Waveforms turn flat after export

Hi, I'm new to Logic.

 

I just recorded some guitar into Logic, threw some FX on and hit export to audio to save some CPU. The sound from the exported audio is the same levels as the original, but the waveform is completely flat and doesn't resemble the original. My recording delay is set to 0. I tried exporting as both AIFF and WAV.

 

Any tips? Thanks

If you zoom way in, is the waveform truly flat?

No, well I probably shouldn't have said completely flat because there are some tiny spikes here and there

So then it's a level issue.

 

First, in your Bounce dialog, is "Normalize" set to off?

 

It's possible that the effect plug-ins you're using are lowering the gain, so even though you have a nice healthy waveform to start with, you then lower the gain, and the bounced file reflects that new gain.

Tried without the FX and now the waveform looks good. Is the depicting of waveforms not very sensitive in Logic? Throwing the same audio file into FL Studio and the waveform is much larger even with the FX on

Tried without the FX and now the waveform looks good. Is the depicting of waveforms not very sensitive in Logic? Throwing the same audio file into FL Studio and the waveform is much larger even with the FX on

It's possible that the waveform doesn't look the same on different DAWs especially at different zoom levels.

 

In Logic Pro, there's an area at the top of the region that is reserved for the region name, so that even a full amplitude waveform doesn't take the entire height of the region. Here's what three copies of the same 100% waveform look like at different vertical zoom levels.

 

 

Note that you have a waveform zoom level adjustment possible in Logic as well: