The most common question about Tactism is why it is a Max for Live device instead of a VST3 or AU plugin that would run in any edition of Live, or any DAW. The short answer: a plugin can only move its own knobs.
What a plugin can reach
A VST3 or AU plugin lives inside a sealed box. The host sends it audio and MIDI, the plugin sends audio and MIDI back, and the host can automate the plugin’s own parameters. That is the whole contract. A plugin has no way to reach across the set and turn Auto Filter’s frequency, a reverb send on another track, or the master volume.
For a visualizer like Photism, that box is fine. It only needs to hear audio. For a controller whose whole job is moving other devices’ dials, the box is the problem.
What Max for Live can reach
Max for Live devices can talk to the Live API, which exposes the whole set: every track, every device, every parameter, plus each track’s volume, pan and sends. Tactism uses it to:
- List your set. LIST walks tracks, devices and parameters, the same tree you see in Live.
- Catch the dial you touch. MAP watches Live’s selected parameter, so a small drag on any dial adopts it.
- Drive parameters smoothly. Each mapping moves its parameter in that parameter’s native range, with a short glide so motion sounds continuous instead of stepped.
- Follow your edits. Mappings save with the set and follow their tracks and devices when you move them. Delete a mapped device and its mapping releases.
None of that exists for a plugin.
Why MIDI is the usual workaround
Camera and sensor apps that run outside Live usually reach it through MIDI: a virtual MIDI port, then Live’s MIDI Map mode, one dial at a time, at 128 steps per controller message. That works, but the mappings live in two places and none of them know about each other. Tactism maps from its own window in one move, sends continuous values, and keeps its mappings inside the device, saved with the set.
The tradeoff
The cost is the Suite requirement. Max for Live ships with Live 11 and 12 Suite, so owners of Intro, Lite and Standard cannot run Tactism Modulate. We think reaching every dial in the set is worth that. A gesture controller that could only move its own knobs would not be much of a controller.
What is coming as a plugin
Some things a plugin can do well. Notes are one: a plugin can send MIDI to its host. Tactism Notes, an instrument you play in the air, is coming as a separate plugin, and Modulate owners hear about it first.
To see what the device does in practice, read the setup guide.