chord wheel, and it composes on its own, so there is music moving before you have written a note. Because it composes against the live clock, it is exactly the kind of instrument this page is about: bounce it with your DAW's realtime or online option, or record its output to a track, and the whole performance lands in the file perfectly. It ships as an Audio Unit, a VST3, an AAX for Pro Tools, and a standalone app.
Hear the whole thing free in your browser first, no install and no account.
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