FAQ: Why is there no audio (sound) in my output file?

Question

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Make sure that the Audio Output option is checked in your output module settings.

Answer 1

For me, I can't think of a common use-case where that would be necessary. I suppose there are times when you want a file to conform to an existing structure, such as when you want to replace media in Premiere, and the new file needs to have the same number of audio tracks as the old file (which you may not have created). Even though that hardly ever happens (I remember replacing proxies when CS3 got the ability to import P2 footage... it was... not very cooperative), I wouldn't want to lose the ability to arbitrarily export an empty audio track, because I'm sure there are other edge cases which I can't think of. But, I wouldn't mind losing it as a default behavior.
It sounds like what you're hinting at is a feature where the render module detects whether there is any audio in the comp before committing to some kind of default audio track export setting. If there is no audio in the comp (or if all the audio in a comp is disabled), it wouldn't export an audio track.
As long as there is a setting to override this behavior (i.e.: enabled / if detected / disabled) that can be built into an export preset, I'd love such a feature.
I, too, often forget to turn on audio export, because most of my comps don't use audio (I sync audio in Premiere, usually) and I don't like having empty audio tracks I don't need. But in the rare cases I do need audio, it's really annoying to go back and re-export the audio because I forgot to turn it on (similar to forgetting to enable an alpha channel, which makes me feel really stupid).