Ableton Forum

Hey all

quick temperature check.

Out of all the controllers our there, is Ableton Push the way to go for easy session view recording?

I play and record vox guitar, bass

The push can be a bit difficult to navigate at first; im always learning something new about it I feel. But it is pretty good for an all purpose controller. It is set up to be used with session view as a default.

It reeeeeally depends on your needs.

Do you need colors that correspond with the clips? Then there are APCii, Launchpad Pro and Push

Do you need an LCD display? Then there is Push

Do you need faders for quick adjustment of channel volumes? Then you get an APC

Do you need knobs automatically assigned to devices of a selected channel? Then you Could choose Push or APC, one requires more button presses depending on the situation but the other can't 'dive as deep' into parameters, or give you LCD info

Do you need the ability to play notes or step sequence? Then you might be more towards Launchpad or Push.

Do you need something large or small? Heavy or light? Prices vary greatly also. If you're just using session view, you could almost get away with a Launchpad S or APC mini, they are very inexpensive but the trade offs are less extra controls.

cool beans, thank you. I think it boils down to Push or APC 40.

My goal would be to use for quicker compositional workflow in session. Lots of duplicating scenes or clips, record arm, undo, record arm after undo, tamp tempo, renaming clips, scenes or channels, metronome count in.

1. Find drum loop, place on channel 1
2. I lay down chord prog #1 on guitar channel 2, top clip
3. More chord progs and variations on guitar channel 2. All this while I have been copy pasting drums or duplicating scene with drum loop alone
4. Add synths. If the sound bank selectors really to browse for sounds and listen without loading the sound into channel, that would be amazing. Right now, I have to arrow down and load whatever synth into the channel.

At a glance on the Push, not clear if you can arm tracks or clips and play scenes?

Sebastian wrote:cool beans, thank you. I think it boils down to Push or APC 40.

My goal would be to use for quicker compositional workflow in session. Lots of duplicating scenes or clips, record arm, undo, record arm after undo, tamp tempo, renaming clips, scenes or channels, metronome count in.

1. Find drum loop, place on channel 1
2. I lay down chord prog #1 on guitar channel 2, top clip
3. More chord progs and variations on guitar channel 2. All this while I have been copy pasting drums or duplicating scene with drum loop alone
4. Add synths. If the sound bank selectors really to browse for sounds and listen without loading the sound into channel, that would be amazing. Right now, I have to arrow down and load whatever synth into the channel.

The APC 40 is intended as more of a live-performance tool. From reading your needs; the Push should suit you just fine. It allows for incredibly easy composition workflow in session.

However, if you just need a button matrix to select empty slots for recording into clips; and not too much editings/playing in the controller itself; the APC 40 would actually do you well for much cheaper.

I have tried them all. I dont use them for live performance just for composition... For that Push is total magic! I just Love IT.

Push is pretty good at duplicating scenes and managing that stuff. It's also pretty spiffy at making new drum patterns!

It has arming, along with solo and mute. The buttons are all sort of along the same row.

The difference with the APC is that it has the buttons dedicated to those functions, along with volume faders.

If you don't need faders I'd probably lean towards Push. The display is kinda handy, and some of the clip editing and metronome functions are a little more accessible. Plus you can see the tempo on the device instead of the screen.

Consider a MIDI foot pedalboard for recording guitar, bass, and vocals

cool beans.

Midi foot pedal? Nah. Been there done that. too complicated. count in works easy