I've experienced this too, when using the plugin in Cubase 6. I think the issue is that the chord pads are triggered on midi channel 10 and that the host is rerouting this input to channel 1/global. So basically you end up hearing the triggers rather than the chords...
The workaround using Cubase is to setup the plugin in a "vst instruments" slot (rather than an instrument track) and route a midi track set to channel "any" to the plugin . I guess you could also route channels 1 & 10 on separate tracks too.
Im afraid I don't use Ableton, but its probably possible to check for something similar going on (midi routing/midi being rechanneled on input)