Push 3 Standalone - First impressions and feedback...
Posted: Thu Jun 01, 2023 12:48 pm
I didn't hesitate when pulling the trigger to buy the standalone. My experience with Ableton over the years is that they take their time bringing things to market, and I was confident that they put thought and effort into it here as well.
I am not disappointed. Is there room for improvement? Yes. Do I think it will happen? Absolutely.
Build quality: Rock solid. It's beautiful, tactile, and mostly intuitive to navigate. Menu diving is minimal.
Workflow: I ran into an issue where it was not entirely intuitive to understand that I have to be in Clip View to add an audio file to an audio track clip slot.
Once, it was clear that the view mattered for specific functionality (you can't even see audio files for an audio track when you browse unless you are in clip view) I was back into flow.
A break in the workflow is that when you want to replace or audition a new sample, it does not take you back to the same folder location as the existing sample. You have to navigate back manually. This is a significant disruption to the creative process. Also, there needs to be a way to search audio files by name. Scrolling forever is also a lag in the creative process, whereas searching for "tabla loop" would quickly filter for what I have available. 256GB is great, but if you don't have a way to filter what you have, you'll never really be able to use that much space. Perhaps the immediate workaround is a precise folder structure with a naming convention that makes finding what you are looking for much easier.
Wish: I love the ADAT in and out. At this time, you have to assign each track's output to an ADAT Channel each time you create a session. I'd love to see this as a general audio routing option in the settings so I could use it for all sessions as the default audio out. This way, I can route audio through the ADAT in of my Apollo Twin X.
What I love most about the Push 3 Standalone so far is that I use Ableton features that I never gave much attention to in the software, where I was more focused on 3rd party plugins. I'm having a blast with all of the native assets.
As a point of reference... I have Maschine MK3, MPC X, Akai Force, SP404MK2, Pioneer SP-16, etc. Many of the Elektron boxes. I can see Push 3 and its workflow bringing a lot of new discoveries to my creative process. The workflow is great for my particular style. I'm looking forward to removing those stop gaps I mentioned early about nav and filtering to quickly find what you are looking for without disrupting the creative process. The other competing platforms /devices do not have this issue. I expect this will come quickly for the Push 3 in future updates.
I am not disappointed. Is there room for improvement? Yes. Do I think it will happen? Absolutely.
Build quality: Rock solid. It's beautiful, tactile, and mostly intuitive to navigate. Menu diving is minimal.
Workflow: I ran into an issue where it was not entirely intuitive to understand that I have to be in Clip View to add an audio file to an audio track clip slot.
Once, it was clear that the view mattered for specific functionality (you can't even see audio files for an audio track when you browse unless you are in clip view) I was back into flow.
A break in the workflow is that when you want to replace or audition a new sample, it does not take you back to the same folder location as the existing sample. You have to navigate back manually. This is a significant disruption to the creative process. Also, there needs to be a way to search audio files by name. Scrolling forever is also a lag in the creative process, whereas searching for "tabla loop" would quickly filter for what I have available. 256GB is great, but if you don't have a way to filter what you have, you'll never really be able to use that much space. Perhaps the immediate workaround is a precise folder structure with a naming convention that makes finding what you are looking for much easier.
Wish: I love the ADAT in and out. At this time, you have to assign each track's output to an ADAT Channel each time you create a session. I'd love to see this as a general audio routing option in the settings so I could use it for all sessions as the default audio out. This way, I can route audio through the ADAT in of my Apollo Twin X.
What I love most about the Push 3 Standalone so far is that I use Ableton features that I never gave much attention to in the software, where I was more focused on 3rd party plugins. I'm having a blast with all of the native assets.
As a point of reference... I have Maschine MK3, MPC X, Akai Force, SP404MK2, Pioneer SP-16, etc. Many of the Elektron boxes. I can see Push 3 and its workflow bringing a lot of new discoveries to my creative process. The workflow is great for my particular style. I'm looking forward to removing those stop gaps I mentioned early about nav and filtering to quickly find what you are looking for without disrupting the creative process. The other competing platforms /devices do not have this issue. I expect this will come quickly for the Push 3 in future updates.