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
37 <img alt="the Faderport configuration dialog"
38 src="/images/push2_dialog.png">
42 Once you select the input and output port, Ardour will initialize
43 the Push 2 and it will be ready to use. You only need do this
44 once: once these ports are connected and your session has been
45 saved, the connections will be made automatically in this and other
49 <h2>Basic Concepts</h2>
51 With the Push 2 support in Ardour 5.4, you can do the following
54 <dt>Perform using the 8 x 8 pad "grid"</dt>
55 <dd>The Push 2 has really lovely pressure-sensitive pads that can
56 also generate either aftertouch or note (polyphonic) pressure.</dd>
57 <dt>Global Mixing</dt>
58 <dd>See many tracks at once, and control numerous parameters for each.</dd>
59 <dt>Track/Bus Mixing</dt>
60 <dd>View a single track/bus, with even more parameters for the track.</dd>
61 <dt>Choose the mode/scale, root note and more for the pads</dt>
62 <dd>37 scales are available. Like Live, Ardour offers both
63 "in-key" and "chromatic" pad layouts.</dd>
67 <h2>Musical Performance</h2>
69 Messages sent from the 8x8 pad grid and the "pitch bend bar" are
70 routed to a special MIDI port within Ardour called "Ableton Pads"
71 (no extra latency is incurred from this routing). Although you can
72 manually connect this port to whatever you wish, the normal
73 behaviour of Ardour's Push 2 support is to connect the pads to the
74 most recently selected MIDI track.
77 This means that to play a soft-synth/instrument plugin in a given
78 MIDI track with the Push 2, you just need to select that track.
81 If multiple MIDI tracks are selected at once, the first selected
82 track will be used. Note that messages originating from all other
83 controls on the Push 2 will <em>not</em> not be delivered to the
84 "Ableton Pads" port. This makes no difference in practice, because
85 the other controls do not send messages that are useful for musical
91 This is the default mode that Ardour will start the Push 2 in. In
92 this mode, the 8 knobs at the top of the device, the 8 buttons below
93 them, the video display and the 8 buttons below that are combined to
94 provide a global view of the session mix.
97 <img alt="global mix mode on Push2 screen"
98 src="/images/push2-globalmix.png">
101 The upper buttons are labelled by text in the video display just
102 below them. Pressing one of the buttons changes the function of the
103 knobs, and the parameters that will shown for each track/bus in the
104 display. As of Ardour 5.4, the possible parameters are:
107 <dd>The display shows a knob and text displaying
108 the current gain setting for the track, and a meter that
109 corresponds precisely to the meter shown in the Ardour GUI for
110 that track. Changing the meter type (e.g. from Peak to K12) in the
111 GUI will also change it in the Push 2 display. The physical knob
112 will alter track/bus gain.
115 <dd>The display shows a knob indicating the pan direction/azimuth
116 for the corresponding track/bus. Turning the physical knob will
117 pan the track left and right. If the track/bus has no panner
118 (i.e. it has only a single output), no knob is shown and the
119 physical knob will do nothing. </dd>
121 <dd><p>For tracks with 2 outputs, the display will show a knob
122 indicating the pan width setting for the corresponding
123 track/bus. The physical knob can be turned to adjust the
127 Unlike many DAWs, Ardour's stereo panners have "width"
128 parameter that defaults to 100%. You cannot change the pan
129 direction/azimuth of a track with 100% width, but must first
130 reduce the width in order to pan it. Similarly, a track panned
131 anywhere other than dead center has limits on the maximum
132 width setting. If these concepts are not familiar to you,
133 please be aware than many DAWs use a "panner" that actually
134 implement "balance" and not "panning", hence the difference.
138 <dd>The display shows a knob indicating the gain level for the
139 first send in that track. If the track has no send, no knob will
140 be shown, and the physical knob for that track will do nothing.
142 <dt>B Sends, C Sends, D Sends</dt>
143 <dd>Like "A Sends", but for the 2nd, 3rd and 4th sends of a
144 track/bus respectively.
149 To change which tracks are shown while in global mix mode, use the
150 left and right arrow/cursor keys just below and to the right of the
151 display. Tracks and busses that are hidden in Ardour's GUI will also
152 be hidden from display on the Push 2.
155 To select a track/bus directly from the Push 2, press the
156 corresponding button below the display. The track name will be
157 highlighted, and the selection will change in Ardour's GUI as well
158 (and also any other control surfaces).
161 <h3>Soloing and Muting in Global Mix mode</h3>
163 The Solo and Mute buttons to the left of the video display can be
164 used to solo and mute tracks while in Global Mix mode. The operation
165 will be applied to the <em>first</em> currently selected
169 There are two indications that one or more tracks are soloed:
171 <li>The solo button will blink red</li>
172 <li>Track names will be prefixed by "*" if they are soloed, and
173 "-" if they are muted due to soloing.</li>
177 To cancel solo, either:
179 <li>Select the soloed track(s) and press the solo button
181 <li>Press and hold the solo button for more than 1 second</li>
186 <p>Track Mix mode allows you to focus on a single track in more detail
187 than is possible in Global Mix mode. To enter (or leave) Track Mix
188 mode, press the "Mix" button.
191 <img alt="track mix mode on Push2 screen" src="/images/push2-trackmix.png">
194 In Track Mix mode, various aspects of the state of the first
195 selected track/bus will be displayed on the Push 2. Above the
196 display, the first 4 knobs control track volume (gain), pan
197 directiom/azimuth, pan width, and where appropriate, track input
201 Below the display, 7 buttons provide immediate control of mute,
202 solo, rec-enable, monitoring (input or disk or automatic), solo
203 isolate and solo safe state. When a a track is muted due to other
204 track(s) soloing, the mute button will flash (to differentiate from
205 its state when it is explicitly muted).
208 The video display also shows meters for the track, which as in
209 Global Mix mode, precisely match the meter type shown in Ardour's
210 GUI. There are also two time displays showing the current playhead
211 position in both musical (beats|bars|ticks) format, and as
212 hours:minutes:seconds.
215 To change which track is visible in Track Mix mode, use the
216 left/right arrow/cursor keys just below and to the right of the
220 <h2>Specific Button/Knob Functions</h2>
223 In addition to the layouts described above, many (but not all) of
224 the buttons and knobs around the edges of the Push 2 will carry out
225 various functions related to their (illuminated) label. As of Ardour
228 <dt>Metronome (button and adjacent knob)</dt>
230 Enables/disables the click (metronome). The knob directly above
231 it will control the volume (gain) of the click.
235 Undo or redo the previous editing operation.
239 Deletes the currently selected region, or range, or
240 note. Equivalent to using Ctrl/Cmd-x on the keyboard.
244 If a MIDI region is selected in Ardour, this will open the
249 Duplicates the current region or range selection.
253 Enables and disables Ardour's global record enable state.
257 Starts and stops the transport.
261 Opens Ardour's Add Track/Bus dialog.
265 Open's Ardour's import dialog to select and audition existing
266 audio and MIDI files.
270 Pressing this button jumps directly to Track Mix mode, with the
271 master out bus displayed.
273 <dt>Cursor arrows</dt>
275 These are used by some modes to navigate within the display (e.g
276 Scale mode). In other modes, the up/down cursor arrows will
277 scroll the GUI display up and down, while the left/right cursor
278 arrows will generally scroll within the Push 2 display itself.
282 Enables/disables loop playback. This will follow Ardour's "loop
283 is mode" preference, just like the loop button in the Ardour
286 <dt>Octave buttons</dt>
288 These shift the root note of the current pad scale up or down by
291 <dt>Page buttons</dt>
293 These scroll Ardour's editor display left and right along the
296 <dt>Master (top right) knob</dt>
298 This knob controls the gain/volume of Ardour's main output. If
299 the session has a monitor saec