Stepsequencer/Drumgrid for use with Automap (sl MKII)

[Mighty Pea]

Hey guys,

I've been looking for ways to look at my screen less and finding it hard to track down a step sequencer/drumgrid that exposes its step triggers, pitch & volume parameters to automation (and therefor Automap, which I plan to use for this purpose). Automap enables the plugin to communicate a parameter's state, so I could potentially use the 16 buttons on my keyboard as a step sequencer, with lights indicating which steps are on. (I could then scroll through pages to get at other patterns)

I looked at ERA and Phrazor, since I heard such good things about them, but found that even Sugarbytes doesn't sell those anymore. I gather this is because they now have Thesys and Consequence, both of which I've tried. They seem very nice, but as far as I can find out won't do what I need.

This is mainly for use in a modular sequencer (Energy XT in particular), but I'm considering using Ableton Live at some point, so I suppose I could also look into Live-specific options (although max4live is out of my pricerange). I would much prefer a vst, though.

Any suggestions?
It seems like such a simple request (although having tried Thesys I'm certainly hoping I can get something as advanced as that to work the way I want!), but I'm not having much luck finding it.

ps. I'm crossposting this from the Instruments subforum, I hope that's not considered bad form!

[Mighty Pea]

Developers, anyone?

Am I really being forced to look at Max4Live (and by extension: live itself) for such a simple feature request?