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Add a return track

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Send a track to a return

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Switch between Pre-Mix and Post-Mix

Right-click a send row and choose Send Pre-Mix or Send Post-Mix.

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Balance everything feeding a return

Select the return. Its Incoming Sends section lists every track sending into it. Drag a row to change that source’s level.

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Compare with and without a send

Click the glyph at the start of a send row, or right-click it and choose Bypass Send. The send goes silent and keeps its level; Enable Send brings it back.

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Automate a send

Right-click a send row and choose Automate Send Amount. A new automation lane appears, bound to the send level.

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Good to know

  • A return is a shared bus. Load an effect once on the return, then set how much each source pushes into it: a shared reverb, delay or parallel compression.
  • A send at 0 still exists. Dragging an existing send back to 0 keeps it, with its automation lane and MIDI binding, so automation can open it in the chorus. Only a drag that created the send and ended at 0 leaves nothing behind.
  • Post-Mix rides with the fader. Use it for “more reverb on this track”. Use Pre-Mix to keep the wet path alive while the dry source fades down, or to drive a parallel processor at a fixed level.
  • Muting the source silences its sends, at both tap points. Soloing a return still auditions just the wet signal: its sources keep feeding it while their dry output is silenced.
  • Routing cycles are refused. Gridshift checks every send and refuses one that would close a cycle, which is why a return cannot send to a return.
  • Returns are full tracks: the same effects chain, mix controls, metering and signal history as any other track, including sidechain sources on their plugins.
  • New returns are named Return 1, Return 2, … and inserted just above Master. There is no limit on the number of returns.
  • The Sends section appears once the project has a return. Its header’s ⋯ menu adds another one; the first comes from ⌥⇧⌘T, the Sidebar, the Inspector’s empty-area right-click menu or the Command Palette.
  • Every return gets a row on every track that can send, dimmed until it carries signal. There is no Remove entry; a send goes away only with the track at either end.
  • A new send starts at Post-Mix.
  • For a group track, Pre-Mix taps before the group’s volume and pan, Post-Mix after them.
  • A return’s Output picker, under its name, routes it to Master, a group or another return.
  • Incoming Sends rows mirror the source side: the same 0–150 % range and 100 % snap, the same right-click menu, and Go to Track jumps to the source. The section is hidden when nothing feeds the return.
  • Both sides drive the same connection. An automation lane made from either binds to the same send, and the slider tracks the curve during playback.
  • To move an effect you already have onto a new return, use Move Effect to Return Track on the Plugin Strip.
Right-click menu: Send Pre-Mix / Send Post-Mix, Bypass Send / Enable Send, Automate Send Amount, Go to Track (selects the return in the Sidebar and the Inspector).
Sends per track and returns per project are unlimited. A return’s clipper starts on Limit, since parallel sums run hot.
Last modified on October 22, 2026