3 title: Using the Ableton Push 2
4 menu_title: Ableton Push 2
8 Since version 5.4, Ardour has had full support for the Ableton
9 Push2. This is an expensive but beautifully engineered control
10 surface primarily targetting the workflow found in Ableton's Live
11 software and other similar tools such as Bitwig. As of 5.4, Ardour
12 does not offer the same kind of workflow, so we have repurposed the
13 Push 2 to be used for mixing and editing and musical performance,,
14 without the clip/scene oriented approach in Live. This may change in
15 future versions of Ardour.
18 <h2>Connecting the Push 2</h2>
20 Plug the USB cable from the Push 2 into a USB2 or USB3 port on your
21 computer. For brighter backlighting, also plug in the power supply
22 (this is not necessary for use).
25 The Push 2 will be automatically recognized by your operating
26 system, and will appear in any of the lists of possible MIDI ports
27 in both Ardour and other similar software.
30 To connect the Push 2 to Ardour, open the Preferences dialog, and
31 then click on "Control Surfaces". Click on the "Enable" button
32 in the line that says "Ableton Push 2" in order to activate Ardour's
33 Push 2 support. <!-- Then double click on the line that says
34 "Ableton Push 2". A new dialog will open, containing (among other things)
35 two dropdown selectors that will allow you to identify the MIDI
36 ports where your Push 2 is connected.-->
40 <img alt="the Faderport configuration dialog"
41 src="/images/push2_dialog.png">
45 Once you select the input and output port, Ardour will initialize
46 the Push 2 and it will be ready to use. You only need do this
47 once: once these ports are connected and your session has been
48 saved, the connections will be made automatically in this and other
52 <h2>Basic Concepts</h2>
54 With the Push 2 support in Ardour 5.4, you can do the following
57 <dt>Perform using the 8 x 8 pad "grid"</dt>
58 <dd>The Push 2 has really lovely pressure-sensitive pads that can
59 also generate either aftertouch or note (polyphonic) pressure.</dd>
60 <dt>Global Mixing</dt>
61 <dd>See many tracks at once, and control numerous parameters for each.</dd>
62 <dt>Track/Bus Mixing</dt>
63 <dd>View a single track/bus, with even more parameters for the track.</dd>
64 <dt>Choose the mode/scale, root note and more for the pads</dt>
65 <dd>37 scales are available. Like Live, Ardour offers both
66 "in-key" and "chromatic" pad layouts.</dd>
70 <h2>Musical Performance</h2>
72 Messages sent from the 8x8 pad grid and the "pitch bend bar" are
73 routed to a special MIDI port within Ardour called "Ableton Pads"
74 (no extra latency is incurred from this routing). Although you can
75 manually connect this port to whatever you wish, the normal
76 behaviour of Ardour's Push 2 support is to connect the pads to the
77 most recently selected MIDI track.
80 This means that to play a soft-synth/instrument plugin in a given
81 MIDI track with the Push 2, you just need to select that track.
84 If multiple MIDI tracks are selected at once, the first selected
85 track will be used. Note that messages originating from all other
86 controls on the Push 2 will <em>not</em> not be delivered to the
87 "Ableton Pads" port. This makes no difference in practice, because
88 the other controls do not send messages that are useful for musical
94 This is the default mode that Ardour will start the Push 2 in. In
95 this mode, the 8 knobs at the top of the device, the 8 buttons below
96 them, the video display and the 8 buttons below that are combined to
97 provide a global view of the session mix.
99 <!-- SCREENSHOT HERE -->
103 The upper buttons are labelled by text in the video display just
104 below them. Pressing one of the buttons changes the function of the
105 knobs, and the parameters that will shown for each track/bus in the
106 display. As of Ardour 5.4, the possible parameters are:
109 <dd>The display shows a knob and text displaying
110 the current gain setting for the track, and a meter that
111 corresponds precisely to the meter shown in the Ardour GUI for
112 that track. Changing the meter type (e.g. from Peak to K12) in the
113 GUI will also change it in the Push 2 display. The physical knob
114 will alter track/bus gain.
117 <dd>The display shows a knob indicating the pan direction/azimuth
118 for the corresponding track/bus. Turning the physical knob will
119 pan the track left and right. If the track/bus has no panner
120 (i.e. it has only a single output), no knob is shown and the
121 physical knob will do nothing. </dd>
123 <dd><p>For tracks with 2 outputs, the display will show a knob
124 indicating the pan width setting for the corresponding
125 track/bus. The physical knob can be turned to adjust the
129 Unlike many DAWs, Ardour's stereo panners have "width"
130 parameter that defaults to 100%. You cannot change the pan
131 direction/azimuth of a track with 100% width, but must first
132 reduce the width in order to pan it. Similarly, a track panned
133 anywhere other than dead center has limits on the maximum
134 width setting. If these concepts are not familiar to you,
135 please be aware than many DAWs use a "panner" that actually
136 implement "balance" and not "panning", hence the difference.
140 <dd>The display shows a knob indicating the gain level for the
141 first send in that track. If the track has no send, no knob will
142 be shown, and the physical knob for that track will do nothing.
144 <dt>B Sends, C Sends, D Sends</dt>
145 <dd>Like "A Sends", but for the 2nd, 3rd and 4th sends of a
146 track/bus respectively.
154 <h2>Specific Button/Knob Functions</h2>
157 In addition to the layouts described above, many (but not all) of
158 the buttons and knobs around the edges of the Push 2 will carry out
159 various functions related to their (illuminated) label. As of Ardour
162 <li>Metronome (button and adjacent knob)</li>
174 <li>Cursor arrows</li>
178 <li>Octave buttons</li>
179 <li>Page buttons</li>