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No sound during playback | Premiere Pro

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Issue

There is no sound during playback (preview) in Adobe Premiere Pro CS3, CS4, CS5, CS5.5, or CS6 on Windows or Mac OS.

Solution

This document has two troubleshooting sections. Which section you use depends on whether sound is missing from all clips or only from some clips. If sound is missing from all clips in all projects, then go to Sound Is Missing From All Clips. If sound is missing only from certain clips, or only from clips in a certain project, then go to Sound Is Missing From Some Clips. 

Note: If you don't know whether sound is missing from all clips, then you can perform a test by creating color bars with a 1-kHz tone:

  1. Create a project.
  2. Choose File > New > Bars And Tone.
  3. In the New Bars And Tone window, click OK.
  4. In the Project panel, double-click Bars And Tone. The Bars And Tone clip opens in the Source Monitor.
  5. Click the Play button in the Source Monitor. If you do not hear the tone, then go to Sound Is Missing From All Clips. If you do hear the tone, then go to Sound Is Missing From Some Clips.

Sound is missing from all clips

If sound is missing from all clips in all projects, then do the following tasks in order:

1. Choose a system default audio device and check its volume. 

Your computer could have more than one device can play back audio; for example, an internal speaker, external speakers, or headphones. Set your preferred device as the system default sound playback device, and then verify that its volume is not muted or set low. 

On Windows XP (for Adobe Premiere Pro CS3, or Adobe Premiere Pro CS4): 

  1.    1. Choose Start > Control Panel (or Start > Settings > Control Panel).
  2.    Do one of the following:
  • If the Control Panel is in Classic View, then double-click Sounds And Audio Devices.
  • If the Control Panel is in Category view, then click Sounds, Speech, And Audio Devices. Next, click Sounds And Audio Devices.
  1.    In the Sounds And Audio Devices Properties window, click the Audio tab.
  2.    Choose the device that you want to use from the pop-up menu in the Sound Playback section.
  3.    Click Apply.
  4.    Click Volume in the Sound Playback section. A new window, which is titled Volume Control or Play Control, opens.
  5.    If the Mute All option is selected, then deselect it.
  6.    Move the leftmost volume slider until you hear sound.
  7.    Close the Volume Control or Play Control window.
  8.   Click OK to close the Sound And Audio Devices Properties window.

On Windows Vista:

  1. Choose Start > Control Panel.
  2.  Do one of the following:
  • If the Control Panel is in Classic View, then double-click Sound.
  • If the Control Panel is in Control Panel Home view, then click Hardware And Sound. Next, click Manage Audio Devices.
  1. In the Sound window, click the Playback tab.
  2. Select the device that you want to use. Then click Set Default. (If only one device is listed, then proceed to Step 5.)
  3. Click Properties.
  4. In the Properties window, click the Levels tab.
  5. Look at the speaker icon to the right of the Volume Control slider. If a small red slashed circle appears beside the speaker icon, then the volume is muted. To restore the volume, click the speaker icon.
  6. Move the Volume Control slider until you hear sound.
  7. Click OK to close the Properties window.
  8. Click OK to close the Sound window.

On Mac OS:

  1. Open an Adobe Premiere Pro project that contains audio clips, video clips with audio, or a Bars And Tone clip.
  2. Choose Premiere Pro > Preferences > Audio Hardware.
  3. Choose the audio device that you want to use from the Default Device menu. (If you choose System Default Input/Output, then Adobe Premiere Pro uses the device that you selected in Task 1.)
  4. Click OK.
  5.  Play a clip. If you still do not hear sound, then choose Premiere Pro > Preferences > Audio Hardware. Go back to Step 3, and choose a different device from the Default Device menu.

2. Adjust the audio hardware driver settings in Adobe Premiere Pro.

  1. Open an Adobe Premiere Pro project that contains audio clips, video clips with audio, or a Bars And Tone clip.
  2. Choose Edit > Preferences > Audio Hardware.
  3. Look at the options in the Default Device pop-up menu. These options are the audio drivers that Adobe Premiere Pro can use to output sound, and there are two basic kinds:
  • Any ASIO (Audio Stream Input/Output) drivers that are installed on your system.
  • Premiere Pro WDM Sound (a DirectSound driver that you can use if no ASIO driver is installed).

      Choose an ASIO driver if one is listed; otherwise, choose Premiere Pro WDM Sound.

  • Do one of the following:
  • If you chose an ASIO driver in Step 3, then skip to Step 7.
  • If you chose Premiere Pro WDM Sound in Step 3, then click ASIO Settings. The Audio Hardware Settings window opens. Proceed to Step 5.
  • Look at the list of devices in the Output tab of the Audio Hardware Settings window.  (See this page.)



    To enable or disable an output device, click the box to the left of the device. A check mark in the box indicates that the device is enabled.

Enable the device that you prefer, and then disable any other devices in the list. (For best results, enable the device that you chose as the system default playback device in Task 1.)

  1. Click OK to close the Audio Hardware Settings window.
  2. Click OK to close the Preferences window.
  3. Play a clip. If you still do not hear sound, then choose Edit > Preferences > Audio Hardware. Go back to Step 3, and choose a different driver from the Default Device pop-up menu.

3. (Windows) Update the driver for your sound card, or install an ASIO driver.

If you don't hear sound after completing the tasks above, then the driver for your computer's sound card could be out of date. Many sound card manufacturers frequently update their software drivers. Contact the manufacturer of your sound card or the manufacturer of your computer for an updated driver, or download one from the manufacturer's website. When you have updated the driver, repeat solutions one through three above.

If no ASIO driver is installed and one is available for your sound card, then download and install the ASIO driver.

Sound is missing from some clips

If sound is missing only from certain clips or only from clips in a certain project, then do the following tasks in order:

1. Check for disabled audio tracks.

In the Timeline panel, look at the box at the far left or far upper left of each audio track's header. If no speaker icon appears in this box, then the track is disabled. To enable a disabled audio track, click in the box. A speaker icon appears.

In the illustrated example below, the speaker icon (circled) indicates that the Audio 1 track is enabled. On the right side, the empty box indicates that the Audio 1 track is disabled:


audio_enabled

2. Check for muted or low track volume.

Use the Audio Mixer to determine if an audio track is muted or has low volume, and to increase the volume if necessary.

To open the Audio Mixer, choose Window > Audio Mixer > [Sequence Name].

3. Check for muted, low-volume, or disabled clips.

Verify that individual clips' volume is not muted or low. For instructions, see Adjust Track Volume With Keyframes in Adobe Premiere Pro CS4 Help, or Adjust track volume with keyframes in Adobe Premiere Pro CS5 & CS5.5 Help.

Also verify that individual clips are not disabled. For instructions, see Enable or Disable a Clip in Adobe Premiere Pro CS4 Help, or Enable or disable a clip in Adobe Premiere Pro CS5 Help.

4. Check for clips with incompatible codecs.

(Mac OS) If you completed the steps above and you still don't hear sound, the problematic clips could have been encoded with an incompatible codec. Codecs are algorithms for compressing audio and video data. Many different codecs exist. Sometimes, Adobe Premiere Pro can't decode files that were encoded with a poorly designed codec or a codec that is not installed on your computer.

You can download third-party codecs from codec publishers' websites. Some codec publishers are listed on the Apple QuickTime Components page at www.apple.com/quicktime/resources/components.html. If the codec used to create the clips isn't available as a QuickTime component, use other software to transcode them with a different audio-encoding format. (Software you can use to transcode the clips include MPEG Streamclip or QuickTime Player with the QuickTime Pro upgrade.) Then, import the transcoded files into Adobe Premiere Pro.

Additional information

If you still don't hear audio from one or more clips, the problematic clips could've been encoded with an incompatible codec. See Troubleshoot problems with AVI, MOV, MPEG, or other kinds of video files (Premiere Pro CS4, CS5, and CS5.5 on Windows) for instructions on troubleshooting codecs. 

Keywords: cpsid_82851

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