Cubase 12: when recording vocal I see the waveform but it will not playback

if i record on Adobe audition i have no issues…playback is fine. when i record on Cubase 12 after closing all other programs (including Abobe) i see that the waveform is recorded but when i playback it will start to play then cut out. sometimes it will come back …NOT always. i never had the problem before. Windows 10. 32 g of ram. I pushed buffering up to 1024 . all midi recordings playback fine. Live audio recordings dont. what am i missing?
i just opened another old project and the vocal recording playsback! What setting am i missing in the new project? darn. i used the piano plus vocal template

It could have something to do with your routings. Can you please upload a screenshot of an audio track and its routings?

solo the track, play it back, check the signal path of that track, and at every channel (track , maybe groups, master fader), see if the meters are moving. If not, check the routing, as Reco29 wrote, check if you have any plugin in the path. If the meters stop after a plugin, remove that plugin.

The template may have a plugin with noise gate in it that is cutting out the audio when the level is low. Bypass the plugins and check.