3 <img src="/images/push2-main.jpg" alt="The Ableton Push 2 surface">
5 The Ableton Push 2 surface
10 Since version 5.4, Ardour has had extensive support for the Ableton
11 Push2. This is an expensive but beautifully engineered control
12 surface primarily targeting the workflow found in Ableton's Live
13 software and other similar tools such as Bitwig. As of version 5.4,
14 Ardour does not offer the same kind of workflow, so we have designed
15 our support for the Push 2 around mixing and editing and musical
16 performance, without the clip/scene oriented approach in Live. This
17 may change in future versions of Ardour.
20 <h2>Connecting the Push 2</h2>
22 Plug the USB cable from the Push 2 into a USB2 or USB3 port on your
23 computer. For brighter backlighting, also plug in the power supply
24 (this is not necessary for use).
27 The Push 2 will be automatically recognized by your operating
28 system, and will appear in any of the lists of possible MIDI ports
29 in both Ardour and other similar software.
32 To connect the Push 2 to Ardour, open the Preferences dialog, and
33 then click on "Control Surfaces". Click on the "Enable" button
34 in the line that says "Ableton Push 2" in order to activate Ardour's
38 Once you select the input and output port, Ardour will initialize
39 the Push 2 and it will be ready to use. You only need do this
40 once: once these ports are connected and your session has been
41 saved, the connections will be made automatically in this and other
45 <h2>Push 2 Configuration</h2>
47 The only configuration option at this time is whether the pads send
48 aftertouch or polyphonic pressure messages. You can alter this
49 setting via the Push 2 GUI, accessed by double-clicking on the "Push
50 2" entry in the control surfaces list.
54 <img src="/images/push2-gui.png" alt="The Push 2 configuration dialog">
56 The Push 2 configuration dialog
60 <h2>Basic Concepts</h2>
62 With the Push 2 support in Ardour 5.4, you can do the following
65 <tr><th>Perform using the 8 x 8 pad "grid"</th>
66 <td>The Push 2 has really lovely pressure-sensitive pads that can
67 also generate either aftertouch or note (polyphonic) pressure.</td></tr>
68 <tr><th>Global Mixing</th>
69 <td>See many tracks at once, and control numerous parameters for each.</td></tr>
70 <tr><th>Track/Bus Mixing</th>
71 <td>View a single track/bus, with even more parameters for the track.</td></tr>
72 <tr><th>Choose the mode/scale, root note and more for the pads</th>
73 <td>37 scales are available. Like Live, Ardour offers both
74 "in-key" and "chromatic" pad layouts.</td></tr>
77 … plus a variety of tasks related to transport control, selection,
78 import, click track control and more.
81 <h2>Musical Performance</h2>
83 Messages sent from the 8x8 pad grid and the "pitch bend bar" are
84 routed to a special MIDI port within Ardour called "Push 2 Pads"
85 (no extra latency is incurred from this routing). Although you can
86 manually connect this port to whatever you wish, the normal
87 behaviour of Ardour's Push 2 support is to connect the pads to the
88 most recently selected MIDI track.
91 This means that to play a soft-synth/instrument plugin in a given
92 MIDI track with the Push 2, you just need to select that track.
95 If multiple MIDI tracks are selected at once, the first selected
96 track will be used. Note that messages originating from all other
97 controls on the Push 2 will <em>not</em> not be delivered to the
98 "Push 2 Pads" port. This makes no difference in practice, because
99 the other controls do not send messages that are useful for musical
105 This is the default mode that Ardour will start the Push 2 in. In
106 this mode, the 8 knobs at the top of the device, the 8 buttons below
107 them, the video display and the 8 buttons below that are combined to
108 provide a global view of the session mix.
112 <img src="/images/push2-globalmix.png" alt="Global mix mode on Push2 screen">
114 Global mix mode on Push2 screen
119 The upper buttons are labelled by text in the video display just
120 below them. Pressing one of the buttons changes the function of the
121 knobs, and the parameters that will shown for each track/bus in the
125 As of Ardour 5.4, the possible parameters are:
128 <td>The display shows a knob and text displaying
129 the current gain setting for the track, and a meter that
130 corresponds precisely to the meter shown in the Ardour GUI for
131 that track. Changing the meter type (e.g. from Peak to K12) in the
132 GUI will also change it in the Push 2 display. The physical knob
133 will alter track/bus gain.
136 <td>The display shows a knob indicating the pan direction/azimuth
137 for the corresponding track/bus. Turning the physical knob will
138 pan the track left and right. If the track/bus has no panner
139 (i.e. it has only a single output), no knob is shown and the
140 physical knob will do nothing. </td></tr>
141 <tr><th>Pan Widths</th>
142 <td><p>For tracks with 2 outputs, the display will show a knob
143 indicating the pan width setting for the corresponding
144 track/bus. The physical knob can be turned to adjust the
148 Unlike many DAWs, Ardour's stereo panners have "width"
149 parameter that defaults to 100%. You cannot change the pan
150 direction/azimuth of a track with 100% width, but must first
151 reduce the width in order to pan it. Similarly, a track panned
152 anywhere other than dead center has limits on the maximum
153 width setting. If these concepts are not familiar to you,
154 please be aware than many DAWs use a "panner" that actually
155 implement "balance" and not "panning", hence the difference.
159 <td>The display shows a knob indicating the gain level for the
160 first send in that track. If the track has no send, no knob will
161 be shown, and the physical knob for that track will do nothing.
163 <tr><th>B Sends, C Sends, D Sends</th>
164 <td>Like "A Sends", but for the 2nd, 3rd and 4th sends of a
165 track/bus respectively.
170 To change which tracks are shown while in global mix mode, use the
171 left and right arrow/cursor keys just below and to the right of the
172 display. Tracks and busses that are hidden in Ardour's GUI will also
173 be hidden from display on the Push 2.
176 To select a track/bus directly from the Push 2, press the
177 corresponding button below the display. The track name will be
178 highlighted, and the selection will change in Ardour's GUI as well
179 (and also any other control surfaces).
182 <h3>Soloing and Muting in Global Mix mode</h3>
184 The Solo and Mute buttons to the left of the video display can be
185 used to solo and mute tracks while in Global Mix mode. The operation
186 will be applied to the <em>first</em> currently selected
190 There are two indications that one or more tracks are soloed:
192 <li>The solo button will blink red</li>
193 <li>Track names will be prefixed by "*" if they are soloed, and
194 "-" if they are muted due to soloing.</li>
198 To cancel solo, either:
200 <li>Select the soloed track(s) and press the solo button
202 <li>Press and hold the solo button for more than 1 second</li>
207 <p>Track Mix mode allows you to focus on a single track in more detail
208 than is possible in Global Mix mode. To enter (or leave) Track Mix
209 mode, press the "Mix" button.
215 In Track Mix mode, various aspects of the state of the first
216 selected track/bus will be displayed on the Push 2. Above the
217 display, the first 4 knobs control track volume (gain), pan
218 directiom/azimuth, pan width, and where appropriate, track input
222 Below the display, 7 buttons provide immediate control of mute,
223 solo, rec-enable, monitoring (input or disk or automatic), solo
224 isolate and solo safe state. When a a track is muted due to other
225 track(s) soloing, the mute button will flash (to differentiate from
226 its state when it is explicitly muted).
229 The video display also shows meters for the track, which as in
230 Global Mix mode, precisely match the meter type shown in Ardour's
231 GUI. There are also two time displays showing the current playhead
232 position in both musical (beats|bars|ticks) format, and as
233 hours:minutes:seconds.
236 To change which track is visible in Track Mix mode, use the
237 left/right arrow/cursor keys just below and to the right of the
241 <h2>Scale Selection</h2>
243 Press the Scale button to enter Scale mode. The display will look
248 <img src="/images/push2-scale.png" alt="Track mix mode on Push2 screen">
250 Track mix mode on Push2 screen
255 In the center, 37 scales are presented. Scroll through them by
256 either using the cursor/arrow keys to the lower right of the
257 display, or the knobs above the display. The scale will change
258 dynamically as you scroll. You can also scroll in whole pages using
259 the upper right and upper left buttons above the display (they will
260 display "<" and ">" if scrolling is possible).
263 To change the root note of the scale, press the corresponding button
264 above or below the video display.The button will be lit to indicate
265 your selection (and the text will be highlighted).
268 By default, Ardour configures the Push 2 pads to use "in-key" mode,
269 where all pads correspond to notes "in" the chosen scale. Notes
270 corresponding to the root note, or the equivalent note in higher
271 octaves, are highlighted with the color of the current target MIDI
276 "chromatic" mode, the pads correspond to a continuous sequence of
277 notes starting with your selected root note. Pads corresponding to
278 notes in the scale are illuminated; those corresponding to the root
279 note are lit with the color the current target MIDI track. Other
280 pads are left dark, but you can still play them.
283 To switch between them, press button on the lower left of the video
284 display; the text above it will display the current mode (though it
285 is usually visually self-evident from the pad lighting pattern).
288 To leave Scale mode, press the "Scale" button again. You may also
289 use the upper left button above the display, though if you have
290 scrolled left, it may require more than one press.
293 <h2>Specific Button/Knob Functions</h2>
296 In addition to the layouts described above, many (but not all) of
297 the buttons and knobs around the edges of the Push 2 will carry out
298 various functions related to their (illuminated) label. As of Ardour
301 <tr><th>Metronome (button and adjacent knob)</th>
303 Enables/disables the click (metronome). The knob directly above
304 it will control the volume (gain) of the click.
306 <tr><th>Undo/Redo</th>
308 Undo or redo the previous editing operation.
312 Deletes the currently selected region, or range, or
313 note. Equivalent to using Ctrl/Cmd-x on the keyboard.
315 <tr><th>Quantize</th>
317 If a MIDI region is selected in Ardour, this will open the
320 <tr><th>Duplicate</th>
322 Duplicates the current region or range selection.
324 <tr><th>Rec-Enable</th>
326 Enables and disables Ardour's global record enable state.
330 Starts and stops the transport. Press Shift-Play to return to
333 <tr><th>Add Track</th>
335 Opens Ardour's Add Track/Bus dialog.
339 Open's Ardour's import dialog to select and audition existing
340 audio and MIDI files.
344 Pressing this button jumps directly to Track Mix mode, with the
345 master out bus displayed.
347 <tr><th>Cursor arrows</th>
349 These are used by some modes to navigate within the display (e.g
350 Scale mode). In other modes, the up/down cursor arrows will
351 scroll the GUI display up and down, while the left/right cursor
352 arrows will generally scroll within the Push 2 display itself.
356 Enables/disables loop playback. This will follow Ardour's "loop
357 is mode" preference, just like the loop button in the Ardour
360 <tr><th>Octave buttons</th>
362 These shift the root note of the current pad scale up or down by
365 <tr><th>Page buttons</th>
367 These scroll Ardour's editor display left and right along the
370 <tr><th>Master (top right) knob</th>
372 This knob controls the gain/volume of Ardour's main output. If
373 the session has a monitor section.