Why no Scaler 2 as Midi FX for Ableton?

Scaler 2 Feature Requests
1

Why can’t we use Scaler 2 as Midi FX in Ableton Live and just pop an instrument behind it ? Like you can with other other Midi FX tools .
I’m tired of rerouting and using 2 2 tracks every time I want to use my own instruments instead of the ones in the plug

2

Ableton does not allow 3rd party MIDI FX. Something you would have to take up with Ableton.

3

So it’s on Ableton. What a bummer

4

I have no problems using Scaler in Ableton. It’s pretty straight forward. What problems are you having?

5

I guess you did not exactly understand my question.
I want to use Scaler 2 as a midi FX instead of an instrument in Ableton. Like in some other DAW’s
Scaler 2 as instrument plugin works fine in Ableton.
There is a way by using re-routing, but you need 2 tracks for that.

6

No, I understood the question perfectly. Just wanted to make sure you weren’t having other routing difficulties. The only app Scaler works as a MIDI FX in is Logic on Mac.

7

I very appreciate your input. Wish Ableton was also set up for that like Logic. Feels cumbersome to have to deal with multiple tracks for that.
But I actually went into a workflow where I copy the scaler MIDI data into clips and just continue from there. Using Scalar as starting idea generator instead of actually ending up in my actual song.
Live Sync is also cool for generating ideas.
Same with Cthulhu. It needs a track just for it , and that needs to be piped into another track with instrument. But I end up creating the MIDI clips also.

8

Actually, the standard Scaler VST plugin works automatically as MIDI FX in Bitwig. As soon as chain Scaler on the same track in front of an audio plugin, Bitwig routes Scaler MIDI output to the sound generating plugin. So from a Scaler perspective, even the standard Scaler VST outputs its MIDI. But it requires support from the DAW to read it and route it to a sound plugin. That is one of the reasons I got Bitwig, because you can route MIDI to sound plugins on the same track.

9

Yeah, it is an Ableton specific architectural constraint. Apparently nothing in the MIDI/VST standard is limiting routing MIDI from audio plugins to other audio plugins downstream, as Bitwig is proving. I can not just frontend a sound plugin with MIDI outputting Scaler, but the same works just fine with Arturia Pigments, when you have the Pigments sequencer active but turn off the Pigments internal synths, then it outputs the sequencer MIDI to the downstream audio plugin, in the same track. That is why I am a huge Bitwig fan.

I also use Cthulhu and RandArp or BlueArp in the same fashion.

10

This is also true for Reaper.

BTW I also use BlueArp, Stochas and ChordPotion this way.

An interesting routing is Stochas->Stochas->Instrument. This enables you to draw several different patterns on Stochas and to randomly select the pattern that is triggering the instrument. (I usually have the two instances of Stochas on one track and instrument(s) on separate tracks using the layers in Stochas to drive different instruments: lead, bass, pads, etc.).

Another option is Stochas->ChordPotion->Instrument, again using Stochas to randomly select a page in ChordPotion to trigger the instrument.

I have also set up a routing of Stochas->Scaler (bound to midi)->Instrument. Here Stochas is randomly selecting bound patterns in Scaler, which is the midi input to the instrument.

Finally in Reaper I have just started experimenting with Scaler midi output to ChordPotion and Stochas also outputting midi to the same instance of ChordPotion to randomly select pages.