I'm considering purchasing a Push 3, mainly to use as a controller for Ableton, and have some questions on functionality...
- do the transport controls work even when Ableton doesn't have focus? (e.g. if I have OneNote up to keep track of lyrics, can I still start, stop, record, and undo in Ableton without having to alt+tab back to Ableton?)
- I don't see a dedicated stop button--is it safe to infer that the play button toggles between playback and stop?
- do the transport controls still work as expected, in Arrangement view? I do almost no work in Session view. I know Push is more geared toward Session view and performance, so if I can't control Arrangement view as I would with a 'normal' control surface, I'll have to pass on Push. I will likely never upgrade to the standalone Push.
using it primarily as a control surface probably seems unnecessarily expensive, but the way the transport controls work with other MIDI controllers is kind of a nightmare for me. even basic things like using a single button to both start and stop playback in Live while I've got my lyrics up in OneNote is apparently not doable.
ironically, I can get the functionality I want using key mapping instead of MIDI mapping, but then, of course, Live has to have app focus, which is no bueno.