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SinisterArtsScratchCraft Docs

Ableton Live

Ableton Live is ScratchCraft’s main host. This page covers getting the plugin into a Live set, feeding it audio from another track, and exposing its controls to Live for automation, Push and Live’s own MIDI mapping.

Finding the plugin

Section titled “Finding the plugin”
  1. Open Preferences > Plug-Ins.
  2. Turn on Use VST3 Plug-in System Folders.
  3. Click Rescan.

ScratchCraft then appears in Live’s browser under Plug-Ins > VST3. If it doesn’t, check that it is installed in C:\Program Files\Common Files\VST3 (see Installing).

Loading it on a MIDI track

Section titled “Loading it on a MIDI track”

ScratchCraft is an instrument, so it goes on a MIDI track. Drag ScratchCraft from Plug-Ins > VST3 onto a MIDI track, or onto an empty area to create one.

MIDI notes on that track play the Rack pads, and MIDI from a controller routed to the track reaches ScratchCraft’s own MIDI Learn mappings.

To make the host’s play and stop start and brake the decks, turn on DAW Sync in ScratchCraft’s header. See DAW Sync.

Capturing audio from another track

Section titled “Capturing audio from another track”

ScratchCraft doesn’t scratch live input directly. Instead it records audio from another track into a deck, and you scratch that recording.

  1. Open the ScratchCraft device’s sidechain section and pick the source track.
  2. Press Capture on a deck. Choose how many bars to record with the button next to it.
  3. Start the transport if it isn’t running. Recording starts at the next bar.

To hear the sidechain input through ScratchCraft, turn up Input in the header. See Capture for the timing rules and capturing straight into pads.

Showing controls in the device panel

Section titled “Showing controls in the device panel”

Live doesn’t list a plugin’s parameters in the device panel until you choose them. To add them:

  1. Click Configure in the ScratchCraft device’s title bar.
  2. In the ScratchCraft window, move each control you want. Live adds it to the device panel.
  3. Click Configure again to finish.

Once a control is in the device panel you can automate it, map it with Live’s own MIDI mapping, or play it from Push.

Controls moved by ScratchCraft’s own MIDI mappings are reported to Live as well, so you can also add a control in Configure mode by moving it from your controller.

What is and isn’t a host parameter

Section titled “What is and isn’t a host parameter”

Host parameters (automatable, and available in Configure mode):

  • Every knob, fader, switch and choice box in the main window: deck Speed, Torque, Gain, Pan, Key, Sync Loop, Keep pitch and Motor, the crossfader and its curve and reverse, Input, Master, DAW Sync, the Shape view’s Play, the mixer drawer’s EQ and filters, and every effect control.
  • Each deck’s cue and end markers.
  • Each platter. Dragging it reports Deck A Touch / Deck B Touch and Scratch, so a scratch near the cue point can be recorded as automation.

Not host parameters:

  • The pads themselves, capture and the Shape editor. Use ScratchCraft’s MIDI Learn or MIDI notes for these.
  • The pad settings (Pitch, Rate, play mode, quantize, level, filter and so on) and the mode switch. They exist as parameters but are kept out of Live’s automation list. Set them in the rack or with MIDI Learn.

Live’s MIDI mapping or ScratchCraft’s?

Section titled “Live’s MIDI mapping or ScratchCraft’s?”

Both work, and you can use them side by side. Live can map any exposed parameter. ScratchCraft’s own MIDI Learn adds what Live can’t do: jog wheels and touch sensors, relative encoders, pads and Shape editing, and per-mapping ranges and button behaviour.