1. EQ shapes the tone: less low end on anything that isn't bass or kick clears mud.
  2. Compressor evens out loud and quiet moments — it makes vocals sound finished.
  3. Overdrive, distortion, fuzz, NY Fuzz (a thick, sustaining wall of fuzz) and tape add warmth and grit.
  4. Chorus, Double Tracker (sounds like you sang or played it twice), phaser, vibrato, tremolo (pick its shape, including a tube amp's throb) and Rotary Speaker (an organ cabinet's swirl) add movement.
  5. Delay repeats the sound in time with the song — bouncing, straight, backwards, or a quick slapback; tape echo is the warm, wobbly kind.
  6. Reverb puts it in a space: Room, Plate (bright), Spring (the boing of an amp), Ambient (a long wash) or Shimmer (a glowing octave-up halo).
  7. Duck to the kick makes an instrument dip each time the kick hits — the pumping sound of dance music. Once you've recorded something, its Under menu can choose a recording instead: the guitar, the keys or even the drums dip whenever the vocal sings, and come back up when it stops.
  8. Plug-ins runs effect apps you've installed (amp sims, vocal processors) on that instrument or track.
  9. Effects on one drum: in Drums (or Song → Mix → Each Drum), a drum's Effects button gives it effects of its own, before the beat's.
  10. Bounce to a Recording (in ⋯ at the top of the screen, and the Beat screen's own ⋯) plays the beat, the sampler pads or the chords once into a recording — to cut, move, chop or reverse like any take — and turns the instrument off. Bring It Back (same menu) undoes it. A Keys layer does the same with Turn … into a Recording, in the ⋯ beside its sound (Play … From Its Notes Again undoes it).