Your MIDI export needs an instrument to make sound.

Follow the signal, not the file extension

A MIDI clip tells an instrument which notes to play. The instrument turns those instructions into audio, and the audio output sends it to your speakers. A clip can be correctly imported while the next part of that chain is missing. Importing it onto an audio-only track does not turn it into a recording.

What the LocalMIDI preview actually plays

The browser preview creates an oscillator and a gain envelope for each retained note. It calculates oscillator frequency from that note's MIDI pitch and sets amplitude using note velocity. It does not replay the uploaded recording. A recognizable melody in preview therefore confirms neither preservation of the source timbre nor the destination instrument's configuration.

The current preview maps instrument values 0 and 24 to a triangle waveform, 73 to a sine waveform, and 80 to a square waveform. These are simple synthesized sounds, not a piano sample library or a recording of a guitar or flute. Selecting an instrument can change the preview waveform without reproducing that instrument's acoustic character.

The download writer takes a different path. It writes note-on and note-off messages on MIDI channel one, along with tempo, time signature, and a program-change message. The output is a single-track MIDI file. Its writer does not insert sampled audio or package the browser oscillators as a sound bank. The destination software must provide the sound generator.

A program-change message is a request to the receiving instrument, not an instrument installation. Whether it changes the sound depends on the receiver and its settings. If your chosen plugin keeps its current preset, select the desired sound inside that plugin rather than assuming the export is broken. Re-exporting with another program selection cannot install a missing synthesizer.

A clean handoff from converter to instrument

1. In LocalMIDI, inspect the piano roll before downloading. Use Preview notes to hear the retained events. If there are no events, resolve detection first; a destination instrument cannot play notes that were not exported.
2. Download the MIDI and import it into your music software. Assign the clip to an instrument track with a loaded, known playable preset. Start with a simple sound so it is easy to hear whether the phrase plays.
3. If the imported notes are visible, trigger the instrument using its own keyboard or your controller. Silence from that test points toward the instrument or audio path, not just the imported clip. Check output device, track mute, level, and routing.
4. If the instrument works by itself but the clip is silent, inspect the clip's track assignment and the instrument's accepted MIDI channel. LocalMIDI writes channel one; a receiver restricted to another channel will need an appropriate routing or channel setting.
5. Once playback works, choose the final preset and edit the phrase. Keep a copy of the original MIDI while making those changes. A different tone is expected when you replace the browser's oscillator with a sampled or synthesized instrument.

This is a troubleshooting order derived from LocalMIDI's preview and export code, not a claim that these steps were tested in every DAW. It separates missing notes, missing instruments, and broken routing so that you do not keep changing conversion settings to solve an audio-output problem.

Sound restored, but the phrase still needs work?

For absent events, read why short notes disappear. For a phrase that plays too quickly or too slowly, use the BPM and timing guide. Neither issue is fixed simply by loading a different instrument. Return to the audio to MIDI converter when you need to inspect the detected phrase itself.