How to use a track as side chain while keeping it in the mix

[mahkitah]

This is my problem:
In my project I have two tracks and I want use track 1 as input for the side chain of a plug-in on track 2, but I also want to keep hearing track 1 in the mix.

With Live's own effects this is not a problem, but I can't get it to work with 3rd party VST's.
You can route the the audio of track 1 to the plug-in on track 2 via the 'audio to' menu, but then you can't hear track 1 anymore.

You could duplicate track 1 entirely and use one instance for the side chain, but this would mean you would have to create a new track for every side chained effect in your project, which would be a total waste of processor power and screen space.

Is there a more elegant way to accomplish what I want?

[Samaritan Sound]

You could create a return track that outputs to the plugin, then use the send knob.

[mahkitah]

Thanks, that's a much better solution than creating duplicate tracks.

Still have to create a new return track for every side chained effect.
That eats a lot of screen space. (I don't think you can group return tracks)

Haven't tried other DAW's but am I right to think that Live's audio and Midi routing is quite limited?

[NPC]

or -instead of using a return track (which are limited in number for every set) - you can just use a new empty audio track with
Audio In:track1
Audio Out: track2
monitor set to IN
mute button set to OFF

basically its the same thing, but you save return tracks - and you don't have to duplicate the track as this new track is fed with the output of the first...

[mahkitah]

Yes, That's the first thing I tried, but initially I thought it did't work because I forgot to put 'monitor' to 'in' on the new track.
This way you can also group the two tracks together to save screen space.

Still think it's kind of laborious that you have to create a separate track for each and every side-chain. There should be an easier way to route audio from tracks to plug-ins. Like with Livé's own effects.