3 <img alt="the Ableton Push 2 surface" src="/images/push2-main.jpg">
6 Since version 5.4, Ardour has had extensive support for the Ableton
7 Push2. This is an expensive but beautifully engineered control
8 surface primarily targetting the workflow found in Ableton's Live
9 software and other similar tools such as Bitwig. As of version 5.4,
10 Ardour does not offer the same kind of workflow, so we have designed
11 our support for the Push 2 around mixing and editing and musical
12 performance, without the clip/scene oriented approach in Live. This
13 may change in future versions of Ardour.
16 <h2>Connecting the Push 2</h2>
18 Plug the USB cable from the Push 2 into a USB2 or USB3 port on your
19 computer. For brighter backlighting, also plug in the power supply
20 (this is not necessary for use).
23 The Push 2 will be automatically recognized by your operating
24 system, and will appear in any of the lists of possible MIDI ports
25 in both Ardour and other similar software.
28 To connect the Push 2 to Ardour, open the Preferences dialog, and
29 then click on "Control Surfaces". Click on the "Enable" button
30 in the line that says "Ableton Push 2" in order to activate Ardour's
34 Once you select the input and output port, Ardour will initialize
35 the Push 2 and it will be ready to use. You only need do this
36 once: once these ports are connected and your session has been
37 saved, the connections will be made automatically in this and other
41 <h2>Push 2 Configuration</h2>
43 The only configuration option at this time is whether the pads send
44 aftertouch or polyphonic pressure messages. You can alter this
45 setting via the Push 2 GUI, accessed by double-clicking on the "Push
46 2" entry in the control surfaces list.
48 <img alt="the Push 2 configuration dialog"
49 src="/images/push2-gui.png">
52 <h2>Basic Concepts</h2>
54 With the Push 2 support in Ardour 5.4, you can do the following
57 <tr><th>Perform using the 8 x 8 pad "grid"</th>
58 <td>The Push 2 has really lovely pressure-sensitive pads that can
59 also generate either aftertouch or note (polyphonic) pressure.</td></tr>
60 <tr><th>Global Mixing</th>
61 <td>See many tracks at once, and control numerous parameters for each.</td></tr>
62 <tr><th>Track/Bus Mixing</th>
63 <td>View a single track/bus, with even more parameters for the track.</td></tr>
64 <tr><th>Choose the mode/scale, root note and more for the pads</th>
65 <td>37 scales are available. Like Live, Ardour offers both
66 "in-key" and "chromatic" pad layouts.</td></tr>
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
113 As of Ardour 5.4, the possible parameters are:
116 <td>The display shows a knob and text displaying
117 the current gain setting for the track, and a meter that
118 corresponds precisely to the meter shown in the Ardour GUI for
119 that track. Changing the meter type (e.g. from Peak to K12) in the
120 GUI will also change it in the Push 2 display. The physical knob
121 will alter track/bus gain.
124 <td>The display shows a knob indicating the pan direction/azimuth
125 for the corresponding track/bus. Turning the physical knob will
126 pan the track left and right. If the track/bus has no panner
127 (i.e. it has only a single output), no knob is shown and the
128 physical knob will do nothing. </td></tr>
129 <tr><th>Pan Widths</th>
130 <td><p>For tracks with 2 outputs, the display will show a knob
131 indicating the pan width setting for the corresponding
132 track/bus. The physical knob can be turned to adjust the
136 Unlike many DAWs, Ardour's stereo panners have "width"
137 parameter that defaults to 100%. You cannot change the pan
138 direction/azimuth of a track with 100% width, but must first
139 reduce the width in order to pan it. Similarly, a track panned
140 anywhere other than dead center has limits on the maximum
141 width setting. If these concepts are not familiar to you,
142 please be aware than many DAWs use a "panner" that actually
143 implement "balance" and not "panning", hence the difference.
147 <td>The display shows a knob indicating the gain level for the
148 first send in that track. If the track has no send, no knob will
149 be shown, and the physical knob for that track will do nothing.
151 <tr><th>B Sends, C Sends, D Sends</th>
152 <td>Like "A Sends", but for the 2nd, 3rd and 4th sends of a
153 track/bus respectively.
158 To change which tracks are shown while in global mix mode, use the
159 left and right arrow/cursor keys just below and to the right of the
160 display. Tracks and busses that are hidden in Ardour's GUI will also
161 be hidden from display on the Push 2.
164 To select a track/bus directly from the Push 2, press the
165 corresponding button below the display. The track name will be
166 highlighted, and the selection will change in Ardour's GUI as well
167 (and also any other control surfaces).
170 <h3>Soloing and Muting in Global Mix mode</h3>
172 The Solo and Mute buttons to the left of the video display can be
173 used to solo and mute tracks while in Global Mix mode. The operation
174 will be applied to the <em>first</em> currently selected
178 There are two indications that one or more tracks are soloed:
180 <li>The solo button will blink red</li>
181 <li>Track names will be prefixed by "*" if they are soloed, and
182 "-" if they are muted due to soloing.</li>
186 To cancel solo, either:
188 <li>Select the soloed track(s) and press the solo button
190 <li>Press and hold the solo button for more than 1 second</li>
195 <p>Track Mix mode allows you to focus on a single track in more detail
196 than is possible in Global Mix mode. To enter (or leave) Track Mix
197 mode, press the "Mix" button.
203 In Track Mix mode, various aspects of the state of the first
204 selected track/bus will be displayed on the Push 2. Above the
205 display, the first 4 knobs control track volume (gain), pan
206 directiom/azimuth, pan width, and where appropriate, track input
210 Below the display, 7 buttons provide immediate control of mute,
211 solo, rec-enable, monitoring (input or disk or automatic), solo
212 isolate and solo safe state. When a a track is muted due to other
213 track(s) soloing, the mute button will flash (to differentiate from
214 its state when it is explicitly muted).
217 The video display also shows meters for the track, which as in
218 Global Mix mode, precisely match the meter type shown in Ardour's
219 GUI. There are also two time displays showing the current playhead
220 position in both musical (beats|bars|ticks) format, and as
221 hours:minutes:seconds.
224 To change which track is visible in Track Mix mode, use the
225 left/right arrow/cursor keys just below and to the right of the
229 <h2>Scale Selection</h2>
231 Press the Scale button to enter Scale mode. The display will look
235 <img alt="track mix mode on Push2 screen"
236 src="/images/push2-scale.png">
239 In the center, 37 scales are presented. Scroll through them by
240 either using the cursor/arrow keys to the lower right of the
241 display, or the knobs above the display. The scale will change
242 dynamically as you scroll. You can also scroll in whole pages using
243 the upper right and upper left buttons above the display (they will
244 display "<" and ">" if scrolling is possible).
247 To change the root note of the scale, press the corresponding button
248 above or below the video display.The button will be lit to indicate
249 your selection (and the text will be highlighted).
252 By default, Ardour configures the Push 2 pads to use "in-key" mode,
253 where all pads correspond to notes "in" the chosen scale. Notes
254 corresponding to the root note, or the equivalent note in higher
255 octaves, are highlighted with the color of the current target MIDI
260 "chromatic" mode, the pads correspond to a continuous sequence of
261 notes starting with your selected root note. Pads corresponding to
262 notes in the scale are illuminated; those corresponding to the root
263 note are lit with the color the current target MIDI track. Other
264 pads are left dark, but you can still play them.
267 To switch between them, press button on the lower left of the video
268 display; the text above it will display the current mode (though it
269 is usually visually self-evident from the pad lighting pattern).
272 To leave Scale mode, press the "Scale" button again. You may also
273 use the upper left button above the display, though if you have
274 scrolled left, it may require more than one press.
277 <h2>Specific Button/Knob Functions</h2>
280 In addition to the layouts described above, many (but not all) of
281 the buttons and knobs around the edges of the Push 2 will carry out
282 various functions related to their (illuminated) label. As of Ardour
285 <tr><th>Metronome (button and adjacent knob)</th>
287 Enables/disables the click (metronome). The knob directly above
288 it will control the volume (gain) of the click.
290 <tr><th>Undo/Redo</th>
292 Undo or redo the previous editing operation.
296 Deletes the currently selected region, or range, or
297 note. Equivalent to using Ctrl/Cmd-x on the keyboard.
299 <tr><th>Quantize</th>
301 If a MIDI region is selected in Ardour, this will open the
304 <tr><th>Duplicate</th>
306 Duplicates the current region or range selection.
308 <tr><th>Rec-Enable</th>
310 Enables and disables Ardour's global record enable state.
314 Starts and stops the transport. Press Shift-Play to return to
317 <tr><th>Add Track</th>
319 Opens Ardour's Add Track/Bus dialog.
323 Open's Ardour's import dialog to select and audition existing
324 audio and MIDI files.
328 Pressing this button jumps directly to Track Mix mode, with the
329 master out bus displayed.
331 <tr><th>Cursor arrows</th>
333 These are used by some modes to navigate within the display (e.g
334 Scale mode). In other modes, the up/down cursor arrows will
335 scroll the GUI display up and down, while the left/right cursor
336 arrows will generally scroll within the Push 2 display itself.
340 Enables/disables loop playback. This will follow Ardour's "loop
341 is mode" preference, just like the loop button in the Ardour
344 <tr><th>Octave buttons</th>
346 These shift the root note of the current pad scale up or down by
349 <tr><th>Page buttons</th>
351 These scroll Ardour's editor display left and right along the
354 <tr><th>Master (top right) knob</th>
356 This knob controls the gain/volume of Ardour's main output. If
357 the session has a monitor saec