MIDI Bounce 1.6: Print Your MIDI Effects to Clips in One Click

MIDI Bounce 1.6 by Side Brain brings a complete Arrangement and Session View workflow to Ableton Live, letting you capture processed MIDI to editable clips instantly.

MIDI Bounce 1.6 by Side Brain solves one of the most tedious tasks in Ableton Live: printing your MIDI effects chain to a real, editable MIDI clip. One button, fully automated, and version 1.6 brings a complete workflow for both Arrangement View and Session View.

What It Does

MIDI Bounce is a Max for Live utility that sits on any MIDI track. When you hit Bounce, it opens a new MIDI track, routes the processed MIDI signal from your source track, records it at speed, then places the resulting clip back on the original track. The whole process takes seconds. It works with Ableton’s built-in MIDI effects and with third-party MIDI-generating plug-ins such as Scaler and Cthulhu.

Version 1.6 introduces significant workflow improvements across both views. In Arrangement View, clips are bounced at their exact timeline positions and the transport starts and stops automatically. In Session View, the bounced clip is placed in the next available slot below the source, or a new scene is created if none exists. A pre-bounce backup option keeps a muted copy of the original clip, renamed for easy reference, so you can always revert.

• One-click bounce: Automates track creation, routing, recording, and clip placement entirely.
• Arrangement View support: Bounces clips at their exact timeline positions with automatic transport control.
• Session View support: Places results in the next available clip slot; creates a new scene when needed.
• Pre-bounce backup: Optionally keeps a muted, renamed copy of the original clip for safe rollback.
• Plug-in MIDI capture: Works with Scaler, Cthulhu, and other MIDI-generating devices, not just native Ableton effects.
• Speed bounce option: Temporarily pushes the project to 990 BPM during capture so the process completes almost instantly.
• Improved note capture: Better handling of final notes and note-off messages; prevents notes from extending beyond the original loop boundary.

How to Use It

• Download and unzip MIDI Bounce, then drag the Max for Live device into your User Library under Max MIDI Effect so it appears in searches.
• Load MIDI Bounce onto the MIDI track that contains your effects chain or MIDI-generating plug-in.
• Open the settings panel and configure your preferences: choose whether to disable or delete effects after bounce, enable the speed-bounce BPM option, and toggle the pre-bounce backup on or off.
• In Arrangement View, ensure your clip is in place, then hit Bounce. The device handles transport, capture, and clip placement automatically, then returns the playhead to the bounced clip.
• In Session View, select the source clip and hit Bounce with Auto Play enabled if you want the clip to launch automatically during capture. The result lands in the next free slot below the source.
• Check your track for the new editable MIDI clip alongside the optional muted pre-bounce backup track.

Why It Matters

Manually routing a MIDI effects chain to a new track, recording it, cleaning up, and placing the result back is a workflow interruption that pulls focus away from the music. MIDI Bounce removes every manual step in that process. Whether you are building arrangements, sketching ideas in Session View, or unlocking the full note output of a chord generator, having a single-button solution means the creative momentum stays intact. Version 1.6 makes the tool genuinely complete across both views, with the reliability fixes and naming improvements to match.