Ableton Forum

It is time to retire folks. I have the magical push controller with purple and pink pads, in fact there are all kinds of shades on my controller. I can only come to the conclusion that this push controller is special and was hand chosen by Ableton to empower me to create the greatest music ever to be...uhh...created.

I did not always believe this, in fact, I was uncertain at first and thought that maybe it was a manufacturing defect, but then after scouring the interwebs for hours watching video reviews and demos from known reviewers and magazines, I saw no other push controllers like mine with beautiful purples and pinks and thought....this could only mean one thing. My push controller must have special powers...

My suspicions were confirmed upon my next foray into musical production. I had never created such a masterpiece. The drums punched through the speakers, the bass rumbled like a thunderstorm, my synthesizers weaved in and out of each ear into braided melodies. I had created the worlds finest piece of music...and it was all because my push controller had pink and purple pads.

So don't hate me cause my music is beautiful, ableton just might decide to bless you with a push controller like mine. Only hopefully your's has less pink and purple pads...

That looks crazy man lol. At this piont it seems ppl just have to deal with it doesnt seem like they are or can fix it.
Another issue is the rubber on the unit fading and rubbing off check out this video of someones push.
http://youtu.be/yhlNcnAWuVE

I think my push just lost some of its awesome.

Valour wrote:That looks crazy man lol. At this piont it seems ppl just have to deal with it doesnt seem like they are or can fix it.
Another issue is the rubber on the unit fading and rubbing off check out this video of someones push.
http://youtu.be/yhlNcnAWuVE

No way! Did he saturate his hands in rubbing alcohol every time he touched those buttons or maybe has used with very sweaty hands, or yes maybe a manufacturing defect. Unlucky.

That picture was taken fresh out of the box brand new. Here is abletons reply to the support ticket:

Thanks for the feedback and for taking the time to communicate with us about Push.
Regarding the LEDs, please understand that it is difficult to maintain perfectly consistent color across 64 pads.
We conducted extensive usability testing with Push, and found that the minor variances in brightness did not detract from Push's usability.

Additionally, please note that, due to the nature of RGB LEDs, variances in color may appear more pronounced when the LEDs are set to white.

We are sorry to hear that this makes you feel like returning your Push, but if this is what you want to do because of the colour variances of the Pads you can return the unit to the store where you purchased it and get a refund.
If you have any questions or if there is anything else we can help you with, please just ask.

Best regards,
David
Ableton Support

Translation: Thanks for your time communicating with regards to the LEDs. Please note that it is easier for us to try to convince you there is no problem than actually fixing the problem. After extensive testing, we have found that the varying LED colors do not affect usability of our bank account. And please don't check YouTube for RGB lighting and watch all those cheaply consistent RGB rope light Christmas decoration videos set to music, like this one!, http://youtu.be/Yh99e8BSer0

And yes he wrote me back in purple.

dude... I was serious when I implied I was envious

you even quoted in pink

be honest about who you are, and remember most of all that you made a wicked tune

All the professionally done Push videos Ableton did have perfectly white color. In America, they call that false advertising.

Just saying

mkaylor wrote:All the professionally done Push videos Ableton did have perfectly white color.

THIS is the most frustrating part. Obviously Ableton felt it was big enough of a deal to make sure every bit of advertising they have has perfectly uniform color. IMO, it boils down to the fact that they didn't choose the right components for the job.

My Launchpad S: Does NOT have this problem in the slightest.

My Push: Full on Double Rainbow.

Struggling with returning it. I absolutely love working with it. Got it last night, cried for a bit about the colors, dove in, and the work flow was wonderful (other than the user content which is being addressed more in the latest beta). The rainbow didn't bother me as much in Drum Rack mode, but wow...in Note mode...drove me a bit nuts. I'm a keyboard player and when I look at a normal keyboard I see definition. White and Black. Its easy to tell by looking what's going on. Do I look at the keyboard very much after 35 years of playing? No. But I just dove into the world of isomorphic keyboards. Its a bit like I'm a kid again learning to play. So if you took my piano that I started out on and made the keys all different shades of colors, I would definitely have difficulty discerning where my fingers are supposed to be by distraction alone. My mind see's the lack of continuity and I second guess whether my fingers are where they are supposed to be.

Again, if it wasn't such a big deal, why is every push that is shown by Ableton marketing uniform in colors?

In any case, why did they choosed white for note mode? They could have used other color which didn't make this obvious.

login wrote:In any case, why did they choosed white for note mode? They could have used other color which didn't make this obvious.

Probably because it looks like a "keyboard"? <shrug> I like it.

drez wrote: My Launchpad S: Does NOT have this problem in the slightest.

i dunno why Ableton chose white as a main colour when consistency was obviously going to be an issue.

the Launchpad is not a fair comparison though, as it presumably has individual LEDs for its limited colour set.

I don't know why people are giving ableton a pass on the RGB LED issue. This is not a new technology and is shown to be consistent across lots of professional lighting applications as well as just as many cheap ebay knockoffs.

thronechild wrote:I don't know why people are giving ableton a pass on the RGB LED issue. This is not a new technology and is shown to be consistent across lots of professional lighting applications as well as just as many cheap ebay knockoffs.

yea I feel this is unacceptable. it makes the push look awful in scales mode. Im just disappointed for something to have such great build quality to have these issues. I'm just hoping the one I recieve isn't to bad.

fishmonkey wrote:

drez wrote: My Launchpad S: Does NOT have this problem in the slightest.

i dunno why Ableton chose white as a main colour when consistency was obviously going to be an issue.

the Launchpad is not a fair comparison though, as it presumably has individual LEDs for its limited colour set.

That's a fair point.

I wonder if the material they used to dope the LED was either not consistent from their vendor or they used a few different vendors that didn't match up well?

from what i understand it would take very low tolerance LEDs to get a pure white from an RGB setup. others have mentioned RGBW LEDs, which presumably have an additional white channel. that method would come with its own issues of course, since you would then need to decide when and how to cross over between the RGB and the white LEDs on the fly. messy.

it's still not clear why they aren't testing the LEDs beforehand and tossing the ones that are clearly a long way out.