3 title: Using the Ableton Push 2
4 menu_title: Ableton Push 2
8 <img alt="the Ableton Push 2 surface" src="/images/push2-main.jpg">
11 Since version 5.4, Ardour has had full support for the Ableton
12 Push2. This is an expensive but beautifully engineered control
13 surface primarily targetting the workflow found in Ableton's Live
14 software and other similar tools such as Bitwig. As of 5.4, Ardour
15 does not offer the same kind of workflow, so we have repurposed the
16 Push 2 to be used for mixing and editing and musical performance,
17 without the clip/scene oriented approach in Live. This may change in
18 future versions of Ardour.
21 <h2>Connecting the Push 2</h2>
23 Plug the USB cable from the Push 2 into a USB2 or USB3 port on your
24 computer. For brighter backlighting, also plug in the power supply
25 (this is not necessary for use).
29 The Push 2 will be automatically recognized by your operating
30 system, and will appear in any of the lists of possible MIDI ports
31 in both Ardour and other similar software.
34 To connect the Push 2 to Ardour, open the Preferences dialog, and
35 then click on "Control Surfaces". Click on the "Enable" button
36 in the line that says "Ableton Push 2" in order to activate Ardour's
40 Once you select the input and output port, Ardour will initialize
41 the Push 2 and it will be ready to use. You only need do this
42 once: once these ports are connected and your session has been
43 saved, the connections will be made automatically in this and other
47 <h2>Push 2 Configuration</h2>
49 The only configuration option at this time is whether the pads send
50 aftertouch or polyphonic pressure messages. You can alter this
51 setting via the Push 2 GUI, accessed by double-clicking on the "Push
52 2" entry in the control surfaces list.
54 <img alt="the Push 2 configuration dialog"
55 src="/images/push2-gui.png">
58 <h2>Basic Concepts</h2>
60 With the Push 2 support in Ardour 5.4, you can do the following
63 <dt>Perform using the 8 x 8 pad "grid"</dt>
64 <dd>The Push 2 has really lovely pressure-sensitive pads that can
65 also generate either aftertouch or note (polyphonic) pressure.</dd>
66 <dt>Global Mixing</dt>
67 <dd>See many tracks at once, and control numerous parameters for each.</dd>
68 <dt>Track/Bus Mixing</dt>
69 <dd>View a single track/bus, with even more parameters for the track.</dd>
70 <dt>Choose the mode/scale, root note and more for the pads</dt>
71 <dd>37 scales are available. Like Live, Ardour offers both
72 "in-key" and "chromatic" pad layouts.</dd>
75 ... plus a variety of tasks related to transport control, selection,
76 import, click track control and more.
79 <h2>Musical Performance</h2>
81 Messages sent from the 8x8 pad grid and the "pitch bend bar" are
82 routed to a special MIDI port within Ardour called "Push 2 Pads"
83 (no extra latency is incurred from this routing). Although you can
84 manually connect this port to whatever you wish, the normal
85 behaviour of Ardour's Push 2 support is to connect the pads to the
86 most recently selected MIDI track.
89 This means that to play a soft-synth/instrument plugin in a given
90 MIDI track with the Push 2, you just need to select that track.
93 If multiple MIDI tracks are selected at once, the first selected
94 track will be used. Note that messages originating from all other
95 controls on the Push 2 will <em>not</em> not be delivered to the
96 "Push 2 Pads" port. This makes no difference in practice, because
97 the other controls do not send messages that are useful for musical
103 This is the default mode that Ardour will start the Push 2 in. In
104 this mode, the 8 knobs at the top of the device, the 8 buttons below
105 them, the video display and the 8 buttons below that are combined to
106 provide a global view of the session mix.
109 <img alt="global mix mode on Push2 screen"
110 src="/images/push2-globalmix.png">
113 The upper buttons are labelled by text in the video display just
114 below them. Pressing one of the buttons changes the function of the
115 knobs, and the parameters that will shown for each track/bus in the
119 As of Ardour 5.4, the possible parameters are:
122 <dd>The display shows a knob and text displaying
123 the current gain setting for the track, and a meter that
124 corresponds precisely to the meter shown in the Ardour GUI for
125 that track. Changing the meter type (e.g. from Peak to K12) in the
126 GUI will also change it in the Push 2 display. The physical knob
127 will alter track/bus gain.
130 <dd>The display shows a knob indicating the pan direction/azimuth
131 for the corresponding track/bus. Turning the physical knob will
132 pan the track left and right. If the track/bus has no panner
133 (i.e. it has only a single output), no knob is shown and the
134 physical knob will do nothing. </dd>
136 <dd><p>For tracks with 2 outputs, the display will show a knob
137 indicating the pan width setting for the corresponding
138 track/bus. The physical knob can be turned to adjust the
142 Unlike many DAWs, Ardour's stereo panners have "width"
143 parameter that defaults to 100%. You cannot change the pan
144 direction/azimuth of a track with 100% width, but must first
145 reduce the width in order to pan it. Similarly, a track panned
146 anywhere other than dead center has limits on the maximum
147 width setting. If these concepts are not familiar to you,
148 please be aware than many DAWs use a "panner" that actually
149 implement "balance" and not "panning", hence the difference.
153 <dd>The display shows a knob indicating the gain level for the
154 first send in that track. If the track has no send, no knob will
155 be shown, and the physical knob for that track will do nothing.
157 <dt>B Sends, C Sends, D Sends</dt>
158 <dd>Like "A Sends", but for the 2nd, 3rd and 4th sends of a
159 track/bus respectively.
164 To change which tracks are shown while in global mix mode, use the
165 left and right arrow/cursor keys just below and to the right of the
166 display. Tracks and busses that are hidden in Ardour's GUI will also
167 be hidden from display on the Push 2.
170 To select a track/bus directly from the Push 2, press the
171 corresponding button below the display. The track name will be
172 highlighted, and the selection will change in Ardour's GUI as well
173 (and also any other control surfaces).
176 <h3>Soloing and Muting in Global Mix mode</h3>
178 The Solo and Mute buttons to the left of the video display can be
179 used to solo and mute tracks while in Global Mix mode. The operation
180 will be applied to the <em>first</em> currently selected
184 There are two indications that one or more tracks are soloed:
186 <li>The solo button will blink red</li>
187 <li>Track names will be prefixed by "*" if they are soloed, and
188 "-" if they are muted due to soloing.</li>
192 To cancel solo, either:
194 <li>Select the soloed track(s) and press the solo button
196 <li>Press and hold the solo button for more than 1 second</li>
201 <p>Track Mix mode allows you to focus on a single track in more detail
202 than is possible in Global Mix mode. To enter (or leave) Track Mix
203 mode, press the "Mix" button.
209 In Track Mix mode, various aspects of the state of the first
210 selected track/bus will be displayed on the Push 2. Above the
211 display, the first 4 knobs control track volume (gain), pan
212 directiom/azimuth, pan width, and where appropriate, track input
216 Below the display, 7 buttons provide immediate control of mute,
217 solo, rec-enable, monitoring (input or disk or automatic), solo
218 isolate and solo safe state. When a a track is muted due to other
219 track(s) soloing, the mute button will flash (to differentiate from
220 its state when it is explicitly muted).
223 The video display also shows meters for the track, which as in
224 Global Mix mode, precisely match the meter type shown in Ardour's
225 GUI. There are also two time displays showing the current playhead
226 position in both musical (beats|bars|ticks) format, and as
227 hours:minutes:seconds.
230 To change which track is visible in Track Mix mode, use the
231 left/right arrow/cursor keys just below and to the right of the
235 <h2>Scale Selection</h2>
237 Press the Scale button to enter Scale mode. The display will look
241 <img alt="track mix mode on Push2 screen"
242 src="/images/push2-scale.png">
245 In the center, 37 scales are presented. Scroll through them by
246 either using the cursor/arrow keys to the lower right of the
247 display, or the knobs above the display. The scale will change
248 dynamically as you scroll. You can also scroll in whole pages using
249 the upper right and upper left buttons above the display (they will
250 display "<" and ">" if scrolling is possible).
253 To change the root note of the scale, press the corresponding button
254 above or below the video display.The button will be lit to indicate
255 your selection (and the text will be highlighted).
258 By default, Ardour configures the Push 2 pads to use "in-key" mode,
259 where all pads correspond to notes "in" the chosen scale. Notes
260 corresponding to the root note, or the equivalent note in higher
261 octaves, are highlighted with the color of the current target MIDI
266 "chromatic" mode, the pads correspond to a continuous sequence of
267 notes starting with your selected root note. Pads corresponding to
268 notes in the scale are illuminated; those corresponding to the root
269 note are lit with the color the current target MIDI track. Other
270 pads are left dark, but you can still play them.
273 To switch between them, press button on the lower left of the video
274 display; the text above it will display the current mode (though it
275 is usually visually self-evident from the pad lighting pattern).
278 To leave Scale mode, press the "Scale" button again. You may also
279 use the upper left button above the display, though if you have
280 scrolled left, it may require more than one press.
283 <h2>Specific Button/Knob Functions</h2>
286 In addition to the layouts described above, many (but not all) of
287 the buttons and knobs around the edges of the Push 2 will carry out
288 various functions related to their (illuminated) label. As of Ardour
291 <dt>Metronome (button and adjacent knob)</dt>
293 Enables/disables the click (metronome). The knob directly above
294 it will control the volume (gain) of the click.
298 Undo or redo the previous editing operation.
302 Deletes the currently selected region, or range, or
303 note. Equivalent to using Ctrl/Cmd-x on the keyboard.
307 If a MIDI region is selected in Ardour, this will open the
312 Duplicates the current region or range selection.
316 Enables and disables Ardour's global record enable state.
320 Starts and stops the transport.
324 Opens Ardour's Add Track/Bus dialog.
328 Open's Ardour's import dialog to select and audition existing
329 audio and MIDI files.
333 Pressing this button jumps directly to Track Mix mode, with the
334 master out bus displayed.
336 <dt>Cursor arrows</dt>
338 These are used by some modes to navigate within the display (e.g
339 Scale mode). In other modes, the up/down cursor arrows will
340 scroll the GUI display up and down, while the left/right cursor
341 arrows will generally scroll within the Push 2 display itself.
345 Enables/disables loop playback. This will follow Ardour's "loop
346 is mode" preference, just like the loop button in the Ardour
349 <dt>Octave buttons</dt>
351 These shift the root note of the current pad scale up or down by
354 <dt>Page buttons</dt>
356 These scroll Ardour's editor display left and right along the
359 <dt>Master (top right) knob</dt>
361 This knob controls the gain/volume of Ardour's main output. If
362 the session has a monitor saec