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My trick to get the Push 2 footswitch to work with Looper

Posted: Sat Apr 08, 2017 8:12 pm
by loiophin
Hi all,

I recently got a Push 2 and was excited to find out that it has two footswitch connectors on the back. So I added a cheapo momentary footswitch to the second port (furthest from the Power button). Sadly it didnt quite work the way I wanted. The footswitch button records in session view, and is not used for Looper :(

As per the manual:

Footswitches

Two ports on the back of Push 2 allow you to connect momentary footswitches. Footswitch 1 acts as a sustain pedal. Footswitch 2 gives you hands-free control of Push 2’s recording functionality. A single tap of the footswitch will toggle the Record button, thus switching between recording/overdubbing and playback of the current clip. Quickly double-tapping the footswitch is the same as pressing the New button.

So I didnt want to go and buy another Midi footswitch purely for use on the looper. So I figured out a hack which seems to work. This is for Mac only, but I guess Windows has equivalent software.

My method uses a fairly easy to use program called MidiPipe. I am sure there are patches to do this in M4L, but I havent come across one yet. Let me know if you have one.

Download MidiPipe 1.4.6 from sublesoft - http://www.subtlesoft.square7.net/MidiPipe.html

1. Load up MidiPipe
2. Click on "Midi In" in the left window and choose your MIDI input from the below window as "Ableton Push 2 - Live Port". Dont change any options
3. Click and drag "Midi In" over to the right window called Pipes. Midi In should appear on the right window now.
4. Rename the unnamed pipe on the right window to something more useful like "Push 2 Live to VirtualPush"
5. Click and drag "Midi Out" from the left window to right
6. Click on Midi Out on the right window and select the MIDI Output "Edit Virtual Outputs"
7. Double click MidiPipe Output 1 and rename to VirtualPush. Click Done
8. Select VirtualPush from the Midi Output menu. Dont tick or untick any options.
9. Save your "pipe"

A video showing the above steps for MidiPipe https://youtu.be/9RMEXlIF61g

What you have done is created a virtual MIDI device called VirtualPush and mapped any input from the real Push 2 in Live mode, and sent it to the VirtualPush. This trick allows Ableton to now recognize MIDI signals from Push 2 whilst in Live mode.

Load up Ableton and Choose Live menu, Preferences, Link MIDI....

In the list find "Input VirtualPush" and enable Track and Remote to On.

Now instead of using the momentary switch in the second port, I move it to the first port (sustain port). The reason for this is that if you use footswitch 2 you get conflicts between the hard encoded Push 2 Live mode record function in session mode and your user defined MIDI (the next part...)

Now open an audio track and load up Looper as an effect. Now on the top right of the Ableton window click MIDI and now you can map the VirtualPush to the Looper record button. It should be mapped as CC 64.

I have done some brief testing and it seems to work correctly in Looper now. But bear in mind you are duplicating the MIDI signal, so the normal sustain pedal function might interfere with other things. The MidiPipe program also needs to stay open in the background to intercept the MIDI signals sent from Push 2 Live Mode and duplicated onto VirtualPush. There is an option in MidiPipe to hide it after launch in Preferences.

Another great program to see whats going on in your system when it comes to MIDI messages, is MIDI Monitor - https://www.snoize.com/MIDIMonitor/

I use it loads to troubleshoot pesky MIDI issues.

Thanks,

loiphin.


UPDATE Jan 2019:
I ended up scrapping my foot pedal attached to Push 2, because it uses the hard to push switches and was a pain with bare feet at home.
Looking at the price of MIDI foot controllers I was shocked about how expensive they are. But I ended up finding a diamond in the rough! Thanks to another tip I read I bought a Line 6 FBV Express Mk II (It must be the Mk2 , the Mk1 doesnt have USB). Most people think this is only a dedicated foot control for the Line 6 Spyder amps, but its also a fully configurable MIDI controller. It works beautifully with Ableton Live 10, or any other DAW for that matter. It has 4 foot switches, which are nice and quiet for home use, and easy on your feet. It also has a Wah/Volume pedal. You cant beat it for the price :) (at least in Norway)

Re: My trick to get the Push 2 footswitch to work with Looper

Posted: Tue Apr 11, 2017 9:03 am
by orionka
very creative... I like it! Thanks for sharing.

Re: My trick to get the Push 2 footswitch to work with Looper

Posted: Mon Aug 14, 2017 11:12 am
by Janeway
I'm new to Ableton Live - I don't understand the difference of use between session view clips and the looper ? What would you use each for differently ?

Re: My trick to get the Push 2 footswitch to work with Looper

Posted: Sun Aug 20, 2017 7:50 pm
by pepezabala
Very cool, just followed your instructions and it seems to work perfectly!

Thanks so much!! I owe you a beer or two :-)

Re: My trick to get the Push 2 footswitch to work with Looper

Posted: Wed Aug 30, 2017 1:41 am
by annadyne
Ahhhh - this sounds great! Totally forgot about MidiPipe which has been around for a while. Nice job, and thanks for sharing ~ 8)

Re: My trick to get the Push 2 footswitch to work with Looper

Posted: Tue Jan 15, 2019 7:57 pm
by EFTER
Hey! Sorry to bump it, but I was wondering if anyone has managed to find equivalent windows software?

Re: My trick to get the Push 2 footswitch to work with Looper

Posted: Tue Jan 15, 2019 8:16 pm
by loiophin
I posted an UPDATE. Its in the first post :)

Re: My trick to get the Push 2 footswitch to work with Looper

Posted: Tue Jan 15, 2019 10:50 pm
by H20nly
*bookmark*

thanks loiophin

Re: My trick to get the Push 2 footswitch to work with Looper

Posted: Tue Apr 02, 2019 7:21 pm
by tjdumser
Hey there!

Wow, thank you so much for sharing. I was able to successfully map the sustain pedal to trigger the looper. PERFECT.

But now, I have a question! Before I did all this with MidiPipe, I was able to step sequence by just pushing in the sequencer, I can't do that any longer. I tried quitting MidiPipe and then bingo, I could step sequence again.

Any ideas where this conflicting information is coming from on the Push?

Ideally, I'd like to be able to use the pedal to trigger the looper AND step sequence my drum patterns.

Thanks again for the info!

Re: My trick to get the Push 2 footswitch to work with Looper

Posted: Wed Aug 28, 2019 10:23 pm
by tumuch132
Thank you for the update, that line 6 pedal is exactly what i needed.

Re: My trick to get the Push 2 footswitch to work with Looper

Posted: Thu Aug 06, 2020 10:57 pm
by swityza
I have this working with only the push 2 and ableton live. Press the "User" button at the top right of the push. This puts the push in "User" mode. In Live preferences > MIDI, turn on the "track" and "remote" options for Input: Ableton Push 2 (User Port). Then while you're in User mode, you can midi map either of the footswitches or literally any other pad or button. Once you are done using the mapping, press the User button again to go back to normal mode. Anytime you need to use your mapping, just toggle back to User mode. TIP: just touching the knobs at the top is a good way to start/stop the main looper button.

Re: My trick to get the Push 2 footswitch to work with Looper

Posted: Mon Jan 08, 2024 9:05 pm
by ya.ke
After searching for hours and trying with a combination of MIDI-OX and loopMIDI without success, I finally found an amazing solution.
It is called "Push 2 Pedal Remap" and is a free device. The following video explains how to use it: https://youtu.be/AoD9JhNCUj8?si=gZhbW-Lve5GZYoC5&t=185
The device itself can be downloaded here: https://github.com/DJUnit27/Push-Pedal-Remap
It might be that it requires Max for Live, not sure. But otherwise this works like a charm and is even integrated into Ableton directly.
Works in both Mac and Windows without any additional software or drivers.
This post here got me started to search for an universal solution, hence I thought it would be worth sharing here.