3 important features i thought were missing from PUSH

[132nonamemk\]

I've used the Maschine 1st and 2nd gen, MPC Studio, Ableton 8 with APC40, workstations, etc.. & I've just picked up the PUSH and love it more than any of them. It's a all-in-one workstation pretty much. However, I was surprised Ableton didn't add these features:

1. as we navigate using the PUSH, it should also highlight what we're navigating / BROWSING through on the computer screen. as a noob, sometimes I have to look up at the screen, but nothing I browse through on the PUSH shows on the screen. why didn't they enable this? would it be too much RAM?

2. save as.. / save.. button on the PUSH (is there a shortcut already on the PUSH?) It would be great if we can just save our work at a click of a button (or 2 buttons), instead of having to move our hands to the mouse.

3. ability to audition (preview) sound samples (.wav clips) as we browse & highlight them on the PUSH. this way we don't have to assign each one of them to a pad in order to hear what they sound like. to some of us who have gigabytes of samples collected over the years, it's hard to remember which sample sounds like what.

[panten]

Couldn't agree more. This is a must in my opinion.

[132nonamemk\]

Couldn't agree more. This is a must in my opinion.

found out through ableton support that "previewing samples" is something they are working on

[Valour]

[quote="132nonamemk\"]I've used the Maschine 1st and 2nd gen, MPC Studio, Ableton 8 with APC40, workstations, etc.. & I've just picked up the PUSH and love it more than any of them. It's a all-in-one workstation pretty much. However, I was surprised Ableton didn't add these features:

1. as we navigate using the PUSH, it should also highlight what we're navigating / BROWSING through on the computer screen. as a noob, sometimes I have to look up at the screen, but nothing I browse through on the PUSH shows on the screen. why didn't they enable this? would it be too much RAM?

2. save as.. / save.. button on the PUSH (is there a shortcut already on the PUSH?) It would be great if we can just save our work at a click of a button (or 2 buttons), instead of having to move our hands to the mouse.

3. ability to audition (preview) sound samples (.wav clips) as we browse & highlight them on the PUSH. this way we don't have to assign each one of them to a pad in order to hear what they sound like. to some of us who have gigabytes of samples collected over the years, it's hard to remember which sample sounds like what.[/quote]

What do you like about Push better than the other products you used before?
Im coming from an mpc ren/studio that I recently returned because for the way I work it seems the Push would be a better fit for me being that I don't doing any sampling at all. I just like the mpc workflow.
Im also a logic pro x user and i love it but going back to logic from the mpc ren/studio doesn't feel as fun without having a dedicated controller but I would have to switch over to ableton.
I've been using the live 9 trial version and its super dope just as good as logic to me especially for drum racks.

[132nonamemk\]

What do you like about Push better than the other products you used before?
Im coming from an mpc ren/studio that I recently returned because for the way I work it seems the Push would be a better fit for me being that I don't doing any sampling at all. I just like the mpc workflow.
Im also a logic pro x user and i love it but going back to logic from the mpc ren/studio doesn't feel as fun without having a dedicated controller but I would have to switch over to ableton.
I've been using the live 9 trial version and its super dope just as good as logic to me especially for drum racks.

Ableton isn't new to this "software / midi controller" game. They started far back with the APC20 and the APC40 and I think Ableton has ALOT of versions (meaning, alot of refinements).

I've been using Ableton for couple years now, and even without the PUSH, I knew my ol' Ableton 8 did more than the akai renn can do - and that's just me using the keyboard shortcuts and mouse. The only reason I bought the akai was because i was ready to experience a new instrument. But all it was is a 4x4 midi pads with modulation knobs and a software that needed too much attention & extra features.

Even if I do use MPC's software to lay out all my drums and do my sampling, I bring it into Ableton to do all the final adjustments anyways (compressor, side chain, etc). With MPC, I had to link each akai sequence with each clip (btw which doesn't work well because akai hasn't figured out a way to link their software with DAWs), having to WAIT for myself to get lucky and hopefully akai would add a feature I thought was important in creating my music, i'd rather just rely on ableton, have ableton always open, and do all my sequencing, eq, layering, arranging, and finalizing all in ableton.

I've read somewhere in the Ableton site that the "drum rack" will now be the official 4x4 drum programmer for Live and PUSH. I already know this means that Ableton's "drum rack" will be more powerful than the whole akai software.

Comparing the Ableton PUSH and the AKAI Renn is like comparing a 4G smartphone to a 3G flip phone. It's unfair.

[Valour]

Thanks for your reply.I think im pretty much sold on getting the Push. What are the things you love about the Push so far?
Akai software is very buggy as of right now and i dont like having to export the audio files to my daw after making the beat.
The only thing that has stopped me from getting the push was hearing about the bad pad leds. how are the pads on your push?

[132nonamemk\]

Thanks for your reply.I think im pretty much sold on getting the Push. What are the things you love about the Push so far?
Akai software is very buggy as of right now and i dont like having to export the audio files to my daw after making the beat.
The only thing that has stopped me from getting the push was hearing about the bad pad leds. how are the pads on your push?

what I like about the exterior:
It's slim, heavy duty, subtle in design. i can easily focus on creating music thanks to it's simplified user interface. The buttons save me about 3 to 5 mouse clicks on some applications. the akai had buttons you would press once and not use for weeks or months. some buttons on the akai you had to press everytime - it had unnecessary buttons, or rather too many buttons.

knobs feel super smooth
pads feel very durable, 2~3 times denser than the akai mpc renn.
buttons feel very durable
everything ont the PUSH interface seems very carefully chosen, and super meaty when it comes to density of the buttons.

what I like about the work flow:
It's fluid. Clip view, sequencer view / drum rack view / loop length, and midi keyboard view all in press of a button. After you lay down the beats (that one screen called DRUM RACK is pretty much the whole mpc software), you can switch to the next track (the next instrument) and do your melody using the 64 pads like a keyboard.

details I like:
you can pretty much chain effects to each pad unlimited.
it forces you to get your files organized, but it helps alot in the long run.

the only, ONLY thing I miss is how on the mpc, you can look at the small screen to see the wave when you chop and slice it. on the PUSH, you have to look at the computer screen when you chop or slice. if ableton enables their PUSH screen to show wave images... wow..

[132nonamemk\]

Akai software is very buggy as of right now and i dont like having to export the audio files to my daw after making the beat.
The only thing that has stopped me from getting the push was hearing about the bad pad leds. how are the pads on your push?

My LED's are same as others. The pictures people take are alot worse than what you would normally see with the naked eye.

[DeNwA]

My Unit is a "Rainbow Push" and Ableton emailed me and said their dev's should have a solution for that issue by the end of August and my ability to return the unit will be extended until they either solve the issue or decide to give up.


That out of the way. I love the Push but I generally work in arrangement view and the lack of direct workability in arrangement view with Push is starting to get on my nerves. I'll assume that this will be added in the future, but a simple statement of "when" from Ableton would be nice.

[sowhoso]

[quote="132nonamemk\"]found out through ableton support that "previewing samples" is something they are working on[/quote]


yaaah hoooo!

[132nonamemk\]

has anyone found any updates on this?

[Punky921]

Yeah, I agree. Previews would be great. I have Suite 9, and there's SO MUCH STUFF here that unless I know what I'm specifically looking for, digging through synth presets is a real chore. Screen highlighting in the browser would be awesome too.

I can live without a save function because I usually just hit ctrl+S.

Great suggestions!