Ableton Forum

I've been an Ableton User for just a couple years (currently on mac) and I've used both the drum rack & impulse time to time. I've been always using the APC40 & the mouse to navigate & assign samples, cut samples, put EQ here and there, compressor, get a 3rd party plugin track going, etc. Just picked up the PUSH today, I already know ableton knows how to program softwares so I'm pretty positive that (even just by looking at the youtube vids) the workflow will be quick and easy.

I've been looking through alot of youtube videos to pull up tutorials, but I couldn't find any that answered what I was looking for. Since every instrument requires some sort of learning curve, I decided to try and figure out some stuff on my own, but I only got to the part where I open (assign) a Drum Rack.. and now:

I'm having trouble finding the best method, while using the push (with ableton 9) to do the following:
1. Without using the computer screen, I want to be able to access my .wav samples (samples which are located in a folder called "my samples" on my mac desktop). I want to assign these .wav samples to each pad. I feel like ableton wants you to use their kits? Can we assign our own .wav samples into the pads of the drum rack?


Is this do-able with the PUSH itself? or Do I have to move my sample folder from my desktop to the CATEGORIES > Samples ?? or Do I have to use the mouse to individually click on the sample and drag it into the pad?

2. I'm trying to find the quickest way to load a chopped sample from long .wav file and assign to a pad (of drum rack). In order to do this I'm assigning each Drum Rack's pad the ableton instrument "sampler". Unfortunately, I'm doing this with a mouse.. is there a way to assign the "sampler" into each pad by using the PUSH? And do you guys find this a legitimate method? Has Ableton adopted yet an MPC way of chopping and slicing & assigning the finished sample to a pad?

3. How are you guys layering your samples - such as a kick or snare / clap?

4. Is there a picture or some sort of diagram - some .jpeg - that points to each physical button on the PUSH that has a short summary of what that button does? or perhaps a youtube video?

5. When do you guys normally use the Drum Rack? and when do you use the Impulse? Any inputs and tips would be awesome.

... thanks in advance!

1. You can swap individual samples in a drum rack from Push: https://www.ableton.com/en/manual/using-push/ (27.3.1 Loading Individual Drums)

2. It seems like you're looking for the slice audio to midi option (https://www.ableton.com/en/manual/conve ... o-to-midi/). You can also find several thrads here which discuss the possibilities for chopping samples from Push

3. For sound design I prefer to use mouse and computer (before or after a Push session), layering I either do in a drum rack or in arrangement view

4. Haven't seen one, but the manual comes with pictures too

5. I use drum racks almost exclusively, just because I'm more familiar with them than with impulse (which I want to change someday)

This is my biggest concern looking at possibly buying a Push, will the push browser let me use my own samples folder in the 'places' part of the live browser, or will it limit me to using only samples/kits in the 'categories' top part of the browser.

bytheriver wrote:This is my biggest concern looking at possibly buying a Push, will the push browser let me use my own samples folder in the 'places' part of the live browser, or will it limit me to using only samples/kits in the 'categories' top part of the browser.

You can either load your own samples from the Categories section as described here:
viewtopic.php?p=1499716#p1499716

or you can load it from Places:
viewtopic.php?p=1537041#p1537041

Although I am still a little disappointed that subfolder structure is not preserved, and all the samples within the 'place' are just arranged in one big list. With the original hack, I had subfolders functioning so that, for example, you might select a drum pad and browse to the 'Kick' category, which contained subfolders for each 'place', each of which in turn contained all the samples from the 'Kick' folder within that place's associated folder. Very nice to use.

That is a huge disappointment, I have so many samples carefully organized into sub folders. If Push cant see or doesn't show the sub folders, its as good as useless for finding say, a kick, from the XXXX library.

I am not at my Push right now so I can't experiment.. But can't you add your samples folder to my Places? I have my 'my samples' folder in there, with the sub-directory structure intact. And if I remember correctly I can navigate to it via the User subdirectory in the Push browser. I

Ok so I open up the drum rack by:
Browse > Drum Rack > Core Library > Drum Rack

This way I can open up an empty "Drum Rack"

Now, how do I get to my own samples using the PUSH buttons?

Found it: viewtopic.php?p=1537041#p1537041

more questions to come

Here's a YouTube video that shows how to chop and assign samples with push
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rXirFULvpjI
its a workaround but better than nothing.

R-DUB wrote:Here's a YouTube video that shows how to chop and assign samples with push
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rXirFULvpjI
its a workaround but better than nothing.

I'm not quite sure what that process shown in the video has to do with this topic, but anyway, you could almost accomplish what he does in Push mode without any midi mapping:

- load a sample to a clip slot
- press Clip
- adjust ClipStrt and End (the two leftmost knobs), press/hold Shift and turn the knobs to fine adjust (afaik this one isn't in the manual). The problem is, until 9.0.5 it's still not fine enough even with Shift pressed (therefore "almost"). Would be nice if they would allow finer adjustments with the Shift + knob combination.
- go to Session mode
- press/hold Duplicate and press the clip
- adjust...