Your Push Experience

[potemkin64]

All these testimonials are making my decision about what I should do all that much harder. I've been thinking to get a Maschine now then an Push later. All the talk about the LED issues is scaring me off. Plus, the Maschine will come with a bunch of sounds and instruments. To really get sounds and instruments with Push, I'll need to upgrade Live to either Standard or Studio, an additional chunk of change.

I'll install Launchpad 95 to see if I'll be scouring Sweetwater, B&H, Musicians' Friend and Ableton to find a Push in stock.

[sowhoso]

it sounds like one issue alone is causing you to hesitate

if what you want is sounds go get 'em

if you want a solid DAW specific controller that delivers in spades get Push

i don't care what you do, but if someone says the LED problem is enough reason not to buy, i say "bah!"

[Buleriachk]

Yeah, it is really, really hard for many of us. I bought Maschine after seeing it on YouTube and was amazed at its excellent integration as a VST and control surface for Live. Live 8.4, Maschine, and Launchpad S with Launchpad95 may be all you really need until you make the big plunge....

Or just Live 8.4 and Launchpad95 to test the instrument aspect...

I certainly would test it first (as I did), and the Launchpad will still be handy for portability and clip launching since I'm basically a guitarist with some keyboard skills, but Push is in a whole new category (if my Launchpad/95 experience is any indication) ......

Pro Audio Star still has a couple (I think) http://www.proaudiostar.com/ableton-push.html
I've dealt with these guys before, and they are excellent....

All these testimonials are making my decision about what I should do all that much harder. I've been thinking to get a Maschine now then an Push later. All the talk about the LED issues is scaring me off. Plus, the Maschine will come with a bunch of sounds and instruments. To really get sounds and instruments with Push, I'll need to upgrade Live to either Standard or Studio, an additional chunk of change.

I'll install Launchpad 95 to see if I'll be scouring Sweetwater, B&H, Musicians' Friend and Ableton to find a Push in stock.

[yur2die4]

Launchpad95 is without a doubt one of the most inspiring things I've ever used. Due mainly to its portability. To think you're doing all that on a little plastic plate of buttons through wires.

I own Push, and I think I need to unclutter my music setup a bit better haha. I enjoy it, it is almost more sturdy than what I am used to. The display readouts are of course an unbeatable aspect.

I am finding that of the three, I'm using my Maschine the least....... well, I kind of still find the software and samples to be extremely handy. (I wish NI would let me trigger Record from other controllers!!!!!!! [pattern -not scene- change would be nice too])

[fnordboy]

Launchpad95 is without a doubt one of the most inspiring things I've ever used. Due mainly to its portability. To think you're doing all that on a little plastic plate of buttons through wires.

I own Push, and I think I need to unclutter my music setup a bit better haha. I enjoy it, it is almost more sturdy than what I am used to. The display readouts are of course an unbeatable aspect.

I am finding that of the three, I'm using my Maschine the least....... well, I kind of still find the software and samples to be extremely handy. (I wish NI would let me trigger Record from other controllers!!!!!!! [pattern -not scene- change would be nice too])

I have a Maschine and Push (as well as the old Launchpad). At this point, as much as I love Maschine, I am pretty sure I will be using mainly Push. They really are 2 different things and Maschine will always have a place in my studio, but Push seems to be my go to controller right now*.



*granted, it's been less than a week.

[deva]

All these testimonials are making my decision about what I should do all that much harder. I've been thinking to get a Maschine now then an Push later. All the talk about the LED issues is scaring me off. Plus, the Maschine will come with a bunch of sounds and instruments. To really get sounds and instruments with Push, I'll need to upgrade Live to either Standard or Studio, an additional chunk of change.

I'll install Launchpad 95 to see if I'll be scouring Sweetwater, B&H, Musicians' Friend and Ableton to find a Push in stock.

I have a Push with LED color variation on the high side. I changed the default color scheme which made it less of a visual annoyance. I thought about returning it but it is just so enjoyable to use I cannot give it up. It makes Live just ridiculously fast and fun! My advice, having one of the worst set of LED's for color consistency, is do not let that be a big factor.

Playing music on the 64 pads is great... very expressive and easy. If you play music and use Live, then get Push. It's a no brainer.

The drum mode benefits greatly from the 64 pads. 16 pads for your drums plus 32 for the step sequencer and 16 pads to control both the length of the sequence and where you are in it. And with the touch strip you can shift up or down which 16 pads are in focus. It is so fast and immediate to control.

[drez]

All these testimonials are making my decision about what I should do all that much harder. I've been thinking to get a Maschine now then an Push later. All the talk about the LED issues is scaring me off. Plus, the Maschine will come with a bunch of sounds and instruments. To really get sounds and instruments with Push, I'll need to upgrade Live to either Standard or Studio, an additional chunk of change.

I'll install Launchpad 95 to see if I'll be scouring Sweetwater, B&H, Musicians' Friend and Ableton to find a Push in stock.

I have a Push with LED color variation on the high side. I changed the default color scheme which made it less of a visual annoyance. I thought about returning it but it is just so enjoyable to use I cannot give it up. It makes Live just ridiculously fast and fun! My advice, having one of the worst set of LED's for color consistency, is do not let that be a big factor.

Playing music on the 64 pads is great... very expressive and easy. If you play music and use Live, then get Push. It's a no brainer.

The drum mode benefits greatly from the 64 pads. 16 pads for your drums plus 32 for the step sequencer and 16 pads to control both the length of the sequence and where you are in it. And with the touch strip you can shift up or down which 16 pads are in focus. It is so fast and immediate to control.

+1

Deva summed up my feelings exactly including the issue with the pad colors. Its such a joy to use and the color issue has been alleviated quite a bit by changing the color scheme, its much less of an issue. I really really enjoy working with Push.

[Martyn]

I've had Push for about a week now and at first I wasn't sure if I'd made a mistake, I couldn't really see how I'd gained anything over just using a midi keyboard. I found the pads really hard to play sounds like piano notes without double triggering and have always played drum tracks just fine using a standard midi keyboard. I also use Looper a lot to record and write guitar parts and think it's a shame that the footswitch sockets can't really be used for this.

However, after staying with it, going through tutorials and modifying my workflow a bit I've been really shocked at how much music is starting to pour out of me, Recording guitar parts is actually easier than using a footswitch in some ways, I have an input channel and three or four recording channels that receive from that input, and all I have to do is dab a pad to record. All takes and overdubs are kept, no more problem with having to re-record parts that were destructively layered in looper. Drum programming is just amazing, as are things like basslines. It's pretty shocking to me how little I have to look at the computer now, and that my choice of sounds appears to have changed as a result of just using my ears.

Things I'd like to change? I'd like access to the groove pool, not as a replacement for the swing knob, but so templates can be saved and loaded once clips have been recorded. It's just one more reason to go to the computer at the moment. I'd still like the footswitch sockets to be accessable without having to go to user mode and I'd like to be able to play a track while a totally different one (like a return channel) is selected. It's also a real shame that we can't see audio clips in the browser.

Those little gripes aside, I think I'm going to be making different music as a result of Push, and that's something I've badly needed for some time, my creative well has been dry for ages now, it feels like Push has opened lots of new doors for me.

Money well spent!

[Buleriachk]

Push is great, as long as you don't need accidentals..

[panten]

Push is great, as long as you don't need accidentals..

er.. can't you put Scale Selection into Chromatic mode and you got all the accidentals you could ever want?

[Buleriachk]

Maybe so, but I'm not in In(almost)Key anymore, am I? .....

Push is great, as long as you don't need accidentals..

er.. can't you put Scale Selection into Chromatic mode and you got all the accidentals you could ever want?

[sowhoso]

Maybe so, but I'm not in In(almost)Key anymore, am I? .....

you're always in key

...unless you're doing serial music

[Buleriachk]

You guys are SO persnickety.....

Maybe so, but I'm not in In(almost)Key anymore, am I? .....

you're always in key

...unless you're doing serial music

[robinez]

As a long time cubase user i've decided to also use the Ableton Suite with push, i've received the ableton suite and push two weeks ago and thanks to the numerous tutorials on the internet i learned how to use the system in a week. I'm really enthusiastic about the features ableton and push brings to my studio. The push works flawlessly and integrates quite well with ableton.

I was surprised how deep the integration was with the software, for instance modifying presets on VST's worked right out of the box through the encoders. The pattern creation and note entering modes took some practice but after modifying the sensitivity of the pads it was a matter of days to learn how to play on it. It took some time to make the transition to pattern play for me, since i normally play the piano keyboard to entery my melodies, but i really like the fact that you can use up till three octaves with the push pad setup with one hand and learning the patterns was actually quite easy once i understood the layout pattern from the scales.

One thing that i think could use some big improvements on the push is the Editing possibilities of the clips. In pattern mode (drums), you can enter the hits and even nudge them, but in the note scale mode i find it impossible to modify a pattern, for instance when you play a riff with 16 notes and you want to modify the 5 note, then that isn't possible so you have to delete it and play the pattern again (or maybe i didn't discover yet you to do that?).

Also the fact that you can't browse the sample loop library and add a loop to an audio track is something that i miss at the moment.

But these are small quirks considering that these things are easy to solve with a computer (although i would loved it if i didn't have to use the computer in any way with the push).

So i've tried a project last sunday, i've created a song entirely on the push to see how far i could get without using the computer. Although i 'cheated' a little bit upfront by attaching a sample to the Instrument: sampler, so that i could load that later on with the browse function on the push.


If you are interested, here's the link of this jam:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ep6avuvdSlA


So as a completely new user i'm really enjoying the push, although it's not perfect (yet) i find it a great enhancement of my current setup. The leds (white) also have some slight color variation on my push, but it's not something i find troublesome (maybe i was lucky with my push), and i've modified the colors now to the green variant from this forum because the white was way to bright for me in the studio.

[sowhoso]

nice work!

i don't see any color variation in that video. i think you are one of the lucky few