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>
66 ... plus a variety of tasks related to transport control, selection,
67 import, click track control and more.
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 "Push 2 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 "Push 2 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.
100 <img alt="global mix mode on Push2 screen"
101 src="/images/push2-globalmix.png">
104 The upper buttons are labelled by text in the video display just
105 below them. Pressing one of the buttons changes the function of the
106 knobs, and the parameters that will shown for each track/bus in the
107 display. As of Ardour 5.4, the possible parameters are:
110 <dd>The display shows a knob and text displaying
111 the current gain setting for the track, and a meter that
112 corresponds precisely to the meter shown in the Ardour GUI for
113 that track. Changing the meter type (e.g. from Peak to K12) in the
114 GUI will also change it in the Push 2 display. The physical knob
115 will alter track/bus gain.
118 <dd>The display shows a knob indicating the pan direction/azimuth
119 for the corresponding track/bus. Turning the physical knob will
120 pan the track left and right. If the track/bus has no panner
121 (i.e. it has only a single output), no knob is shown and the
122 physical knob will do nothing. </dd>
124 <dd><p>For tracks with 2 outputs, the display will show a knob
125 indicating the pan width setting for the corresponding
126 track/bus. The physical knob can be turned to adjust the
130 Unlike many DAWs, Ardour's stereo panners have "width"
131 parameter that defaults to 100%. You cannot change the pan
132 direction/azimuth of a track with 100% width, but must first
133 reduce the width in order to pan it. Similarly, a track panned
134 anywhere other than dead center has limits on the maximum
135 width setting. If these concepts are not familiar to you,
136 please be aware than many DAWs use a "panner" that actually
137 implement "balance" and not "panning", hence the difference.
141 <dd>The display shows a knob indicating the gain level for the
142 first send in that track. If the track has no send, no knob will
143 be shown, and the physical knob for that track will do nothing.
145 <dt>B Sends, C Sends, D Sends</dt>
146 <dd>Like "A Sends", but for the 2nd, 3rd and 4th sends of a
147 track/bus respectively.
152 To change which tracks are shown while in global mix mode, use the
153 left and right arrow/cursor keys just below and to the right of the
154 display. Tracks and busses that are hidden in Ardour's GUI will also
155 be hidden from display on the Push 2.
158 To select a track/bus directly from the Push 2, press the
159 corresponding button below the display. The track name will be
160 highlighted, and the selection will change in Ardour's GUI as well
161 (and also any other control surfaces).
164 <h3>Soloing and Muting in Global Mix mode</h3>
166 The Solo and Mute buttons to the left of the video display can be
167 used to solo and mute tracks while in Global Mix mode. The operation
168 will be applied to the <em>first</em> currently selected
172 There are two indications that one or more tracks are soloed:
174 <li>The solo button will blink red</li>
175 <li>Track names will be prefixed by "*" if they are soloed, and
176 "-" if they are muted due to soloing.</li>
180 To cancel solo, either:
182 <li>Select the soloed track(s) and press the solo button
184 <li>Press and hold the solo button for more than 1 second</li>
189 <p>Track Mix mode allows you to focus on a single track in more detail
190 than is possible in Global Mix mode. To enter (or leave) Track Mix
191 mode, press the "Mix" button.
197 In Track Mix mode, various aspects of the state of the first
198 selected track/bus will be displayed on the Push 2. Above the
199 display, the first 4 knobs control track volume (gain), pan
200 directiom/azimuth, pan width, and where appropriate, track input
204 Below the display, 7 buttons provide immediate control of mute,
205 solo, rec-enable, monitoring (input or disk or automatic), solo
206 isolate and solo safe state. When a a track is muted due to other
207 track(s) soloing, the mute button will flash (to differentiate from
208 its state when it is explicitly muted).
211 The video display also shows meters for the track, which as in
212 Global Mix mode, precisely match the meter type shown in Ardour's
213 GUI. There are also two time displays showing the current playhead
214 position in both musical (beats|bars|ticks) format, and as
215 hours:minutes:seconds.
218 To change which track is visible in Track Mix mode, use the
219 left/right arrow/cursor keys just below and to the right of the
223 <h2>Scale Selection</h2>
225 Press the Scale button to enter Scale mode. The display will look
229 <img alt="track mix mode on Push2 screen"
230 src="/images/push2-scale.png">
233 In the center, 37 scales are presented. Scroll through them by
234 either using the cursor/arrow keys to the lower right of the
235 display, or the knobs above the display. The scale will change
236 dynamically as you scroll. You can also scroll in whole pages using
237 the upper right and upper left buttons above the display (they will
238 display "<" and ">" if scrolling is possible).
241 To change the root note of the scale, press the corresponding button
242 above or below the video display.The button will be lit to indicate
243 your selection (and the text will be highlighted).
246 By default, Ardour configures the Push 2 pads to use "in-key" mode,
247 where all pads correspond to notes "in" the chosen scale. Notes
248 corresponding to the root note, or the equivalent note in higher
249 octaves, are highlighted with the color of the current target MIDI
254 "chromatic" mode, the pads correspond to a continuous sequence of
255 notes starting with your selected root note. Pads corresponding to
256 notes in the scale are illuminated; those corresponding to the root
257 note are lit with the color the current target MIDI track. Other
258 pads are left dark, but you can still play them.
261 To switch between them, press button on the lower left of the video
262 display; the text above it will display the current mode (though it
263 is usually visually self-evident from the pad lighting pattern).
266 To leave Scale mode, press the "Scale" button again. You may also
267 use the upper left button above the display, though if you have
268 scrolled left, it may require more than one press.
271 <h2>Specific Button/Knob Functions</h2>
274 In addition to the layouts described above, many (but not all) of
275 the buttons and knobs around the edges of the Push 2 will carry out
276 various functions related to their (illuminated) label. As of Ardour
279 <dt>Metronome (button and adjacent knob)</dt>
281 Enables/disables the click (metronome). The knob directly above
282 it will control the volume (gain) of the click.
286 Undo or redo the previous editing operation.
290 Deletes the currently selected region, or range, or
291 note. Equivalent to using Ctrl/Cmd-x on the keyboard.
295 If a MIDI region is selected in Ardour, this will open the
300 Duplicates the current region or range selection.
304 Enables and disables Ardour's global record enable state.
308 Starts and stops the transport.
312 Opens Ardour's Add Track/Bus dialog.
316 Open's Ardour's import dialog to select and audition existing
317 audio and MIDI files.
321 Pressing this button jumps directly to Track Mix mode, with the
322 master out bus displayed.
324 <dt>Cursor arrows</dt>
326 These are used by some modes to navigate within the display (e.g
327 Scale mode). In other modes, the up/down cursor arrows will
328 scroll the GUI display up and down, while the left/right cursor
329 arrows will generally scroll within the Push 2 display itself.
333 Enables/disables loop playback. This will follow Ardour's "loop
334 is mode" preference, just like the loop button in the Ardour
337 <dt>Octave buttons</dt>
339 These shift the root note of the current pad scale up or down by
342 <dt>Page buttons</dt>
344 These scroll Ardour's editor display left and right along the
347 <dt>Master (top right) knob</dt>
349 This knob controls the gain/volume of Ardour's main output. If
350 the session has a monitor saec