NO SOUND when recording directly to timeline from Premiere "mic"

NO SOUND records to the timeline when I click the mic and talk. I get the countdown and the clip but there are no audio waves on it. I can see no sound is recorded. The settings appear all correct: On premiere settings: audio hardware is default Macbook in/out. The box for "mute input during timeline recording" is unchecked. Set on Macbook Pro microphone 12db. On Macbook Pro: the default mic is selected and playback through Mac speakers.

I've used this many times before in the past on different laptops. Never encountered a problem before.

Please advise fix, thanks!