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).
28 The Push 2 will be automatically recognized by your operating
29 system, and will appear in any of the lists of possible MIDI ports
30 in both Ardour and other similar software.
33 To connect the Push 2 to Ardour, open the Preferences dialog, and
34 then click on "Control Surfaces". Click on the "Enable" button
35 in the line that says "Ableton Push 2" in order to activate Ardour's
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>
69 ... plus a variety of tasks related to transport control, selection,
70 import, click track control and more.
73 <h2>Musical Performance</h2>
75 Messages sent from the 8x8 pad grid and the "pitch bend bar" are
76 routed to a special MIDI port within Ardour called "Push 2 Pads"
77 (no extra latency is incurred from this routing). Although you can
78 manually connect this port to whatever you wish, the normal
79 behaviour of Ardour's Push 2 support is to connect the pads to the
80 most recently selected MIDI track.
83 This means that to play a soft-synth/instrument plugin in a given
84 MIDI track with the Push 2, you just need to select that track.
87 If multiple MIDI tracks are selected at once, the first selected
88 track will be used. Note that messages originating from all other
89 controls on the Push 2 will <em>not</em> not be delivered to the
90 "Push 2 Pads" port. This makes no difference in practice, because
91 the other controls do not send messages that are useful for musical
97 This is the default mode that Ardour will start the Push 2 in. In
98 this mode, the 8 knobs at the top of the device, the 8 buttons below
99 them, the video display and the 8 buttons below that are combined to
100 provide a global view of the session mix.
103 <img alt="global mix mode on Push2 screen"
104 src="/images/push2-globalmix.png">
107 The upper buttons are labelled by text in the video display just
108 below them. Pressing one of the buttons changes the function of the
109 knobs, and the parameters that will shown for each track/bus in the
110 display. As of Ardour 5.4, the possible parameters are:
113 <dd>The display shows a knob and text displaying
114 the current gain setting for the track, and a meter that
115 corresponds precisely to the meter shown in the Ardour GUI for
116 that track. Changing the meter type (e.g. from Peak to K12) in the
117 GUI will also change it in the Push 2 display. The physical knob
118 will alter track/bus gain.
121 <dd>The display shows a knob indicating the pan direction/azimuth
122 for the corresponding track/bus. Turning the physical knob will
123 pan the track left and right. If the track/bus has no panner
124 (i.e. it has only a single output), no knob is shown and the
125 physical knob will do nothing. </dd>
127 <dd><p>For tracks with 2 outputs, the display will show a knob
128 indicating the pan width setting for the corresponding
129 track/bus. The physical knob can be turned to adjust the
133 Unlike many DAWs, Ardour's stereo panners have "width"
134 parameter that defaults to 100%. You cannot change the pan
135 direction/azimuth of a track with 100% width, but must first
136 reduce the width in order to pan it. Similarly, a track panned
137 anywhere other than dead center has limits on the maximum
138 width setting. If these concepts are not familiar to you,
139 please be aware than many DAWs use a "panner" that actually
140 implement "balance" and not "panning", hence the difference.
144 <dd>The display shows a knob indicating the gain level for the
145 first send in that track. If the track has no send, no knob will
146 be shown, and the physical knob for that track will do nothing.
148 <dt>B Sends, C Sends, D Sends</dt>
149 <dd>Like "A Sends", but for the 2nd, 3rd and 4th sends of a
150 track/bus respectively.
155 To change which tracks are shown while in global mix mode, use the
156 left and right arrow/cursor keys just below and to the right of the
157 display. Tracks and busses that are hidden in Ardour's GUI will also
158 be hidden from display on the Push 2.
161 To select a track/bus directly from the Push 2, press the
162 corresponding button below the display. The track name will be
163 highlighted, and the selection will change in Ardour's GUI as well
164 (and also any other control surfaces).
167 <h3>Soloing and Muting in Global Mix mode</h3>
169 The Solo and Mute buttons to the left of the video display can be
170 used to solo and mute tracks while in Global Mix mode. The operation
171 will be applied to the <em>first</em> currently selected
175 There are two indications that one or more tracks are soloed:
177 <li>The solo button will blink red</li>
178 <li>Track names will be prefixed by "*" if they are soloed, and
179 "-" if they are muted due to soloing.</li>
183 To cancel solo, either:
185 <li>Select the soloed track(s) and press the solo button
187 <li>Press and hold the solo button for more than 1 second</li>
192 <p>Track Mix mode allows you to focus on a single track in more detail
193 than is possible in Global Mix mode. To enter (or leave) Track Mix
194 mode, press the "Mix" button.
200 In Track Mix mode, various aspects of the state of the first
201 selected track/bus will be displayed on the Push 2. Above the
202 display, the first 4 knobs control track volume (gain), pan
203 directiom/azimuth, pan width, and where appropriate, track input
207 Below the display, 7 buttons provide immediate control of mute,
208 solo, rec-enable, monitoring (input or disk or automatic), solo
209 isolate and solo safe state. When a a track is muted due to other
210 track(s) soloing, the mute button will flash (to differentiate from
211 its state when it is explicitly muted).
214 The video display also shows meters for the track, which as in
215 Global Mix mode, precisely match the meter type shown in Ardour's
216 GUI. There are also two time displays showing the current playhead
217 position in both musical (beats|bars|ticks) format, and as
218 hours:minutes:seconds.
221 To change which track is visible in Track Mix mode, use the
222 left/right arrow/cursor keys just below and to the right of the
226 <h2>Scale Selection</h2>
228 Press the Scale button to enter Scale mode. The display will look
232 <img alt="track mix mode on Push2 screen"
233 src="/images/push2-scale.png">
236 In the center, 37 scales are presented. Scroll through them by
237 either using the cursor/arrow keys to the lower right of the
238 display, or the knobs above the display. The scale will change
239 dynamically as you scroll. You can also scroll in whole pages using
240 the upper right and upper left buttons above the display (they will
241 display "<" and ">" if scrolling is possible).
244 To change the root note of the scale, press the corresponding button
245 above or below the video display.The button will be lit to indicate
246 your selection (and the text will be highlighted).
249 By default, Ardour configures the Push 2 pads to use "in-key" mode,
250 where all pads correspond to notes "in" the chosen scale. Notes
251 corresponding to the root note, or the equivalent note in higher
252 octaves, are highlighted with the color of the current target MIDI
257 "chromatic" mode, the pads correspond to a continuous sequence of
258 notes starting with your selected root note. Pads corresponding to
259 notes in the scale are illuminated; those corresponding to the root
260 note are lit with the color the current target MIDI track. Other
261 pads are left dark, but you can still play them.
264 To switch between them, press button on the lower left of the video
265 display; the text above it will display the current mode (though it
266 is usually visually self-evident from the pad lighting pattern).
269 To leave Scale mode, press the "Scale" button again. You may also
270 use the upper left button above the display, though if you have
271 scrolled left, it may require more than one press.
274 <h2>Specific Button/Knob Functions</h2>
277 In addition to the layouts described above, many (but not all) of
278 the buttons and knobs around the edges of the Push 2 will carry out
279 various functions related to their (illuminated) label. As of Ardour
282 <dt>Metronome (button and adjacent knob)</dt>
284 Enables/disables the click (metronome). The knob directly above
285 it will control the volume (gain) of the click.
289 Undo or redo the previous editing operation.
293 Deletes the currently selected region, or range, or
294 note. Equivalent to using Ctrl/Cmd-x on the keyboard.
298 If a MIDI region is selected in Ardour, this will open the
303 Duplicates the current region or range selection.
307 Enables and disables Ardour's global record enable state.
311 Starts and stops the transport.
315 Opens Ardour's Add Track/Bus dialog.
319 Open's Ardour's import dialog to select and audition existing
320 audio and MIDI files.
324 Pressing this button jumps directly to Track Mix mode, with the
325 master out bus displayed.
327 <dt>Cursor arrows</dt>
329 These are used by some modes to navigate within the display (e.g
330 Scale mode). In other modes, the up/down cursor arrows will
331 scroll the GUI display up and down, while the left/right cursor
332 arrows will generally scroll within the Push 2 display itself.
336 Enables/disables loop playback. This will follow Ardour's "loop
337 is mode" preference, just like the loop button in the Ardour
340 <dt>Octave buttons</dt>
342 These shift the root note of the current pad scale up or down by
345 <dt>Page buttons</dt>
347 These scroll Ardour's editor display left and right along the
350 <dt>Master (top right) knob</dt>
352 This knob controls the gain/volume of Ardour's main output. If
353 the session has a monitor saec