> ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.gridshift.studio/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Core Concepts > The Gridshift concepts that differ from other DAWs, and the core objects — tracks, clips, and sources — you build a project from. **Gridshift** is a keyboard-driven, in-the-box music studio (DAW) for macOS. This page covers the ideas that work differently from other DAWs first, then the objects you work with. ## What's different A few things in Gridshift work differently than they might in other DAWs. #### Keyboard and Command Palette Gridshift is driven primarily from the keyboard. The [Command Palette](/features/command-palette) reaches any of 200+ actions by name, and almost every action has a keyboard shortcut. #### One window, inline editing There is no separate piano-roll or audio-editor window. A clip is edited where it sits on the timeline: entering [Focus Mode](/features/focus-mode) expands the clip in place for note, slice, and automation editing, then collapses it back into the arrangement. #### One source per track Each track has a single sound source — one audio sample, or one Audio Unit instrument — followed by one effects chain. One source, one chain, one output. On a sample track, every clip is a region of that track's one audio file. #### Recording is a mode Record is a global mode toggled with `Caps Lock`, and the selected track is the record target — there is no separate per-track record-arm step. The mode works two ways: * **With playback** (`Space`) — live recording. A ghost clip grows under the playhead. * **Without playback** (transport stopped) — step recording. Each key places a note or slice at the cursor and advances one grid step, the way a step sequencer or tracker works. What gets captured depends on the selected track: MIDI on instrument tracks, slice triggers on sample tracks with transients, audio input on empty sample tracks. See [Recording](/features/recording). #### The grid and groove Position is musical — bars and beats — with snapping on by default. A [groove](/features/groove) template shifts the timing grid itself, so the same swing applies to snapping and editing as well as playback. #### Automation Automation lives in independent lanes, each a `0–1` curve edited like a clip. One lane can drive several parameters and several lanes can drive one parameter: in **Absolute** mode a lane sets the value, in **Relative** mode it adds a signed offset that stacks on top, which also covers modulation. See [Automation](/features/automation). #### Sidechain modes Sidechain has three modes: **Audio** routes a source track's signal into the plugin's sidechain bus, while **MIDI** and **Trigger Impulse** derive the trigger from positions — clip starts and note-ons, including the clip starts of an audio track — rather than from the waveform. Because those positions are known in advance there is no detection delay, and a lookahead can fire the trigger early. See [Sidechain](/features/sidechain). #### Ducking **Ducking** is native, plugin-free sidechaining: a track's output is lowered by a hand-drawn gain shape whenever another track's clips or notes fire, applied after the clipper and always downward. A ducking is named and project-wide — authored once on its trigger track, then applied to any number of targets, each with its own amount. Like the trigger-based sidechain modes it is a pure timeline function, so it adds no latency and renders identically live and in a [bounce](/features/bounce). See [Ducking](/features/ducking). #### Listen Bus A [Listen Bus](/features/monitor-profiles) holds monitoring effects that play during playback but are excluded from a [bounce](/features/bounce) — for reference or monitoring chains that should not be part of the final output. #### No bundled plugins Gridshift includes no stock instruments or effects. It hosts the [Audio Units](/features/inspector) installed on your system, which provide the instruments and effects. ## What's familiar Most other concepts map onto ones you already know: * A **timeline / arrangement** with a bar/beat ruler, tracks stacked vertically, clips arranged horizontally. * **Tracks, clips, groups, buses, and a master** output. * **Audio Units** — the standard macOS plugin format. * **MIDI, sends, and quantize.** * **Non-destructive editing** with full undo, and standard drag / trim / split / copy / paste. These work as in most DAWs; the section above covers what differs. ## Core objects A project is a tree of **tracks**; each track holds **clips** along the timeline. ### Track model Each track has a single sound source — an audio sample or an Audio Unit instrument — followed by an effects chain. **Groups** act as summing buses for their child tracks: they appear in the [sidebar](/features/sidebar) track list, but only tracks that contain clips show as rows in the timeline. | Type | Description | | -------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | | **Sample** | Tied to a single audio file. One sample per track. | | **Instrument** | Hosts an Audio Unit plugin and receives MIDI input. | | **Group** | Organizes tracks and acts as an audio bus for its children. | | **Master Bus** | Final output. All audio flows through here. | | **Listen Bus** | Monitoring bus that holds effects ignored on bounce. Configured per output via [Monitor Profiles](/features/monitor-profiles). | ### Clip model A clip is a region on a track's timeline with its own position and length. Editing a clip never alters the underlying source, so trimming, splitting, and moving are non-destructive. What a clip holds follows its track. | Type | Description | | -------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | **Audio** | A region of the track's one sample, with its own offset into the file, fades, time-stretch, and per-clip gain. | | **MIDI** | A sequence of notes on an instrument track, edited in the inline piano roll. | | **Automation** | A `0–1` curve in an [automation](/features/automation) lane, edited like a clip and mapped to one or more parameters. | Editing happens in place: [Focus Mode](/features/focus-mode) expands a clip for note, slice, and automation editing, then collapses it back. Duplicating a clip keeps the copies [linked](/features/linked-clips) by default, so an edit to one updates them all. See [Timeline Editing](/features/timeline) for clip creation, gain, and looping. ## Next steps Arranging, editing, and clip operations Inline audio and MIDI editing Full shortcut reference All available commands