Ableton 9.5 & Push 2

[Hades]

ok, anyone having major issues with 9.5 ???
cause I've been having it getting totally jammed, not responding to any commands or fast keys,
crashing at random for at least 7x or more in the last few days, for no particular logical reason,...

It's extremely annoying, and it's been the first time since I actually send out those crash reports to the ableton guys
It's pretty much impossible to work this way.
fucking crashing all the time while I'm ot even at 26% of my CPU ffs....

[PixelKind]

I'm gonna wait for 9.5.1 so they can fix all the bugs in case there are any. Not much time to make music now anyway

[Planar]

Rock solid so far here. Admittedly, I have had very little time to use it this past few weeks. There are a couple of beta's on the Ableton forum which fix some mac specific issues, irrc. May be worth going to the latest if its that bad for you, although it suddenly happening does suggest a an outside factor like a new plugin or similar.

[kertikristof]

Mine works fine too. It's amazing, nice improvements.

[Hades]

Rock solid so far here. Admittedly, I have had very little time to use it this past few weeks. There are a couple of beta's on the Ableton forum which fix some mac specific issues, irrc. May be worth going to the latest if its that bad for you, although it suddenly happening does suggest a an outside factor like a new plugin or similar.

it worked perfect for me at start as well, just the last week or so.
but it doesn't happen with always the same pluin or something, that's the thing.

Yesterday evening, I continued to work till midnight,
and between 22u and 22u45 it must have crashed 5x,
while after that all of a sudden it worked.
the hard disk overload button flashes regularly, which is not exactly a thing that happens often for me.
Plus I can't really see why, with my HD being a SSD of 1TB and processor being a 2.6GHz i7
I even have 16GB RAM ffs

I just don't get it.

[Críoch]

Hey guys.. Zombie Thread alert.

3 years nearly to the day since the last post.. how is Push 2 going in 2018?

Toying around with the idea of grabbing one to have the mpc functionality in live.

Wondering specifucally what its like controlling synths / jamming? What's the latency like / any major pitfalls?

Wondering if a push 3 is around the corner also?

I'm currently on a good win 10 computer & running live 9.5 suite.

[SigEnt]

Hiya, for me Push 2 just keeps getting better and better with every update.

I initially wasn't very happy with the pad response when I first bought it (just after it was launched) but that was fixed ages ago, the general usability and convince of push is excellent. I sold my MPD 32 soon after buying push and the other midi controller I own have stayed in the lot.

Push 2 is expensive, but It's bloody convenient and feels like a nice bit of kit.

edit, I use it with live 10 x64 on a windows 10 box BTW.

See if you can get to a music shop and try one out, failing that if you order one and if ya hate it you can return it.

[Críoch]

Thanks man. Appreciate that.

Never thought about the poss about trying one out / returning it. Will investigate it.

Issue I have now with spending too much on software is that it's next to worthless after a few years. It's a sinkhole. As much as I like the look of push.. and have since #1.. it will become a worthless brick at some point. Worthless due to Computer OS &/or software compatibility issues.

Though.. it does look very cool. Been watching more.vids & I like the mpc way of working. Need to check it out more. Not in any rush. Still ain't upgraded to L10 yet.

[Oktagon]

Push 2 is great if you use Ableton and focus on the stock devices. It's obviously far from knob per function and I thought the learning curve was quite steep when I first got it, and I still find it hard to force myself to leave the laptop alone when I'm using it. But it's well made and the pads are great.

I doubt there will be a Push 3 soon because it's hard to see what they'd do with it... higher res screen? It would mean they'd need to try and support 3 different versions of hardware and most of the improvements are coming via Live updates anyway.

There were some significant improvements that are tied to Live 10 so if you were going to get one you should look into that.

[Mslwte]

I think it was a Paula temple vid I saw where I was sold on it. It looks really fluid and fast etc, but like crioch said it'll probably be worthless in years to come. I'm also not keep on purchasing that sort of equipment.

[Planar]

It's still a fantastic bit of kit, really premium. I still tend to use it as an idea starter rather than being confined to it for the whole process, but you could definitely use it from beginning to end if you like.

I don't think a push 3 is coming any time soon, as said above, its hard to see what they could add, the screen on 2 seems to give them lots of scope for improvements like the new visuals for the wavetable synth etc.

I think on Windows you've got a far bigger safety net with regards to compatibility compared to the Apple ecosystem where there are breaking changes all the time. Ableton are very invested in it, so I think as long as they're still around then it will work to some degree, anyway. I wouldn't worry about it, really.

[dubdub]

Ableton are still updating Push 1 with new features, even though that one hasn't been sold as a product for like three years now and with the software you can open up old projects back to like version two or three (!). They're really not the kind of company that just throws old products in the dumpster.

If you don't want to spend so much, you could get a used Push1, they're fairly cheap on the used markets. It's not as nice as the 2 but it does most of the same things. I still have one but I'm trying to upgrade to 2.

[NAO]

^ Yeah, Push is very nice for getting ideas down but as others have said, it's best if you use it with stock devices. Since they added Collections using Push is a lot nicer. The new step sequencer is really good too. As is the possibility to access ins/outs directly from Push, not that it's in any way faster than using the mouse, but it feels good anyway. And if you're not using super many plug-ins muscle memory develops fairly fast I'd say, making finding parameters/menu diving not that much of a hassle IMO. No latency issues here and no major pitfalls either. I do dislike that swing is not applied in real time but rather by quantizing, not very intuitive.. I also would like to be able to access parameters within Reaktor and Kontakt without having to use midi learn but yeah.. whatever. Very happy with Push.

[Skullrattler]

I found the Push 1 and then 2 a waste of space, sold it and got a Mackie Control instead. I thought the Push was slow, step sequencer next to useless since you cannot change pitches with an encoder. Almost completely useless for working in Arrange mode. No stop button, no way to move around the timeline, no marker buttons. Shallow integration with Live - still uses MIDI... fuck off, Ableton.
I just see it as an overpriced toy for launching clips. The placement of scene launch buttons to the right - just like Live's Arrange screen putting the track settings to the right.. WTF. I wonder if the person who came up with this idea thought it was "game changing" I guess it's OK if you never used any other DAW.
I found the whole clip business counterproductive when it comes to arranging tracks for recording, but I'm not doing minimal techno- for which it's probably pretty good but who needs 64 pads ? Playing synths with an actual keyboard is so much better IMO, and actually gets you to learn/improve playing keys.

[Victor]

Also in the mood for some new equipment. Probably a nice Black Friday deal. Still not sure if I would use the Push 2.. got an original launchpad in the drawer for some time (hard to programm as step sequencer, since many scripts won't work properly...)

Gear: A7x, MBP 2012 i7, 16GB, XONE 4D, Novation SLMK II - 49 (never use it actually), Tascam DR07MK II, HD25 headphones.

[Planar]

It's worth it if any of this stuff appeal: Drum sequencer, melodic sequencer, clip launcher, nice pads and all deeply integrated with Ableton (not really sure what Skullrattler is on about there tbh). You can edit midi with it, slice audio, playing chords on a grid makes more sense to me with no formal music training. It's very well supported with updates and new functions and the screen is really nice. All kinds of stuff. No setup is required at all until you start using 3rd party stuff and then you spend a few minutes creating a rack and save it.

It's far less useful if you don't use clip mode, which would make me question why you're using Ableton at all. There is a slight learning curve.

[Amøbe]

Has any external plugin designers begun to embrace the screen? I love using live's internal plugins on it, since the visual feedback is amazing! It is a really great improvement from the first one

[dubdub]

Has any external plugin designers begun to embrace the screen? I love using live's internal plugins on it, since the visual feedback is amazing! It is a really great improvement from the first one

I don't think Ableton has made the screen API accessible to third party devs.

[Amøbe]

Has any external plugin designers begun to embrace the screen? I love using live's internal plugins on it, since the visual feedback is amazing! It is a really great improvement from the first one

I don't think Ableton has made the screen API accessible to third party devs.

For the love of Hood's Christianity, Ableton, will you please let people utilize that gorgeous screen's full potential!

[Skullrattler]

You can try joining the beta tester forum and make a feature request... Good Luck! There are so may issues with the Push integration. Max devices is another one... You cannot configure them like you can with VST plugins, so unless they are optimised for Push by the developer, they create a mess on the Push display... Similarly there is no way to hide any devices from Push.

(not really sure what Skullrattler is on about there tbh).

The Push connects to the computer via USB but Ableton did not write an efficient protocol to take advantage of the tech... Live still uses MIDI messages to communicate with Push. If you do some edits on the Push and then go to Live's Undo history you'll see what I mean. It doesn't even recognise their own controller....