ROLI Studio Player's powerful compositional tools - Smart Chords and the Multi-Layered Arpeggiator - are great when used with the plugin's vast array of presets. But what if you want to use them with other software instruments? This guide will take you through how to output MIDI data from ROLI Studio Player to route to other plugins.




Supported DAWs and plugin


Unfortunately, not all DAWs support sending a MIDI-out from one plugin to another. Also, this feature is only possible in the VST3 version so we'll need to use a DAW that is compatible.


Logic Pro, for example, uses exclusively AU plugins so this DAW does not support this feature. Others like Ableton Live and Bitwig Studio support VST3 and also sending MIDI from one plugin to another, so we'll focus on these two in this guide.


Note: This is not possible with the AU plugin, so please make sure to only use the VST3 version. 



How to use ROLI Studio Player's MIDI output in other plugins


Short Answer


  1. Create two tracks, one with ROLI Studio Player and one with another plugin. 
  2. Turn off ROLI Studio Player's Audio Engine and send the MIDI signal out from this track to the MIDI input of the second plugin.


For a more detailed and DAW-specific guide, please see below. We'll add more guides in due course!


Ableton Live


  1. Create two MIDI tracks. 
  2. In the first MIDI track, add the ROLI Studio Player VST3 plug-in. (Note: The AU plugin will not work using this method).
  3. Open the plugin, click Advanced Settings and disable the Audio Engine.
  4. On the second MIDI track, under MIDI From in both drop down choosers, select 'ROLI Studio Player'.
  6. Arm both MIDI tracks for recording and play some notes on your MIDI keyboard.
  7. The 'raw' notes will be recorded to the ROLI Studio Player track but the chords/arpeggiator will be recorded to the second MIDI track.



Bitwig Studio


  1. Create a new MIDI track and add the ROLI Studio Player VST plug-in.
  2. Open the plugin, click Advanced Settings and disable the Audio Engine (see above)
  3. In the Device panel, click the plus and add your second instrument. All MIDI will now be sent to the new instrument.