Setup

Stride is a VST3 plugin that hosts your instruments and effects and moves their knobs while you play. In Ableton Live, StrideBridge adds the set's own devices to the same canvas.

Install, once

01

Install the plugin

Put Stride.vst3 in your VST3 folder, then rescan in your DAW. On macOS the installer also places the Audio Unit, so Logic finds it in the Instrument slot.

WinC:\Program Files\Common Files\VST3
Mac/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST3
02

Add StrideBridge to your User LibraryAbleton only

Copy the whole StrideBridge folder in, keeping the files together. The device needs them next to it.

WinDocuments\Ableton\User Library\StrideBridge
Mac~/Music/Ableton/User Library/StrideBridge

The workflow

01

Drop Stride on a track

Load the instruments and effects you want to move inside it.

02

Drag StrideBridge onto any trackAbleton only

One per set. It passes audio straight through, so it can sit anywhere. Stride shows a MAP LIVE button once it sees the bridge.

03

Map the knobs you want moving

Touch a knob inside Stride, or press MAP LIVE and click a knob anywhere in your Live set. Each one becomes a lane. Press the button again to stop mapping.

04

Draw the motion, or roll it

Draw a curve by hand, or hit a generator and get a different one on every lane at once. Lock what lands, roll the rest again.

05

Press Play

The knobs ride your transport. Nothing gets written into the clip while you work. Live’s Export, Freeze and Bounce render offline, so to carry that movement into a file, press INJECT to write it as real automation, or resample the track in real time. Anything running inside Stride itself renders normally.

Optional · printing the curves into a clip

Only if you want the motion as real automation you can edit by hand in Live, or keep in the set after you remove Stride. Most sessions never need this.

01

Turn on StrideInject, then restart LiveAbleton only

Without it the button on the device reads STRIDEINJECT?

Preferences › Link, Tempo & MIDI › Control Surface › StrideInject
02

Select the clip, then press INJECTAbleton only

Select the MIDI clip first so it shows in Live's Detail view, then press INJECT on the device. Your lanes become real automation in that clip. Ctrl or Cmd Z undoes it.

03

Watch the count under the button

Only lanes whose knob lives on that clip's own track can be written, which is Live's rule, not ours. 4 OF 6 means four landed and two point at another track. Take those to a clip on their track.

What you need

 

Stride runs in any VST3 host on Windows 10/11 and macOS 11+, and as an Audio Unit in Logic and GarageBand. StrideBridge needs Ableton Live 11 or newer with Max for Live, which Live Suite has built in. Not Pro Tools (AAX only).