Why can't I hear my keyboard recording?

[Lawson Currie]

I plugged in my keyboard into Cakewalk for the first time, however I couldn't hear any sound coming from my computer. I was able to record a little bit of me playing, but I can't hear any of it. Even now, when my keyboard has been unplugged, whenever I press play on my recording, I still can't hear any sound, even though the gain bar is saying that it is making noise. I've tried all combinations of putting my keyboard in the input and output sections, along with putting it in both input and output at the same time, and I've even tried to remove my keyboard from both input and output sections, and it still doesn't work. I want to know how I can hear my recording, and how I can hear the built-in Cakewalk electric piano sound whenever I play my keyboard plugged in. Below I have two images, each showing my recording. The first one was taken before I hit play. The second one was taken as the music was playing. As you can see, the gain bar is acting properly; only activating itself when I hit play.

[User 905133]

I might be missing something but what I see is that your MIDI track [track 1] is routed to the SI-Electric Piano on track 2.  The LED meter in the Inspector shows MIDI is playing in the second screen shot.  I do not see how the audio from track 2 / SI-Electric Piano is being routed presumably to a bus (though not totally necessary, just good practice) and then to your sound device.

Quote

The second one was taken as the music was playing. As you can see, the gain bar is acting properly; only activating itself when I hit play.

That is showing MIDI data, not audio.

Quote

I plugged in my keyboard into Cakewalk for the first time, however I couldn't hear any sound coming from my computer. I was able to record a little bit of me playing, but I can't hear any of it.

There's a button on the track header called either MIDI Echo or Input Echo.  Was that turned on for Track 2?  If not, that could cause the lack of sound as you played.  NOTE:  There could be other issues, but this is something easy to check and rule out in problem-solving the issue you described.

Edited February 17, 2023 by User 905133

[57Gregy]

As you no doubt know, audio will not travel through MIDI cables. The MIDI data is played through a synthesizer, in this case Studio Instrument Electric Piano. But that soft synth needs to play through your sound card or audio interface. What is the output listed for the soft synth? It should be whatever device you want to use for sound. If it's set to S/PDIF and you don't have anything connected to the S/PDIF output, you won't hear anything.

[John Vere]

And there’s many more about midi in my series. My playlist is in my signature