True, for that approach your options are to make your sound sources into global chains as well (and mix them together on another chain) or use the 1,2,3,4 outs as global sends which is a bit more limited.
If your vcas are in a global chain you can’t use pins, but in a stereo-linked 3+4 out you could.
On the other hand you could do all of this inside a single chain using mixers which is probably the easiest way to go.
Edit: It’s actually possible to make a little unit to simplify this: Send that just passes it’s input through but has a vca inside to adjust the send level, then you hook into the vca output to get the sent signal. send-proto.pkg (1.5 KB)
Could be a good candidate for a middle layer unit to make life simpler.
Nice! The next point release of the firmware will include a way to output an internal signal in the scope view (without including it in the main view) ala the Sloop reset output which would be perfect for this.