Aux SENDS and RETURNS, BUSES and GROUPS in Ableton Live 11

[@rickdeleon6489]

Am somewhat new to using Ableton Live (2 yrs) and I've watched this tutorial a few times and finally the light came on. This is an excellent video, easy to follow and understand. Thank you. Keep them coming, Again, Thank you so much.

[@kage-fm]

random tip: compression then reverb = compressed signal with natural, simple sounding reverb. reverb then compression = compressed sound with dynamic, smooshy reverb that reacts to the signal. both are good!

[@BeckySaifMusic]

Love it! ✌️

[@royallmuzikproductionz]

Which is better for vocals. I’m just going to start using on vox and want to nail it😁

[@johnviera3884]

or you can put the compressor after the reverb. And side chain the vocal to the compressor. The compressor will duck the washy verb during the sentences

[@ironqueen_osrs]

Perfect tutorial, very clear and comprehendible, no unnecessary information, no bs around the information! Love it! thank you!

[@BeckySaifMusic]

Glad it was helpful!

[@sajor]

I always go into these tutorials expecting to quickly turn them off when I realize it’s not at all what I’m looking for, but I could not have asked for more cohesive and clear coverage of what I was after. Thank you! So happy to find this!

[@BeckySaifMusic]

Aww thats amazing. Thank you so much for sharing that with me. Gives me hope that I'm doing something right. 😊

[@seancphygital]

I've watched a few videos on this topic and it finally clicked after I watched this one. Thank you!

[@BeckySaifMusic]

Glad it was helpful!

[@julianyon3669]

Thank you so much! Love how you simplify these things and make our lives a little easier. Your channel is a true gem for us Ableton newbies. Keep it up!

[@BeckySaifMusic]

Thank you so much for your comment and feedback! That means a lot to hear and drives me to keep making more content. 🙏

[@aaronengelmann9877]

finally. as a Fl studio user switching over it took forever to find a video explaining it thank you

[@KhurramMurtaza]

Finally I understood all these concepts. This was very very useful

[@BeckySaifMusic]

yay!

[@TeenyBopped]

smh, i should have watched this video before posting my nonsense. now i gotta go back and tweak. Thanks a lot for the lesson!

[@BeckySaifMusic]

Hey that's alright. Here to help. At least you found it!

[@BARBERSHOPP]

this track reminds me of bomberman hero on 64 and i love it

[@bg1299]

I love that you differentiated between sends, returns, busses and groups :-) I'm sure that new Live users will find it helpful, especially when you explained that parallel processing can be done inside racks as well as via sends and returns. Big up Becky x

[@BeckySaifMusic]

Hey you're welcome. Thanks so much for checking out the video. The parallel processing inside racks is a life saver and greatly frees up return channel space. Big up yourself! ;)

[@iamsyntact]

thank you Becky, great video! here are a couple extra tips I thought of: - you can use a Gate or a Compressor to route audio from any channel to any other by activating Sidechain mode, selecting the track you want to route from, then clicking the preview button (with the headphones) and just leaving it on. this has been super helpful to me for sending audio to multiple different places at once - you can also use parallel processing to have a return track sidechain to its own dry signal! I use this all the time on delays which results in a very clean call-and-response delay effect. all you need to do is group the delay into a rack, create a parallel chain and mute it. then drop a compressor in front of the delay and sidechain it to the chain you just muted. cheers :)

[@BeckySaifMusic]

Nice! Thanks for sharing :)

[@markardisson2791]

finally someone that explains this concept well in ableton! thansksss

[@s_e_a_r_c_h]

Hell yeah Becky! Keep that content coming!

[@BeckySaifMusic]

I will! Every day on the grind haha

[@PJD02915]

This was a super helpful video so thank you! I did not realize that i was old, old school, back in the day etc until this video. I'm just going to turn to dust now.

[@AlannaSterling]

Oh hi Becky!! KZbin suggested me to you :o I'm trying to learn how to use sends in Ableton. Thanks for your help!

[@BeckySaifMusic]

Well if it isn't an Alanna Sterling original!! 🤸‍♀️😆 Hello lovely. Nice to see you here. 🖤

[@evanmcdoniels]

this is so great, thank you! I had learned in my intro class how to do send/return/buses on Protools (they have you set up the track differently from the get-go) but couldn't figure out the terminology Ableton used for it but now it makes total sense. When I was just self-taught, I always piled a bunch of plugins on each individual track and it got so messy I didn't understand why but then when we learned of these send/returns for effects/compression it's been a gamechanger, thanks for showing the Ableton way, and very cool studio you have too! cheers

[@BeckySaifMusic]

So glad it was helpful for you. Thanks for taking the time to comment and for sharing your experience. 😁🖤

[@mostasteless9798]

Word! I did the same thjng for years lol. On my old i3 processor you shou)dve hesrd some of the noise id get it to make from the processor swearing at me probably. Lol. I learned Prot Tools at Art Institute and yes the terminology is different. Just a few weeks ago I was talkkng to one of the friends I made there..2010-2014...and i was talkkng in Ableton terms and hes still a pro tools guy and we got each other confused for a secind..then i switched to pro tools language and we got it figured out. Making a bus or aux send or geouping on pro tools is the same on ableton..its just pt calls it an aux and ableton calls it a send? I still dont know lol.

[@GLRYB2GD]

Very helpful! Thanks! Gonna have to practice parallel processing a bit.

[@BeckySaifMusic]

Yeah it's a bit of trial and error with parallel but it's worth it when you get it right!

[@caraha02]

I have watch SO many videos trying to learn this very thing and have YET to see someone just say how to do it. Thank you thank you thank you 🙏

[@BeckySaifMusic]

You are so welcome!

[@RIFTHerc]

Great info!! Don't forget - you can Automate how much signal is being sent to any Return track just as you can automate the input signal amount if, say, a Glue Compressor is on only 1 instrument track.

[@BeckySaifMusic]

Thanks for sharing this!

[@corelli58]

Thanks for this very clear video!

[@BeckySaifMusic]

Hey you're welcome. Thanks so much for checking it out and for commenting.

[@etenbroeck]

Fantastic video, thank you for your contributions. You have made clear some very confusing terms and concepts! E

[@BeckySaifMusic]

Glad it was helpful!

[@TheLordQueenYo]

Amazing tutorial :) Thanks ❤

[@BeckySaifMusic]

Glad you liked it!

[@OMNS777]

Cheers Becky!! Learned a lot! Thank you for helping some of us get back to basics!! Subscribed!!

[@BeckySaifMusic]

Glad it was helpful! Thanks for the sub

[@rob.elo.music.]

Thank you! This is exactly the video I was looking for. Very clear and well explained.

[@BeckySaifMusic]

Well that's lovely to hear! Thank you for commenting 😁

[@iceman6555]

Thanks for this Becky, just what i needed

[@BeckySaifMusic]

You're welcome. Glad you found it helpful! 😊

[@vanstaden]

explained in the simplest form possible, well done. It gets quite complicated taking this further if we get to sidechaining, synth effects, racks being shifted into a single channel, bus mixes, bus Fx and quick stems. but i figure if they know this, they will figure the rest out rather quick.

[@BeckySaifMusic]

Thank you so much! Yes I agree

[@vanstaden]

@@BeckySaifMusic can i remix any song i want and stick it on spotify?

[@BeckySaifMusic]

@@vanstaden not on spotify unless you have the copyright owners permission

[@vanstaden]

@@BeckySaifMusic yea i thought as much. Inc royalty shares and all that....

[@5omanatic]

Thank you Very useful tip You are a beautiful person

[@BeckySaifMusic]

My pleasure 😊

[@davidhayman9330]

Thanks this was very helpful and clearly explained!

[@brucemillar]

Nice one! Cheers Becky!

[@BeckySaifMusic]

😊

[@daslukebeats]

Thank you, this is the vest video explaining this. As an Ableton user it's always been confusing when I watch videos of people mixing with Protools or Logic. Seems like grouping is the way to go!

[@BeckySaifMusic]

Glad it was helpful! Ableton is great 😊

[@BrianOdipo]

Very good explanation. Thank you.

[@TheCelestineProph]

Great video. Straight to the point and short. Q: if you GROUP a bunch of (similar tracks - drums) and you want to add an audio effect can you add it to the group named track ( the one with no sounds on it) like you would/ could if you created the old school bus (track)? Thanks.

[@tahiche.]

Great video!. Really well explained, clear and to the point. Looking forward to more. Thanks! 🙏

[@DawlessHouseMusic]

That was hard for me. Thanks for making it much more pleasant to learn.

[@khallif6368]

The best video about Ableton

[@RustyRogear]

Great explanation! Using return tracks there causes delay and phase problems. Parallel processing with the effect rack might solve this

[@BeckySaifMusic]

Thanks so much for your comment! Yes I agree, it's great to have the option to do parallel processing in both the racks and with the return channels in Ableton.

[@velazquez1712]

Brilliant! Concise and on point. Thank you!

[@BeckySaifMusic]

You're welcome. Glad you got what you needed. 😁

[@mostasteless9798]

Thank you. Very easy to follow compared to many others. I have a queation you didnt talk about. When you create a new send,and the enable button shows up on each track..including the send tracks themselves..what do those do? Do are they for ckntrolling the amount they send to the master? But that wouodnt make sense for them to have send enable buttons for the other send tracks right? They all show up at inf by default,and alot of times if I start turning all those up on the send tracks themselves instrad of the audio tracks..then I get grainular feedback. Im jjst curious what they can be used for. I have an old physucal copy of Ableton 8 manual and it doesnt address their purpose either.

[@chozilla]

Does anyone got a good reason why to still configure and use a BUS in Ableton Live when GROUPS are actually the better solution? Effects can be placed on Groups as well even if Becky does not mention it in the video explicitly - the part with the parallel processing could be done on the drum group instead.

[@BeckySaifMusic]

Thanks for your comment. You can route X amount of signals from different channels into a bus whereas with groups all signals go into them. It's especially useful in the live performance aspect of Ableton. Thanks for the extra info regarding parallel processing in the drum group!

[@Sergio-ee8xd]

wow this was so good, clear, and to the point.

[@BeckySaifMusic]

Awesome to hear 💖

[@speckles-ks2ui]

and i JUST learned more about you Becky 😻

[@kosmo_komputer]

Super helpful thanks. So a group is basically the same thing as a bus. When would you use a Bus instead of a Group? Is it just a visual difference in Ableton? Are there any processes you can do with a Bus and not a Group and vice versa?

[@BeckySaifMusic]

Yeah it's just a visual difference in Ableton. They essentially do the same thing. Collapsing the group to save screen space is a major benefit to using groups in Ableton. You wouldn't be able to collapse all tracks being sent to the bus. It would be a one by one job. Just depends on how the user prefers to route things - traditionally or 'the Ableton way' 😉

[@kosmo_komputer]

@@BeckySaifMusic Awesome, thanks!

[@mrfish4572]

Thanks for this video. However, for me, this was missing the big why. Why and when would I use a group, when would I use an effect on a track and when use a bus or a return. Returns have the huge added benefit that they dont reduce the overall volume when using a dry/wet. Inline effects do.

[@birthdaydog1244]

thank you!! needed a refresher this was great :)

[@BeckySaifMusic]

Awesome. Glad I could help 😊

[@DaKink]

Awesome video again!

[@BeckySaifMusic]

Awwe thanks man 😁

[@hectordiaz6379]

Thank you so much, this actually helped me a lot to undestand those terms, can be a little bit tricky.

[@BeckySaifMusic]

Amazing to hear how helpful this was for you. Glad you got something from the video. Thanks so much for the comment.

[@webdev_am]

Excellent explaination 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥 thank you so short and clean.

[@corinaboho]

Fantastic tutorial as usual, I always learn so much from you. Thanks soooo much for sharing your knowledge is such a simple and easy to understand way! 😃

[@BeckySaifMusic]

Yeay! Thanks for checking it out. Love hearing that you're getting so much from the videos. Thanks for the comment :)

[@1SainSaiya]

just found out this channel, very useful tutorial ! Grouping will defo help, keep it up Becky , im subscribing

[@BeckySaifMusic]

Thanks so much. Really appreciate the comment and sub. 😁

[@commonbeats]

Yoooo! Love this, thank you! Also that beat is 🔥😱

[@BeckySaifMusic]

Glad you appreciate it 🤘

[@zachariaswolfe]

Thank you for this video! So useful, cleared up a lot of things I was confused about.

[@ZabicSolFA]

I love you.. you are such a mom!

[@prodbkc]

So thorough, thank you so much for this video!

[@BeckySaifMusic]

You're welcome 😊

[@Tinto2]

This is helpful, thanks!

[@BeckySaifMusic]

Welcome 😊

[@Kopfman876]

Such a helpful video! Thank you this was very short, fun and clear!

[@BeckySaifMusic]

Great to hear you enjoyed it and got what you needed 🤗

[@ThePapabull]

Thanks Becky very useful

[@BeckySaifMusic]

Glad it was helpful!

[@adamBnEII]

Great tutorial Becky Summer.

[@afroditta6950]

Basically groups and buses are the same thing, while return channels (although pretty much the same thing) provide an extra layer for structuring your effects. The main purpose of all of this being to optimize CPU usage. Good to know if i understood it correctly, I have Ableton Live Intro and I'm limited to 2 return channels, which I can easily get around using groups/buses.

[@BeckySaifMusic]

Yeah you are absolutely right. Groups are Abletons Bus system. Organisation and CPU I would say. Return channels are where you send a part of your signal to another chain of processing, so that you can blend it in with your original signal. Nice work!!

[@afroditta6950]

@@BeckySaifMusic Thanks a lot for your explanations!

[@BLUMUNMUSIC]

Video was so awesome!! Thank you :)

[@BeckySaifMusic]

You're so welcome!

[@mason.nagy71]

Just to get some clarification, would you get the same result of grouping multiple tracks and using the main group channel as your “bus” as if you were routing the more traditional way of an actual bus channel or would the outcome be different? If I had the same compressor on the old school bus method as well as the group tracks method, would they both end up sounding the same? Thanks in advance for the information!

[@altbaeb671]

Yo thank you this def helped 🙏🙏

[@BeckySaifMusic]

No problem 👍

[@ruahproduction1739]

Hi there, I'm just wondering is bus the only way to process multiple tracks. Wouldn't all drum tracks need to be compressed together. You refer to it as old school is there another way. How do you process your drums. Thanks. Sorry for beginner question.

[@BeckySaifMusic]

Old school way is by creating a seperate track and outputting the audio of those tracks to that one channel to sum them together. This is how it's done on hardware. In Ableton you can still do it this way or simply group them together. It is essentially the same thing but appears as a grouped bundle of tracks rather than a seperate standalone track where they are apl being sent to. Hope that helps.

[@JohnJCButtigieg]

Thank you for the video this is great and really well explained! I was also wondering how do you get your grid lines to be so bold in Ableton Live? It looks great

[@BeckySaifMusic]

Hey John thanks so much for your feedback. My Ableton has been changed using the options in the Look/Feel tab in the Preferences. 😁

[@awaytolivewell]

Wow I had no idea about all this stuff. I've got some really great stuff to play around with. Can't wait for your next vid you are always bringing the interesting stuff.

[@BeckySaifMusic]

Yes! You're welcome. Check out my Ableton course as well if you're pretty new to all of this. It will help fast track your learning and get your skills acquired in no time. 😁

[@GailHerrera]

thanks so much! awesome job!

[@fliptopmusic]

Brilliant tutorial :)

[@BeckySaifMusic]

😁

[@bipedal_earth_roamer]

Does a bus track require you to recording to it for the bus effect to be rendered in mixdown or does it do it automatically during export?

[@BeckySaifMusic]

Rendering options on export : Include return and master effects - you can turn this on and off

[@Chris-ng9vz]

Wonderful knowledge

[@cyranoproducer]

Great video! Question - what's the difference between adding that Glue Compressor onto the DRUMS Group that you created instead of creating another track and creating a Bus?

[@alllovese4syx319]

Its about having structure in mixing, not manipulating all instruments in one group but only chosen instruments if you need to and having the ability to change the sound overall if you decide to change in inside the group. If you want to add a different vibe or layer of effects to your mix, you do it with a bus. Each position of an effect has its consequence in an effect rack. It depends on your delivery and wishes on what you want accomplish. But be careful, because you dont want your mixes to sound muddy

[@cyranoproducer]

@@alllovese4syx319 thanks a lot for this! Makes sense and is very helpful. Cheers!

[@Marineight]

What are the benefits of using return channels?

[@jadedragon469]

I can insert vsts onto a group track in ableton too though if im not mistaken? Is there a benifit to using a traditional audio track as a bus processing unit or can i just use my vsts on the group buss created with the ctrl G command? Help 😅

[@MM4F]

Any tips on dealing with the sends for a track that's inside a bus? If you solo the bus and lower the gain to zero, you still hear the send going through the master.. So when you change the gain of the bus, the send is still sent at its original level, or does for us;)

[@BeckySaifMusic]

Hi I'm really sorry but I'm not quite sure what you mean as you've mentioned sends, buses and the master and sends inside a bus - which I'm not quite sure what you mean? Is there another way you could try to explain or if you want to join the twitch stream / discord we can chat there.😁

[@tiancandela]

Thank you so much

[@BeckySaifMusic]

You're most welcome

[@noire7084]

Great video

[@BeckySaifMusic]

Thanks!

[@simonkendrick762]

Can you create more than 12 returns in the rack ?

[@BeckySaifMusic]

You have a limit of 12 return channels. In the rack, you are creating chains and you can make as many as you want.

[@xdomm951]

Good stuff 👍

[@BeckySaifMusic]

😁

[@JunMan]

THANKS

[@BeckySaifMusic]

😊

[@Vonnalouchie]

Thanks for this!

[@deanc2000]

Is the send pre-fader or post-fader? If pre-fader, pre-effects or post-effects? Can we control these factors?

[@johnmcafee9663]

So i have a bunch of tracks in a group, i use a lowpass filter on the group track, i send that group to a return track, when i turn the filter all the way down on the group track i still hear the return track...... how do i have the return track also effected by the filter in the group track ? it wont let you add return tracks to groups, so i know im going to have to route this some other way but dont know how ? im new to ableton coming from a different DAW

[@brendonmccarroll2072]

Do you have it set to Post Fader?

[@johnmcafee9663]

@@brendonmccarroll2072 i remember playing around with it on another session and not getting the result i was looking for, but i will go back and play abit more, on other daws its pretty simple thing to group sends

[@spacejourneywaves5420]

Is this same functional that group tracks and bus tracks?

[@BeckySaifMusic]

Absolutely. This is Abletons way of bussing tracks!

[@spacejourneywaves5420]

@@BeckySaifMusic Thank you so much

[@aidanjeffers1020]

Thank you!

[@mauriciotorrelio9612]

okay so say i have all the vocals in a group stack, and one of the tracks in the group has a delay send at 50%... does it go through the delay send before going through whatever effects are on the group stack? Or does the track go through the group stack effects before going through its own specific send??? this is so confusing bc the group stack has sends too(but im not talking about the group stack sends)!

[@BeckySaifMusic]

Each track / group is independently sent to the return fx and not via any other routing. So your vocal track is independently going to the return channel at a 50% delay. The vocal track is being routed to the group (without the 50% delay from the return channel) where it joins all the other tracks in that group and then it is once again sent to the return delay channel but this time with all the other tracks in the group (and whatever processing is on that group). So it sounds like you are sending it twice. Once when it is a standalone track and secondly when it is part of the group. Hope that helps!

[@mauriciotorrelio9612]

@@BeckySaifMusic Thank you that makes a lot of sense. I wish I could send my individual tracks to the return channels AFTER going through my vocal chain in my group. But oh well it looks like my cpu will be working overdrive with a bunch of single tracks each w vocal chains. Very helpful reply

[@BeckySaifMusic]

@@mauriciotorrelio9612 oh yeah that would centainly be a lot of individual processing. Bye bye cpu in that case. 😅

[@ptmaudio5738]

Bus và Group có giống nhau về chức năng?

[@jedrzejpjedrzejczak]

It is better to use pre fader return track for paralell processing cause you never loose the amount of signal that you send to a return track if you change the value on the fader. Try it and you'll love it

[@PanopticMotion]

Nice! Using a pre-fader return track for parallel processing gives you more flexibility and control over the balance between the processed and unprocessed signals, as you can adjust them independently without any unwanted level changes caused by fader movements.

[@oddsnends686]

Thanks!

[@electricmoon5402]

When using a return track, what are your thoughts on using Send Only vs. using both signals?

[@BeckySaifMusic]

I tend to use send only for sidechaining. I will use both signals generally so that I have more control over them.

[@stmpmusic]

what is the difference between a bus and a group? different sound?

[@bergspot]

Very Clear, thank you! A sub from me.

[@BeckySaifMusic]

Thanks for the sub!

[@apriljoy6177]

great

[@BeckySaifMusic]

Thanks

[@ollyburhouse2464]

I don’t get it? You didn’t route anything to the return track but the signal was sent anyway?

[@RIFTHerc]

I just wish ableton would let us Name the Sends & Returns. Using A,B,C etc... I forget what's what!

[@BeckySaifMusic]

Maybe that's an update for Live 12..... 😉

[@wickidtuna2127]

I thought you could rename the send returns just by right clicking and renaming like everything else?? I always name mine reverb, delay, or sometimes vocal for my vocal send.

[@bartleyrob]

I was expecting a bus to kuduro now im just left empty

[@BeckySaifMusic]

hahaha lol! you and Kuduro. How come I haven't seen you in the stream for a while?

[@leoalatorre7337]

Preciosa que bonito hablas😍

[@debojyotisarkar72]

Wish Live 12 has a "Proper" traditional mixer GOD :(

[@MikeyGotBandz]

A return track IS a bus tho..?

[@PermissionToMeow]

I wouldn’t mind getting parallel and compressing my dry against dat 100% wet. 🙂‍↔️ I’m trying to to dictate how much signal I want to come out. Full send. 👹

[@jthunderbass1]

Trash it. It’s it together something that’s not chaos.

[@__BBRAGA__]

i dont know why nobody explains the returns dif beetwen pre and post lmao