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Adjust a plugin on its card

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Bypass a plugin

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Open the full view

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Duplicate or remove an effect

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Paste an effect onto another track

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Reorder effects

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Good to know

  • The strip follows the track you select. Automation tracks have no effects, so the strip is hidden while one is selected. Adding effects: Load Instruments and Effects.
  • To paste into a track with no effects, click its empty strip first, then press ⌘V.
  • A bypassed plugin uses no CPU. An orange power button means Zero Latency Monitoring is bypassing the plugin for now.
  • Switch Preset and Save Preset sit under the power button. See Effect Presets.
  • ⌘3 selects the first card if none was selected. The selected card has a selection ring. Esc moves the keyboard back to the timeline.
  • A pasted effect keeps its parameters, bypass, Mix settings and sidechain routing.
  • Duplicate, remove, cut and paste are each one step for ⌘Z.
  • ⌘ is only the trigger and is not sent to the plugin. Modifiers the plugin uses itself still work: ⇧-drag for fine adjustment, or ⌥-click to reset, wherever the plugin supports it. A plain click opens the full view, a plain drag reorders the card.
  • On a few GPU-rendered plugins the pointer can jump when you release a drag. The value you set is still correct.
  • ⌘-drag works on the instrument and MIDI-effect cards in the Inspector too.
  • While the full view is open, the card shows two tabs instead of the plugin. Sidechain sets the plugin’s sidechain source, and Parameters lists its parameters as sliders.
  • Plugins without a custom interface show parameter sliders on the card, a scrollable list with names and values.
  • Move to Return Track creates a new Return named after the plugin. The effect moves there with its settings, and a silent send from your track feeds it. It works on sample, instrument and group tracks, and one ⌘Z puts everything back. Sends: Sends and Returns.
  • Moving a plugin to a Return resets Apply to to All, because a Return is fully wet.
  • Everything outside the Apply to part passes the plugin untouched and comes back in time with it. With a plugin that does nothing, the result sounds exactly like the original.
  • Input never changes the dry signal. That is why an automated Input makes a clean throw: the tail rings out, where Wet would cut it off.
  • With Apply to on a band, Mid or Side, Dry is the unprocessed copy of that part only.
  • The Mix button turns orange when anything differs from the default. Reset puts every setting back. The card adds the chosen part after the plugin name, for example Low < 180 Hz.
  • Several plugins on the same band: set each one to that band. For EQ, compression, delay and reverb this sounds the same as one shared band. A saturator’s added harmonics stay in the signal and are not split again.
  • The card menu (right-click) holds Open Full View, Bypass, Copy, Cut, Paste, Move to Return Track and Remove. The left edge holds the power button, Switch Preset, Save Preset and the plugin’s name; the right edge A (Gain Match), Mix and a stereo level meter: RMS bars, peak bars and a peak hold marker that decays after a short hold.
Click the A button at the top of the card’s right edge and switch Gain Match on; it turns green. Play the track for three seconds, then compare with the bypass button.
  • Gain Match takes loudness out of the comparison. Louder sounds better, so a plugin that adds level wins every A/B. Gridshift listens to the signal going into the plugin and coming out, then sets a fixed gain after it so both are equally loud.
  • The matched gain holds until you change the plugin. Turning a knob, switching a preset or moving the Mix faders makes it listen again, and while you turn it follows along so the level stays put. Automation and the bypass button do not trigger it.
  • Click Relearn to listen again on purpose, for example after moving to a louder part of the song. A compressor or saturator reacts differently to quiet and loud parts.
  • The learned gain is saved with the project and used in bounces. A duplicate or a paste on the same track keeps it; pasted onto another track, the effect learns again.
  • The popover shows State (waiting for playback or signal, learning, or holding), Gain (the gain applied after the plugin) and Residual (how far the match is off on what played since it learned).
Switch on Settings → Experimental → Plugin preview on hover. Point at the plugin interface on a card and it opens at its native size right above the card. Move the pointer away and it shrinks back.
  • The preview takes keyboard focus only once you click into it. While it is open, the card below shows its sidechain settings and parameter controls.
  • It works on Inspector cards too. Instrument and MIDI-effect cards open right over the card, and the same switch lets an instrument track’s icon in the track list open its instrument on hover.
Last modified on October 22, 2026