Couple questions about Push, lost my Launchpad recently.
How does it work with other DAWs any issue? My real intentions are for Live, but in DP I would like to be able to use CC's assigned to the knobs and notes/CC's on the pads, is it easy to doe this or a PITA? The documentation outside of the chapter in the Live manual simply does not exist outside the paper Push manual from what I can tell.
Beyond that what about the legibility of the writing on the buttons etc? It seems to me they sacrificed this for cool looks, and until you're familiar with the layout it's squinting in the dark.
What about the step sequencer and drum machine integration? natural or more of a cool toy thing?
I got a guy locally looking to part with one for $350, but in some ways I'm thinking the new APC40 might be a better choice?
Push in general and with other DAWs
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Machinesworking
- Posts: 11421
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- Location: Seattle
Re: Push in general and with other DAWs
I doubt that Push is a particularly good controller for other DAWs. Without third party software (PXT) it is not a particularly great controller for Live.
Yes they definitely sacrificed ease of use for cool looks, I find the poor marking of the buttons annoying.
If you want a pad based instrument (as opposed to keys) then Push is good but be aware that playing chords may not be as easy for you as many videos show it to be (I find it a lot easier to play chords on a keyboard).
The instrument/chord step sequencer is not as useful as it looks because you lose the top row of pads (used for sequence length)and therefore quite often you can only see one of the notes being played at any step.
Yes they definitely sacrificed ease of use for cool looks, I find the poor marking of the buttons annoying.
If you want a pad based instrument (as opposed to keys) then Push is good but be aware that playing chords may not be as easy for you as many videos show it to be (I find it a lot easier to play chords on a keyboard).
The instrument/chord step sequencer is not as useful as it looks because you lose the top row of pads (used for sequence length)and therefore quite often you can only see one of the notes being played at any step.
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Greeny1321
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- Joined: Sun Oct 26, 2014 10:14 pm
Re: Push in general and with other DAWs
Love mine, disagree with the comment about PXT being needed to make it good with live but everyone is entitled to their opinion. Agree the buttons aren't as clear as they could be and that chords are easier on keys. The drum rack integration is great if you ask me but the melodic step sequencer is a bit pants mostly due to "only" having 64 pads.
As for other daws, its as easy to use as any other midi device and if you get PXT general you get to use a few cool extras like changing patches on vstis that support it (IIRC all native instruments stuff, and spectrasonics stuff does) and you can use note mode with it too.
I suppose it depends what you are after, I use mine to get some ideas down fast then work them further from the DAW, you can control plenty of stuff from it in Live but sometimes its quicker to just grab the mouse and I do find myself using both push and the mouse most of the time just for speeds sake.
If I had £400 in my hand and I had to choose again I would still choose push but thats just my 2 pence worth.
EDIT: I should add I also own PXT-live and PXT Live plus, I am not sayign they are bad, you can do some really cool stuff but its alot more complex than the standard live integration (to me at least) Having the choice is nice.
As for other daws, its as easy to use as any other midi device and if you get PXT general you get to use a few cool extras like changing patches on vstis that support it (IIRC all native instruments stuff, and spectrasonics stuff does) and you can use note mode with it too.
I suppose it depends what you are after, I use mine to get some ideas down fast then work them further from the DAW, you can control plenty of stuff from it in Live but sometimes its quicker to just grab the mouse and I do find myself using both push and the mouse most of the time just for speeds sake.
If I had £400 in my hand and I had to choose again I would still choose push but thats just my 2 pence worth.
EDIT: I should add I also own PXT-live and PXT Live plus, I am not sayign they are bad, you can do some really cool stuff but its alot more complex than the standard live integration (to me at least) Having the choice is nice.
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Asymmetricalmusic
- Posts: 337
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Re: Push in general and with other DAWs
$350 huh ....
buy it , try it, sell it for $400
no better way of knowing than to try it in your own space.........
I've own'd probably every controller at this point, it's really the only way to know exactly what they do.....
buy it , try it, sell it for $400
no better way of knowing than to try it in your own space.........
I've own'd probably every controller at this point, it's really the only way to know exactly what they do.....
Re: Push in general and with other DAWs
+1Asymmetricalmusic wrote:$350 huh ....
buy it , try it, sell it for $400
no better way of knowing than to try it in your own space.........
I've own'd probably every controller at this point, it's really the only way to know exactly what they do.....
I tried a few controllers and ended up getting push.
Its made Live a dream for me now.
As for other daws i think it would require a lot of scripting. If you check out bitwig there is a push4bitwig script the allows most of the same functionality as Live.