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What Is an Aux Send/Return?
An Aux Send/Return is a useful way to route sound inside a mixing console or a DAW. It is short for Auxiliary Send and Return.
The main utility of the aux send/return is that you can send the signal from one or more channels to it and apply an effect to the combined signal. Then you can return that processed signal to the master mix. Each channel strip has one knob for each aux that controls how much of the signal is sent to that aux. If there are two aux send/returns then each channel will have two send knobs, one for each aux. And each aux has one fader that controls how much of the processed signal is returned to the master mix.
Let’s say you have a lead vocal and 4 background vocals. You want to apply a reverb to all the vocals so that they all have the same cohesive effect, but the lead vocal needs much less so that it sounds more present. To achieve this, you can set up the reverb effect on an aux and send the appropriate amount of each of the vocal channels to that aux. Then you can adjust how much of that reverb you hear by using the aux fader to control how much reverb is returned to the master mix.
Blending Wet and Dry
When you use an Aux Send, you create two separate sounds. You have the dry, original vocal. And you have the wet, reverb sound on the Aux Return.
Both are being sent to the master mix. The dry signal comes from each channel strip and the wet signal comes from the aux return. This gives you incredible control. You can turn down all of the reverb at once with the aux fader. You can reduce the reverb for only one channel with the send knob. You can independently change the balance of reverbs between the channels and the volume of the reverb overall.
Saving CPU Power
Using Aux Sends is a good way to reduce the CPU power required by the DAW.
Imagine you have ten different singers. You want them all to have the exact same reverb effect. If you put a separate reverb plugin on all ten vocal tracks, your computer has to run the reverb 10 times. Instead, you create one Aux track with one reverb plugin on it and remove the 10 copies.