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 extensive 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 version 5.4,
15 Ardour does not offer the same kind of workflow, so we have designed
16 our support for the Push 2 around mixing and editing and musical
17 performance, without the clip/scene oriented approach in Live. This
18 may change in 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
118 As of Ardour 5.4, the possible parameters are:
121 <dd>The display shows a knob and text displaying
122 the current gain setting for the track, and a meter that
123 corresponds precisely to the meter shown in the Ardour GUI for
124 that track. Changing the meter type (e.g. from Peak to K12) in the
125 GUI will also change it in the Push 2 display. The physical knob
126 will alter track/bus gain.
129 <dd>The display shows a knob indicating the pan direction/azimuth
130 for the corresponding track/bus. Turning the physical knob will
131 pan the track left and right. If the track/bus has no panner
132 (i.e. it has only a single output), no knob is shown and the
133 physical knob will do nothing. </dd>
135 <dd><p>For tracks with 2 outputs, the display will show a knob
136 indicating the pan width setting for the corresponding
137 track/bus. The physical knob can be turned to adjust the
141 Unlike many DAWs, Ardour's stereo panners have "width"
142 parameter that defaults to 100%. You cannot change the pan
143 direction/azimuth of a track with 100% width, but must first
144 reduce the width in order to pan it. Similarly, a track panned
145 anywhere other than dead center has limits on the maximum
146 width setting. If these concepts are not familiar to you,
147 please be aware than many DAWs use a "panner" that actually
148 implement "balance" and not "panning", hence the difference.
152 <dd>The display shows a knob indicating the gain level for the
153 first send in that track. If the track has no send, no knob will
154 be shown, and the physical knob for that track will do nothing.
156 <dt>B Sends, C Sends, D Sends</dt>
157 <dd>Like "A Sends", but for the 2nd, 3rd and 4th sends of a
158 track/bus respectively.
163 To change which tracks are shown while in global mix mode, use the
164 left and right arrow/cursor keys just below and to the right of the
165 display. Tracks and busses that are hidden in Ardour's GUI will also
166 be hidden from display on the Push 2.
169 To select a track/bus directly from the Push 2, press the
170 corresponding button below the display. The track name will be
171 highlighted, and the selection will change in Ardour's GUI as well
172 (and also any other control surfaces).
175 <h3>Soloing and Muting in Global Mix mode</h3>
177 The Solo and Mute buttons to the left of the video display can be
178 used to solo and mute tracks while in Global Mix mode. The operation
179 will be applied to the <em>first</em> currently selected
183 There are two indications that one or more tracks are soloed:
185 <li>The solo button will blink red</li>
186 <li>Track names will be prefixed by "*" if they are soloed, and
187 "-" if they are muted due to soloing.</li>
191 To cancel solo, either:
193 <li>Select the soloed track(s) and press the solo button
195 <li>Press and hold the solo button for more than 1 second</li>
200 <p>Track Mix mode allows you to focus on a single track in more detail
201 than is possible in Global Mix mode. To enter (or leave) Track Mix
202 mode, press the "Mix" button.
208 In Track Mix mode, various aspects of the state of the first
209 selected track/bus will be displayed on the Push 2. Above the
210 display, the first 4 knobs control track volume (gain), pan
211 directiom/azimuth, pan width, and where appropriate, track input
215 Below the display, 7 buttons provide immediate control of mute,
216 solo, rec-enable, monitoring (input or disk or automatic), solo
217 isolate and solo safe state. When a a track is muted due to other
218 track(s) soloing, the mute button will flash (to differentiate from
219 its state when it is explicitly muted).
222 The video display also shows meters for the track, which as in
223 Global Mix mode, precisely match the meter type shown in Ardour's
224 GUI. There are also two time displays showing the current playhead
225 position in both musical (beats|bars|ticks) format, and as
226 hours:minutes:seconds.
229 To change which track is visible in Track Mix mode, use the
230 left/right arrow/cursor keys just below and to the right of the
234 <h2>Scale Selection</h2>
236 Press the Scale button to enter Scale mode. The display will look
240 <img alt="track mix mode on Push2 screen"
241 src="/images/push2-scale.png">
244 In the center, 37 scales are presented. Scroll through them by
245 either using the cursor/arrow keys to the lower right of the
246 display, or the knobs above the display. The scale will change
247 dynamically as you scroll. You can also scroll in whole pages using
248 the upper right and upper left buttons above the display (they will
249 display "<" and ">" if scrolling is possible).
252 To change the root note of the scale, press the corresponding button
253 above or below the video display.The button will be lit to indicate
254 your selection (and the text will be highlighted).
257 By default, Ardour configures the Push 2 pads to use "in-key" mode,
258 where all pads correspond to notes "in" the chosen scale. Notes
259 corresponding to the root note, or the equivalent note in higher
260 octaves, are highlighted with the color of the current target MIDI
265 "chromatic" mode, the pads correspond to a continuous sequence of
266 notes starting with your selected root note. Pads corresponding to
267 notes in the scale are illuminated; those corresponding to the root
268 note are lit with the color the current target MIDI track. Other
269 pads are left dark, but you can still play them.
272 To switch between them, press button on the lower left of the video
273 display; the text above it will display the current mode (though it
274 is usually visually self-evident from the pad lighting pattern).
277 To leave Scale mode, press the "Scale" button again. You may also
278 use the upper left button above the display, though if you have
279 scrolled left, it may require more than one press.
282 <h2>Specific Button/Knob Functions</h2>
285 In addition to the layouts described above, many (but not all) of
286 the buttons and knobs around the edges of the Push 2 will carry out
287 various functions related to their (illuminated) label. As of Ardour
290 <dt>Metronome (button and adjacent knob)</dt>
292 Enables/disables the click (metronome). The knob directly above
293 it will control the volume (gain) of the click.
297 Undo or redo the previous editing operation.
301 Deletes the currently selected region, or range, or
302 note. Equivalent to using Ctrl/Cmd-x on the keyboard.
306 If a MIDI region is selected in Ardour, this will open the
311 Duplicates the current region or range selection.
315 Enables and disables Ardour's global record enable state.
319 Starts and stops the transport. Press Shift-Play to return to
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