Ableton Forum

Hello all,
I'm seriously considering switching from MPC Live to a Push 3 Standalone.
Long story short, but I'm seriously tired of Akai and that their gear seems to always only almost be there with quite a few key features for my use case.

But since the Push 3 Standalone is way too expensive to just buy and test and then sell again if it doesn't solve my intended use case better than the MPC. I thought it would be better to ask experienced users first...

1. Can you change Sets with program changes from external gear?

2. Can clips and scenes be triggered/changed using program changes from external gear?

3. How good is the Push 3 Standalone as a midi slave regarding sync reliability etc?

P3 supports program changes, so on this matter, if you can do it in Live you can do it on P3S.
As for the sync, that's an endless debate: some users complains about Live sync forever, others are perfectly fine with it, others praise analog sync'ing etc... but P3S is equipped for syncing so, here again if that works for you in Live it'll work on Push.

[jur] wrote: ↑

Sun Feb 08, 2026 6:31 pm

P3 supports program changes, so on this matter, if you can do it in Live you can do it on P3S.
As for the sync, that's an endless debate: some users complains about Live sync forever, others are perfectly fine with it, others praise analog sync'ing etc... but P3S is equipped for syncing so, here again if that works for you in Live it'll work on Push.

Thanks for answering.
The issue is that I haven't used Live more than for a few test with Lite versions. So my knowledge of what can be achieved inside Live regarding program changes is limited.

But when researching some more it seems Sets cannot be changed with program changes or any midi. But clips/scenes can indeed be mapped to midi controllers. Not sure if this also includes using program changes or only midi notes/cc.

Well the Push 3 Standalone is on its way now, so I'll test more when it arrives