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
39 Once you select the input and output port, Ardour will initialize
40 the Push 2 and it will be ready to use. You only need do this
41 once: once these ports are connected and your session has been
42 saved, the connections will be made automatically in this and other
46 <h2>Push 2 Configuration</h2>
48 The only configuration option at this time is whether the pads send
49 aftertouch or polyphonic pressure messages. You can alter this
50 setting via the Push 2 GUI, accessed by double-clicking on the "Push
51 2" entry in the control surfaces list.
53 <img alt="the Push 2 configuration dialog"
54 src="/images/push2-gui.png">
57 <h2>Basic Concepts</h2>
59 With the Push 2 support in Ardour 5.4, you can do the following
62 <dt>Perform using the 8 x 8 pad "grid"</dt>
63 <dd>The Push 2 has really lovely pressure-sensitive pads that can
64 also generate either aftertouch or note (polyphonic) pressure.</dd>
65 <dt>Global Mixing</dt>
66 <dd>See many tracks at once, and control numerous parameters for each.</dd>
67 <dt>Track/Bus Mixing</dt>
68 <dd>View a single track/bus, with even more parameters for the track.</dd>
69 <dt>Choose the mode/scale, root note and more for the pads</dt>
70 <dd>37 scales are available. Like Live, Ardour offers both
71 "in-key" and "chromatic" pad layouts.</dd>
74 ... plus a variety of tasks related to transport control, selection,
75 import, click track control and more.
78 <h2>Musical Performance</h2>
80 Messages sent from the 8x8 pad grid and the "pitch bend bar" are
81 routed to a special MIDI port within Ardour called "Push 2 Pads"
82 (no extra latency is incurred from this routing). Although you can
83 manually connect this port to whatever you wish, the normal
84 behaviour of Ardour's Push 2 support is to connect the pads to the
85 most recently selected MIDI track.
88 This means that to play a soft-synth/instrument plugin in a given
89 MIDI track with the Push 2, you just need to select that track.
92 If multiple MIDI tracks are selected at once, the first selected
93 track will be used. Note that messages originating from all other
94 controls on the Push 2 will <em>not</em> not be delivered to the
95 "Push 2 Pads" port. This makes no difference in practice, because
96 the other controls do not send messages that are useful for musical
102 This is the default mode that Ardour will start the Push 2 in. In
103 this mode, the 8 knobs at the top of the device, the 8 buttons below
104 them, the video display and the 8 buttons below that are combined to
105 provide a global view of the session mix.
108 <img alt="global mix mode on Push2 screen"
109 src="/images/push2-globalmix.png">
112 The upper buttons are labelled by text in the video display just
113 below them. Pressing one of the buttons changes the function of the
114 knobs, and the parameters that will shown for each track/bus in the
115 display. As of Ardour 5.4, the possible parameters are:
118 <dd>The display shows a knob and text displaying
119 the current gain setting for the track, and a meter that
120 corresponds precisely to the meter shown in the Ardour GUI for
121 that track. Changing the meter type (e.g. from Peak to K12) in the
122 GUI will also change it in the Push 2 display. The physical knob
123 will alter track/bus gain.
126 <dd>The display shows a knob indicating the pan direction/azimuth
127 for the corresponding track/bus. Turning the physical knob will
128 pan the track left and right. If the track/bus has no panner
129 (i.e. it has only a single output), no knob is shown and the
130 physical knob will do nothing. </dd>
132 <dd><p>For tracks with 2 outputs, the display will show a knob
133 indicating the pan width setting for the corresponding
134 track/bus. The physical knob can be turned to adjust the
138 Unlike many DAWs, Ardour's stereo panners have "width"
139 parameter that defaults to 100%. You cannot change the pan
140 direction/azimuth of a track with 100% width, but must first
141 reduce the width in order to pan it. Similarly, a track panned
142 anywhere other than dead center has limits on the maximum
143 width setting. If these concepts are not familiar to you,
144 please be aware than many DAWs use a "panner" that actually
145 implement "balance" and not "panning", hence the difference.
149 <dd>The display shows a knob indicating the gain level for the
150 first send in that track. If the track has no send, no knob will
151 be shown, and the physical knob for that track will do nothing.
153 <dt>B Sends, C Sends, D Sends</dt>
154 <dd>Like "A Sends", but for the 2nd, 3rd and 4th sends of a
155 track/bus respectively.
160 To change which tracks are shown while in global mix mode, use the
161 left and right arrow/cursor keys just below and to the right of the
162 display. Tracks and busses that are hidden in Ardour's GUI will also
163 be hidden from display on the Push 2.
166 To select a track/bus directly from the Push 2, press the
167 corresponding button below the display. The track name will be
168 highlighted, and the selection will change in Ardour's GUI as well
169 (and also any other control surfaces).
172 <h3>Soloing and Muting in Global Mix mode</h3>
174 The Solo and Mute buttons to the left of the video display can be
175 used to solo and mute tracks while in Global Mix mode. The operation
176 will be applied to the <em>first</em> currently selected
180 There are two indications that one or more tracks are soloed:
182 <li>The solo button will blink red</li>
183 <li>Track names will be prefixed by "*" if they are soloed, and
184 "-" if they are muted due to soloing.</li>
188 To cancel solo, either:
190 <li>Select the soloed track(s) and press the solo button
192 <li>Press and hold the solo button for more than 1 second</li>
197 <p>Track Mix mode allows you to focus on a single track in more detail
198 than is possible in Global Mix mode. To enter (or leave) Track Mix
199 mode, press the "Mix" button.
205 In Track Mix mode, various aspects of the state of the first
206 selected track/bus will be displayed on the Push 2. Above the
207 display, the first 4 knobs control track volume (gain), pan
208 directiom/azimuth, pan width, and where appropriate, track input
212 Below the display, 7 buttons provide immediate control of mute,
213 solo, rec-enable, monitoring (input or disk or automatic), solo
214 isolate and solo safe state. When a a track is muted due to other
215 track(s) soloing, the mute button will flash (to differentiate from
216 its state when it is explicitly muted).
219 The video display also shows meters for the track, which as in
220 Global Mix mode, precisely match the meter type shown in Ardour's
221 GUI. There are also two time displays showing the current playhead
222 position in both musical (beats|bars|ticks) format, and as
223 hours:minutes:seconds.
226 To change which track is visible in Track Mix mode, use the
227 left/right arrow/cursor keys just below and to the right of the
231 <h2>Scale Selection</h2>
233 Press the Scale button to enter Scale mode. The display will look
237 <img alt="track mix mode on Push2 screen"
238 src="/images/push2-scale.png">
241 In the center, 37 scales are presented. Scroll through them by
242 either using the cursor/arrow keys to the lower right of the
243 display, or the knobs above the display. The scale will change
244 dynamically as you scroll. You can also scroll in whole pages using
245 the upper right and upper left buttons above the display (they will
246 display "<" and ">" if scrolling is possible).
249 To change the root note of the scale, press the corresponding button
250 above or below the video display.The button will be lit to indicate
251 your selection (and the text will be highlighted).
254 By default, Ardour configures the Push 2 pads to use "in-key" mode,
255 where all pads correspond to notes "in" the chosen scale. Notes
256 corresponding to the root note, or the equivalent note in higher
257 octaves, are highlighted with the color of the current target MIDI
262 "chromatic" mode, the pads correspond to a continuous sequence of
263 notes starting with your selected root note. Pads corresponding to
264 notes in the scale are illuminated; those corresponding to the root
265 note are lit with the color the current target MIDI track. Other
266 pads are left dark, but you can still play them.
269 To switch between them, press button on the lower left of the video
270 display; the text above it will display the current mode (though it
271 is usually visually self-evident from the pad lighting pattern).
274 To leave Scale mode, press the "Scale" button again. You may also
275 use the upper left button above the display, though if you have
276 scrolled left, it may require more than one press.
279 <h2>Specific Button/Knob Functions</h2>
282 In addition to the layouts described above, many (but not all) of
283 the buttons and knobs around the edges of the Push 2 will carry out
284 various functions related to their (illuminated) label. As of Ardour
287 <dt>Metronome (button and adjacent knob)</dt>
289 Enables/disables the click (metronome). The knob directly above
290 it will control the volume (gain) of the click.
294 Undo or redo the previous editing operation.
298 Deletes the currently selected region, or range, or
299 note. Equivalent to using Ctrl/Cmd-x on the keyboard.
303 If a MIDI region is selected in Ardour, this will open the
308 Duplicates the current region or range selection.
312 Enables and disables Ardour's global record enable state.
316 Starts and stops the transport.
320 Opens Ardour's Add Track/Bus dialog.
324 Open's Ardour's import dialog to select and audition existing
325 audio and MIDI files.
329 Pressing this button jumps directly to Track Mix mode, with the
330 master out bus displayed.
332 <dt>Cursor arrows</dt>
334 These are used by some modes to navigate within the display (e.g
335 Scale mode). In other modes, the up/down cursor arrows will
336 scroll the GUI display up and down, while the left/right cursor
337 arrows will generally scroll within the Push 2 display itself.
341 Enables/disables loop playback. This will follow Ardour's "loop
342 is mode" preference, just like the loop button in the Ardour
345 <dt>Octave buttons</dt>
347 These shift the root note of the current pad scale up or down by
350 <dt>Page buttons</dt>
352 These scroll Ardour's editor display left and right along the
355 <dt>Master (top right) knob</dt>
357 This knob controls the gain/volume of Ardour's main output. If
358 the session has a monitor saec