Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ableton Push 3

ableton.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

191–200 of 307 posts

Re: Ableton Push 3

#191

Post by coldtea »

dingnuts wrote: post #185
visarga wrote: post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

you remember individual comments from 15 years ago?

That one in particular is somewhat famous and gets trotted out as an example of a bad, wrong take, highly upvoted and missing the point of the product because the audience here is so technical they can barely perceive normal users' problems It's sort of ironic now, though, because Dropbox has not been doing very well the last few years, because their product wasn't novel enough to compete with the better-integrated s…

>It's sort of ironic now, though, because Dropbox has not been doing very well the last few years

Yes, but not for the reasons that famous comment thought it wouldn't (people ...trivially rolling their own with Linux+FTP+SVN or whatever). If anything, for the opposite reasons: because even more turnkey/integrated solutions than Dropbox became available as you say. Which makes that comment appear even more off now!

(Of course the point of that comment was already obliterated when Dropbox turned on to become a multi-billion worth company, even if it's "not doing very well" 15+ years after the comment was made. We could only wish we have that kind of "failure"!).

Re: Ableton Push 3

#192

Post by coldtea »

nemo1618 wrote: post #184
visarga wrote: post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

you remember individual comments from 15 years ago?

It's a rather notorious HN comment, pretty much our equivalent of "No wireless. Less space than a Nomad. Lame."

Wow, I had forgotten about that! Could just as well replace it here :)

Re: Ableton Push 3

#193

Post by roblh »

klodolph wrote: post #145
roblh wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Really? Which soundcard? I’ve always understood the core audio stuff to be very hassle free. That sounds like a huge problem and I’m really surprised the manufacturer didn’t fix that immediately unless it’s very legacy hardware.

It takes time to fix this stuff. It always has. I don’t know why. Core audio is the API. You still need a driver for the audio interface. If it’s USB class compliant, then you get a driver for free. Not all devices are class compliant (for good reasons). You would be limited to the feature set provided by the USB audio class spec.

That’s true, but not working on Mac for a high end sound card is pretty catastrophic. I can’t think of any reputable brand besides maybe Antelope that has ever been straight up broken like that for any significant length of time. There would be riots on the audio forums if UAD or Motu or anyone else had that happen. I’m not an apple apologist, I use a PC for music production, it’s just surprising to me is all. I’m curious about what sound card it is so I can either avoid it or dig deeper into why.

I also think some of the comments in this thread about audio people never upgrading are a little dated. Maybe 10 years ago it was more common for someone to sit on an ancient version of Protools if they were a full time studio, but most of the market is hobbyists and semi professionals who have a single personal MacBook or PC that they use for everything, not just recording. Airgapping something like that isn’t really an option.

Re: Ableton Push 3

#195

Post by craigmccaskill »

psd1 wrote: post #70
franky47 wrote: post #31

From the Ondes Martenot [1] to the Haken Continuum fingerboard [2], this type of wiggling finger motion for vibrato is so intuitive, I wish more discrete controllers proposed it as a per-note pitch bend (which MPE makes possible, but can also be achieved with RPN/NRPNs in MIDI 1.x). [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TlzPHeN1VLQ [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mrmp2EaVChI

Best Hendrix impersonation I've ever heard: https://youtu.be/jh-hzbG5FzI

Marco's version of purple rain [1] remains one of the most impressive pieces of live performance I've ever seen.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2fQbtp2BgY4

Re: Ableton Push 3

#196

Post by rewgs »

pier25 wrote: post #158

I owned a Push 2 and sold it after a year. Never got into it because the pads weren't very good. Soft touches sometimes triggered notes at max velocity which drove me nuts. The Push 3 has more sophisticated pads with MPE and I'm very skeptical Ableton could pull that off with good QA. The other thing that I find ridiculous is they sell you a barebones computer for $1,000 with an i3, 8GB of RAM, and 256GB SSD. A compu…

This is...completely missing the point. It honestly blows my mind how often exemplars of the Dunning-Kruger effect make it to the top on HN. You know that feeling you get as a programmer watching, like, two people code on the same keyboard on CSI or whatever? That's the feeling anyone with expertise in a domain other than programming gets when reading comments on HN regarding said domain.

The most fundamental appeal of the Push is that it is a very nicely-integrated hardware controller, and -- this is the big thing -- has physical knobs, buttons, pads, etc, a massive selling point to loads and loads and loads of musicians.

An iPad by definition lacks the latter, and will never approach the integration of the Push no matter how much work you put into whichever controller app you're using (TouchOSC, etc). And that's even before you consider the fact that the Push also doubles as an audio interface.

Literally no one in the Push's audience is looking to replace/upgrade the Push's hardware. No one cares what CPU it has. I'm honestly surprised that Ableton published the specs, because it just doesn't matter. It's not a "computer" (even though, yes, technically it is indeed a computer). Depending on which model you buy, its raison d'etre is as an accessory to a computer, more specifically a very specific application; or an appliance designed to run one app and one app only. You might as well be saying that you'd rather buy an iPad over a Tesla because the iPad has a better CPU.

Re: Ableton Push 3

#197

Post by dubcanada »

This thread is super hackernews-y, people complaining about the performance of the PC that runs it compared to equally priced specs, some comments about source code and APIs, some comments about copying a open source product, a few about when AI can make music??

Doesn't really seem to be much talk about the actual product, I must say I haven't owned either, but it looks super cool! The video was very well done showcasing the product and in/out with the guitar. I am still not a 100% sure who the target market is, hobby musicians? Professional DJs?

I also wonder how easy it is to repeat an action, on a guitar a C major sounds like a C major on that same guitar. But you can't really remember did I move my finger 4 blocks and 3/4th of the other block of 5 blocks and a half?

Re: Ableton Push 3

#198

Post by jmcphers »

mtalantikite wrote: post #177
moojd wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nords are for gigging artists that want every feature accessable via physical controls on the device with minimal setup. If you are willing to bring your laptop on stage there are probably better cheaper options. That being said used Electro's can be affordable and they are really fun devices to own. There is also a nice small community of people hacking on them. My current hobby project is reverse engineering the el…

I had considered going the route of a nice midi controller and software, but ultimately when I wake up in the morning and sit down to practice I don't want to be on the computer with the seemingly infinite potential for distraction. I bought a Nord Grand a couple years ago and I'm really glad that I did. The action feels great and the sounds are good enough (although I really would love a new grand piano sample). My…

Seconded. I love my Nord Grand. I still use a laptop sometimes but not having to get the laptop warm/unlocked/software started in order to play is amazing. I can just sit down, flip a switch, and practice.

> I really would love a new grand piano sample

If you haven't already seen the Nord Piano Library, it's amazing:

https://www.nordkeyboards.com/sound-libraries/nord-piano-lib...

Re: Ableton Push 3

#199

Post by sayrer »

dubcanada wrote: post #197

This thread is super hackernews-y, people complaining about the performance of the PC that runs it compared to equally priced specs, some comments about source code and APIs, some comments about copying a open source product, a few about when AI can make music?? Doesn't really seem to be much talk about the actual product, I must say I haven't owned either, but it looks super cool! The video was very well done showca…

If you really want one of these things, and you use Ableton, get this one. I've used a Native Instruments Maschine and and Akai APC, and they just don't integrate that well with Ableton. But I've found I end up using a keyboard (Native Instruments Komplete) most of the time, even for drums, and that does integrate well.

Re: Ableton Push 3

#200

Post by pier25 »

coldtea wrote: post #175
pier25 wrote: post #158

I owned a Push 2 and sold it after a year. Never got into it because the pads weren't very good. Soft touches sometimes triggered notes at max velocity which drove me nuts. The Push 3 has more sophisticated pads with MPE and I'm very skeptical Ableton could pull that off with good QA. The other thing that I find ridiculous is they sell you a barebones computer for $1,000 with an i3, 8GB of RAM, and 256GB SSD. A compu…

> For that kind of money you could buy an M2 iPad Pro with more performance and a lot more battery time than 2.5 hours This has a strong https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9224 vibe to it. The computing-part hardware specs don't matter at all, the same way you don't compare the cpu specs of a phone or a synth to a laptop or tablet. This is about the interface, pads, firmware, comprehensiveness and convenience as a…

> The computing-part hardware specs don't matter at all

Except when you're trying to run dozens of VST plugins which are extremely CPU hungry.

Post reply on HN