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


Not all DAWs support sending a MIDI-out from one plugin to another. Logic Pro, for example, does not yet support this, but others like Ableton Live and Bitwig Studio are great for this, so we'll focus on these two in this guide.


This is not possible with the AU plugin, so please make sure you have the VST3 version installed. 



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.


Ableton Live


  1. Create a new MIDI track. 
  2. From the VST3 plugin list, add the ROLI Studio Player VST3 plug-in. (The AU plugin will not work using this method).
  3. Open the plugin, click Advanced Settings and disable the Audio Engine.
  4. Create another MIDI track.
  5. In the Input Type chooser (under "MIDI From") of the new track, select 'ROLI Studio Player'.
  6. In the lower Input Channel chooser, select 'ROLI Studio Player' again. 
  7. Set the monitor to "In".



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.