VZL Scope
Documentation
Free Max for Live devices for Ableton Live 12. Last updated 26 October 2026.
Free Max for Live device · Live 12
A black-and-white visualizer for your master
VZL Scope is a free Max for Live visualizer for Ableton Live 12. It turns your track into hairlines in depth, black and white, with tiny labels that flicker in and out. It follows Live's beat, the bass of your master and the notes of your tracks, and records picture and sound in 16:9 or 9:16 for social media.
Two devices: VZL Scope on the master draws the picture, VZL Scope Send on any track sends its notes. VZL Scope is free. Videos carry a small "Made with Thoow.com VZL" in the top corner.
Download VZL Scope for free → Enter your email and we send you a download link, for the devices now and for every update.
Install
You need Ableton Live 12 with Max for Live (Live 12 Suite, or Live 12 Standard with the Max for Live add-on), on Mac or Windows. Unzip VZL Scope.zip.
- Drag
VZL Scope.amxdonto your master track. The sound passes through unchanged. - Choose 16:9 or 9:16: the picture opens in its own window. Drag it to a second screen, or press Full.
- Optional: put
VZL Scope Send.amxdin front of the instrument on the tracks you want to see. Every note then raises a ridge in the picture.
The picture
| Scene | What you see |
|---|---|
| Lines | Hairlines in depth, a landscape that rushes towards you. The bass lifts it, every note raises a ridge at its pitch. |
| Tunnel | Rings in depth that you fly through, dented by the bass and the notes. |
| Blob | A liquid shape from the centre that turns slowly and breathes over two bars. Notes push out its edge. |
| City | A flight between buildings drawn in hairlines. Notes let the houses grow. |
With Live's transport running, VZL Scope locks to the beat: every kick gives the movement a push, now and then a whole bar rushes forward, glitch slices land on sixteenths, and the Thoow T in the centre pulses on every bar. Without transport it follows the kicks in your master.
Small labels appear in free spots of the picture, type themselves in on the sixteenth grid, stay a few bars and flicker away: bar and tempo, the last note and its track, the levels of low, mid and high, barcodes, short lines of text.
Controls
| Control | Range | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Scene | Lines, Tunnel, Blob, City | See the picture. |
| Background | Black, White | White turns the whole picture around: black lines on white. |
| Motion | 0–100 % | Speed of the movement, and how hard the kicks push. |
| Glow | 0–100 % | Light around the lines, and how bright the kicks flash. |
| Decay | 0.2–6 s | How long the lines trail and the ridges of the notes stay. |
| Glitch | 0–100 % | Slices on sixteenths; above 50 % the picture also breaks into pixels every other beat. |
| Strobe | 0–100 % | A white flash on the kick, at most three per second. Off by default. |
| Detail | 0–100 % | How many labels and micro marks appear, up to four labels at once. |
| Off / 16:9 / 9:16 | Opens the picture window in this format, or closes it. | |
| Full | on / off | Fullscreen in 16:9. Esc leaves fullscreen. |
| 720 / 1080 | Picture size: 1280 × 720 or 1920 × 1080 (portrait the other way round). 1080 is for recording and needs more of your graphics card. | |
| Logo | on / off | The Thoow T in the centre, pulsing on every bar. |
| Text | on / off | Labels and micro text on or off. The line at the top stays. |
| Rec | Records picture and master audio, see Record a video. |
All controls except Full and Rec are Live parameters: automate them, map them to a controller, or let Thoow Motion move them.
VZL Scope Send
A MIDI effect for any track: put it in front of the instrument. It passes the MIDI through unchanged and tells VZL Scope on the master about every note: the note raises a ridge at its pitch (C1 left, C8 right), louder notes higher. Up to eight tracks with VZL Scope Send show up at the same time. Its own display shows the ridges of its track.
Record a video
- Choose 16:9 or 9:16, and 1080 for the best quality.
- Press Rec and start playback. Recording begins on the next bar (the button shows WAIT until then). Without transport it starts at once.
- The button turns red and shows the time. Press it again to stop.
The movie lands on your Desktop as VZL Scope <date time>.mov: H.264, 30 frames per second, with your master audio, ready for Instagram, TikTok or YouTube. Recording reads every frame back from the graphics card, so keep an eye on Live's CPU meter with busy sets.
Tips
- Second screen: drag the window to a projector or second monitor and press Full: a visual for your live set.
- Quiet intro, busy drop: automate Detail and Glitch: few labels in the intro, everything in the drop.
- Breakdown: switch Text off and let Blob breathe.
- Light theme: White and Lines look like a technical drawing.
Changelog
Early Access 1.0.0 · 26 October 2026
- First release for Ableton Live 12: four scenes, black or white, 16:9 and 9:16 at 720 or 1080, recording with audio, Scope Send.
Thanks to everyone sending feedback. Tell us what you found →
Credits
VZL Scope by Thoow. Design, code and shaders by thoow, Hamburg. Text set in Inter (SIL Open Font License). Ableton and Live are trademarks of Ableton AG. Max is a trademark of Cycling '74.
Questions or feedback: service@thoow.com