Here's a demonstration of the issue:

Would you happen to be using the “Crosstalk” function in Console Shaper or CTC-1 MixFX?

I've actually never used that tool yet

You don't show the console, are you sure you don't have a cue mix? Try to select the left edge of the main channel in the console and drag to the left to see if you have more output channels enabled.

Adria S. wroteI'm working in a session (Studio One 4) that I haven't looked at in a few years. Even when I mute every track in console, several ghost tracks continue to play. These ghost tracks play even though the Main volume is reduced to zero.

I'm at a complete loss as to what may be happening. None of the existing tracks use sends, it's a pretty vanilla setup.

Where could this "invisible"/"ghost" track audio be coming from?

Hi Adria, thinking this could be another track hidden and not the one that you are showing. Possible a duplicate of it though. Just a hunch.

You can try two things to locate the sound. For starters let's call the mixer having channels, not tracks for clarity, as tracks are part of the arrangement and can differ from mixer channels based on assignment.

First. By opening the tracks at the top left of the arrangement view (horizontal lines), you can view what will most likely be a turned off track. Click those dots to reveal (ooen) any potential hidden track playing the sound that can't be found. For audio the tracks column also reveals a tiny signal meter as well. Also if necessary, use the arrow symbols to open any sub folders.

A second way if the ghost tracks apply to MIDI or an instrument is while the mixer is open, open the instruments tab at left to reveal those instruments. You can turn on/off those instruments which should hopefully find the ghost track you're hearing. Oh yeah, for audio or instrument issues, also open any hidden mixer channels using the same horizontal lines icon located at the mixer (left). You may have that channel turned off as well. That will open any hidden channels on the mixer.

This happens from time to time usually based on intentionally, or inadvertently hiding a channel or track that has some instance of an audio or instrument track playing, that can't be found.

Hope that helps. It trips me up at times as well. Especially bringing up older songs in work.

As for the main out turned down and still playing that sound, I can only guess a routing issue, and finding what output that hidden channel (still found the same way above) would be.
Hope that helps.

I wish I had pictures to know where to look for this stuff, I am autistic and a visual based learner.

I tried creating a brand new audio track, then copy/pasted the wavs from the previous track into the new track. Then I deleted the old track.

Same problem. Mute is not recognized. I can however adjust volume of the "ghost" sound, I just can't mute it.

Track 20 is the problem track:

I've also created a new audio track, and recorded the part again - still same behavior as noted above.

I noticed you're using Outputs 7 and 8 for the Main Output.

I'm curious what happens if you create a new Output in your Routing Setup for a different set of hardware outputs then assign one of the problem tracks to that (so in the Console where it says "Main Out" you would select the new one, "Sub Out" or whatever).

That might help narrow some things down.

I'm stumped for now, and I'm no expert. But, I have a few troubleshooting ideas. From your screenshot, I see that you have used the show/hide function. Open that up, and right click on the problem track, and choose "Disable Track"
If you're still getting the sound, disable the rest of the tracks one by one. * You can disable/enable tracks in the arrangement view, but we're using the "show/hide" feature to make sure that there's nothing hidden from view in the arrangement, yet active.

Just in case you had that open, but don't remember how you opened it, go to about 8:45 in this video:

That, or what Robert sees using the outputs 7 & 8. You may want to assign alternate outs or mains. Just for weeding out some hidden miss assigned output.

I'm stumped, though another venture I'll use when locating a event that is there but is being problematic is right click on the event. Choose "select in Pool" which opens the audio pool at right and highlights that audio clip. There, look at any neighboring clips (often the same name) which you can also right click to see there position in the arrangement (if there used at all). You can even drag them in to your track, or overnight the one with the problem. It works great as a cross check, and for bad event, delete & replace.

If the track output is assigned elsewhere, your best bet is locating what that is about. Even moving the events to a new track (which the Select in Pool process above will help).

Other than that, I got nuttin'.
Apologies for the long response, and no diagrams. Seems like these last few days has been a wake up to work, sleep, eat on the move, work, affair.

Since you demonstrate that the sound is actually coming from the track in question by trimming the clip, I still suspect a hidden output of some sort.

I made a gif showing one way this can happen. Have a look around in those places in the console and the input/output configuration (the button I hover over at the end) to see if you notice anything that can be causing it.

Quick follow up before I get to the studio today, I use outputs 7 ad 8 to feed to an in-studio mixing console.

I'll step through suggestions above and follow up.

ok guys I give up.

Created a new song, copied tracks and reset instruments. It's working as expected with the new song.

Thanks again for all of your help!!!

I'm back. Unfortunately, the ghost sound came back and again, I do not know how to rid myself of it unless I create a new song and manually copy/paste tracks over, recreate all settings in mixer, ect - its a lot.

I paid careful attention but I can assure you I do not have any special routing - this is as basic a setup as can be expected. I can't pinpoint when the ghost track starts. As of my previous post, I had a clean slate. I just noticed the ghost sound last week and have tried everything to pinpoint the issue, to no avail.

I hoped that upgrading to Studio One 5 would help, but it did not - the ghost sound is still present even when that track is muted or I completely delete the existing soundform where the ghost sound is.

Does Presonus offer more tech support than this forum? I feel this is a bug they would want to know about since it is now happening in the new version as well.

Adria S. wroteDoes Presonus offer more tech support than this forum? I feel this is a bug they would want to know about since it is now happening in the new version as well.

Yes, they do. The official support process is to make a Support Ticket. I believe there's a link to do that at the same page as the Presonus Knowledge Base.

This forum is just for users to talk to other users.

I'm really disheartened to find that the ghost tracks are now appearing in Studio One 5. This is on a new song created from scratch in SO5.

I haven't yet submitted a support ticket partly because of their tendency to ask us to post the support issue as a Feature Request and wait on upvotes for them to look at it.

Adria S. wroteI'm really disheartened to find that the ghost tracks are now appearing in Studio One 5. This is on a new song created from scratch in SO5.

I haven't yet submitted a support ticket partly because of their tendency to ask us to post the support issue as a Feature Request and wait on upvotes for them to look at it.

I have a feeling they wouldn’t ask you to submit this one as a feature request. “Dont play tracks that aren’t engaged” isn’t really a feature

Submitted a support ticket with provided an entire example song zipped up and saved on Google Drive.

Wish me luck!