Glossary - Gridshift

Most used

Term	Meaning
Track	One row of the project with one sound source, an effects chain and a mix stage. See Tracks and Tracks, Clips and Sources.
Clip	A region on a track with its own position and length. Editing a clip never changes the file or notes behind it. See Clips.
Sound source	What a track plays: one sample or one instrument. Every track has exactly one. See Tracks, Clips and Sources.
Edit cursor	Where the next edit, paste or new clip lands. It moves with the arrow keys. See Cursor, Playhead and Loop.
Playhead	Where playback is right now. Click the ruler to move it. See Cursor, Playhead and Loop.
Loop	The range between the loop braces that repeats while the loop is on (`⌘L`). See Loop and Locators.
Focus Mode	One clip opened in place on the timeline for note, slice or curve editing (`⌥↓`). See Focus Mode.
Command Palette	The searchable list of every command (`⌘K`). See Command Palette.

Tracks

Term	Meaning
Sample track	A track that plays one audio file, as clips or as slices. See Tracks.
Instrument track	A track that plays MIDI clips through an Audio Unit instrument, the built-in sampler or an instrument preset. See Load Instruments and Effects.
Group track	A sub-mix bus its child tracks play through, with its own effects and mix. It has no row on the timeline. See Groups.
Return track	A shared bus that tracks send into, for one reverb or delay used by many tracks. See Sends and Returns.
Send	How much of a track’s signal goes to a return, tapped Pre-Mix or Post-Mix. See Sends and Returns.
Master	The final output every track reaches. See Group Mix and Master Mix.
Automation track (lane)	A track that holds automation clips, whose curve drives one or more parameters. See Automation.
Listen Bus	The monitoring path that carries a monitor profile’s gain and correction plugin; it never reaches a bounce. See Monitor Profiles.
Chord track	The instrument track whose chords other tracks can follow. See Chord Track.

Clips and samples

Term	Meaning
Audio clip	A window into a sample track’s file, with its own offset, fades, gain and stretch. See Audio Clips.
MIDI clip	Notes on an instrument track, edited in the piano roll. See Piano Roll.
Automation clip	A 0–1 curve on an automation lane, drawn by hand or generated by an LFO. See Automation Clips.
Linked clip	A copy made with `⌘D` that stays the same as its siblings: edit one, all follow. See Linked Clips.
Clip gain	A clip’s own level, set relative to its peak with the number keys. See Clip Gain.
Transient marker	A detected or hand-placed hit in a sample, where a slice starts. See Slices.
Slice	The span of a sample from one transient marker to the next, playable from a key. See Slices.
Stems	The parts a mix or drum loop is split into: vocals, drums, bass, other, or kick, snare, cymbals. See Stems.
Warp	Time-stretching a sample to the project tempo, Punchy (as slices) or Smooth (continuous). See Time-Stretching.
Pattern	A MIDI file in the library that you stamp onto a track. See Patterns.
Marquee	A selected time range across tracks, made by dragging on empty space. See Clips.
Locator	A named marker in the ruler that labels a song section (`⌥L`). See Loop and Locators.

Playing and recording

Term	Meaning
Musical Typing	Playing notes or slices from the letter keys. See Play with the Keyboard.
Keys Layout / Controller Layout	How the letter keys, or a hardware controller, map to notes: Scale, Piano, Drums or Follow. See Play with the Keyboard and Play a MIDI Controller.
Record mode	`⇪` on: step entry with the transport stopped, live recording while it plays. See Record MIDI.
MIDI Capture	What you played without recording, kept and placed with `⇧C`. See MIDI Capture.
Groove	The swing and feel notes, quantized slices and the metronome follow. See Groove.
Quantize	Moving clip starts and notes to the grid (`⌘U`). See Quantize.
Pitch Snap	Which rows a note may land on in the piano roll: Off, Scale or Chord. See Pitch Snap.

Mixing and output

Term	Meaning
Mix section	A track’s volume, stereo, mono-below, pan, mix filter and clipper in the Inspector. See Track Mix.
Ducking	A drawn volume dip on one track, fired by another track’s clips or notes, with no plugin. See Ducking.
Sidechain	A plugin listening to another track’s audio, MIDI or trigger impulses. See Sidechain.
Monitor profile	One listening setup: output device, channel pair, gain and correction plugin (`⌘P`). See Monitor Profiles.
Zero Latency Monitoring	Bypassing latency-adding plugins while you play, so what you hear has no delay. See Zero Latency Monitoring.
Bounce in place	Rendering selected clips with their effects to a new sample track (`⌘B`). See Bounce and Export.
Flatten	Replacing a track with its rendered audio while its mixer stays live (`⌥F`). See Bounce and Export.

Window and library

Term	Meaning
Sidebar	The track list on the left. See The Window.
Inspector	The panel of tabs for the selected track and project (`⌘1` / `⌘2`). See The Window.
Plugin Strip	The row of effect cards for the selected track (`⌘3`). See Plugin Strip.
Info Bar	The line at the bottom that names the control under the pointer (`?`). See The Window.
Sample Library	Your own samples, patterns and presets, searchable and synced (`⌘Y`). See Sample Library.
Collection	A named set of samples, presets or projects; an item can sit in several. See Organize Samples.
Smart Search	Finding samples by how they sound, not their name. See Smart Search.
Instrument preset	An instrument with its MIDI effects and effect chain, saved to reuse. See Instrument Presets.
Version	A saved snapshot of the project with an audio preview (`⇧⌘S`). See Versions.
Assistant (MCP)	An AI client such as Claude or ChatGPT connected to Gridshift over the Model Context Protocol, reading and changing the open project through its tools. See Assistants.

Last modified on October 22, 2026