How I route audio in Ableton Live: Sends and Returns in Ableton Live

I use Sends and Returns when I route audio live on stage when running tracks in Ableton Live. This gives me the ultimate freedom and flexibility with audio routing and allows me to pre-route all my audio before I step on stage.

As I've discussed my 3-Part Framework for Using Tracks, many of you had questions about why and how I use Sends and Returns. I created this video to walk you through why and how I use Sends and Returns on stage to have maximum freedom and flexibility.

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Learn why and how I use Sends and Returns for Audio Routing in Ableton Live.

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[gabriel_levi]

This approach is saving my life for an upcoming gig. Found out the venue only has a 6 input stage snake for the entire band and am having to send all backing tracks to a single output. Was so easy to reroute the audio using sends and returns!

[wilsonvilleguitar]

Thank you so much for this! Saved my life.

[BenjaminParker]

@will how do you route the outputs to the master fade though. With everything going out separate I have to control them individually instead of being able to use the master volume to control all of the volumes together

[JBorda]

Hey man great info!
I’ve been looking for info about optimizing the master out to FOH . Like ideal loudness levels, limiters, mono vs. St, clippers, etc
I run my Ableton with some backing tracks ( and soft synths) for a band.

[pierrelawrence]

I now use live 12. I did all my sends in the songs. When I drag songs into sets, the send and return routing doesn’t transfer. Any ideas why that happens?

[nutstradamus]

Hi Will. I really appreciate this video and others I have seen from you. I use a playaudio 12 & would like to adopt this method. I love the flexibility & ease with which I could switch from working at home without my interface, to rehearsals (small desk limits me to 4 outputs), to stage, where I use 10 outputs.

I play keys (& send track, click and prog changes) Is there any way of sending to returns from an instrument rack? I currently use ext audio effects to, for instance, send my left hand parts to an Output for 'sub bass', and my right hand parts to 'synths'. This is OK. But I have forty or so songs with complex instrument patches & its a stressful task to locate all these ext audio effects, nested within instrument rack chains, if I need to simply re-route these outputs in order to sum them or whatever.

Am i missing something?

Cheers, T

[MrHaganonline]

Thanks for this breakdown! Can you explain why the master out stays at 1/2 please? Also if I want to use in-ears with 10 outputs, how do I connect to FOH so that I can hear the click in the left ear and the rest in the right? Would I need to purchase a smaller mixer or can the split be done from FOH?

[Gabrielmarchiorio]

I update to live 12 and I did all my sends in the songs. When I drag songs into sets, the send and return routing doesn’t transfer. Any way to do the same on this version of live now? Thank you Will

[microdoulo]

How can use ableton I want put background music and tack same time for zoom app? It’s possible

[jthunderbass]

Can you have redundancy with Dante Virtual Sound Card?
Can I have two laptops running Ableton and if one fails the other takes over, using Dante?

[gardnermoseley]

How do you keep the settings/levels for your sends on each track from clearing when you save/drag a song into a new master set?

[jadenluna]

How do you group the different instruments individually?