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Ableton Push 3

ableton.com

71–80 of 307 posts

Re: Ableton Push 3

#71
post #21

I own a Push 1 and 2, although at hobbyist level. The standalone Push 3 seems a great step forward. macOS has increasingly become user-hostile when it comes to audio (and other pro) users. For instance I have an expensive sound card that became useless with after a minor OS upgrade. I never got to troubleshoot it or find an official solution. That was incredibly discouraging - enough to move on to other hobbies. And…

>> And I'm a programmer - don't want to imagine the pains that musicians have to go through. Anyone doing it professionally will check all of their plugins/hardware has support for the latest macOS version before updating.

I can promise you there are many, many professional musicians who will be first in line to upgrade their Mac.

I’m a professional programmer it’s not like I test if my mouse or keyboard will work with a new windows update.

Re: Ableton Push 3

#72
post #46

I'm a hobbyist music "producer" ; an Ableton user for short, and also a programmer. I cannot express how happy i'm to finally be able to let go of OSX & Windows forever. This is what i'm realizing writing these lines. I'm so happy right now.

I don't think standalone push is made to write music in standalone mode. The way I see it you import your live project to it with the idea to carry only the push in the stage without having to hook it up to a laptop.

Yes, it seems that a copy of Ableton Live running on a desktop is how you access the files on the Push 3 standalone via Wi-Fi. It appears like a folder in the browser.

Re: Ableton Push 3

#73
post #35
post #13

Very steep prices. Can buy a decent MacBook Air for the cost of the standalone version. Would have been nice to see them keep the old model around with a reduced price for people less well off.

At ~2000 dollars, one can buy mid-high end digital piano made of wood with realistic key action. https://dcpianos.com/products/kawai-ca48-the-ultimate-piano-... You can add beats, different sound libraries, and maybe you can add a microphone looper for ~300 dollars extra.

I sit in front of an Oberheim MC 3000, and love the piano-like playing experience and use every key.

However, it is disingenuous to compare a groovebox to a digital piano. It's also bold to assume that someone wants or needs 88 keys or even wants piano-like action. It's something different. That's valid. If it isn't for you or me, that's also valid.

Re: Ableton Push 3

#74

Very cool but surely it can't be long before AI can generate top quality music? Of course people will still keep creating, and I'm sure there will be an 'organic' no-AI movement, but the exciting music tech of the next 10 years is going to be in that space in between the two... (Ableton user since version 4)

You're missing the appeal of self-expression entirely.

Re: Ableton Push 3

#76
post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a 'barrier to entry' thing. To get the kind of skills that you need for good keyboard work is a lifetime of dedication, but once you've got it it is very quick and easy compared to something like the Ableton Push and other such devices. But that initial barrier is such that a beginner will be able to get much more mileage out of such a device. They might never even run into the limitations though it may limit th…

I think it is also a huge issue that there is no methodology or virtuoso pieces to aim at in order to spend hours a day practicing on the Push. I grew up playing classical guitar and use to own a Ztar and this was the issue I had with it. My guitar chops transferred to it pretty nicely but it is still its own instrument. Own instrument with no music or practice material, no transcriptions of anything other than what…

It's a fair point, but it's not a completely barren landscape. Melodics (https://melodics.com/) is one platform aimed at developing pad controller skills. For a much more rigorous and far less marketing-driven approach, I really recommend Quest for Groove (https://questforgroove.com/) which develops a lot more than just the physical dexterity required to drum on one of these things.

As with anything, it does just take practice, and these instruments are so much easier to play than something like a guitar that just noodling around will also get you places.

Re: Ableton Push 3

#77
post #53
post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Get an iPad. You can do all this and a ton more.

Which app would you suggest ?

Well, Logic Pro is coming out on it later today, but apart from that, it massively depends on what you want to use it for and how you want to use it.

Re: Ableton Push 3

#78
post #63

So they built a Linnstrument? Honestly don't know who was first, but I know I looked at the Linnstrument a long time ago (when my daughter Linn was really young, she's 13 now). The Linnstrument looks better and has more buttons, and more is better, right? https://www.rogerlinndesign.com/linnstrument

The idea behind Push is you can control everything in Live with it. It's not a generic MIDI controller like a Launchpad. It's a full hardware interface to a specific piece of software.

Re: Ableton Push 3

#79
post #7

I wonder what kind of software it is running on standalone mode

It's probably a Linux stack. A lot of pro-audio companies have internal Linux versions, but don't ship them because of support / packaging reasons (which are miserable on Linux). That goes away for embedded usage.

Seems like a good guess. It would also explain why it doesn't support plugins.

Re: Ableton Push 3

#80
post #45

Personally, I don't really like the Push platform, having previously owned a Push 2. I can understand the value of it if you're performing live, however the hard reality is that it's a really inefficient way to create electronic music. The mouse and keyboard are simply a lot faster to use. With that said, maybe that's for you. But if you're trying to make advanced productions as quickly as possible, then I really see…

A keyboard and a mouse might be faster in some instances, but they are also far less musically expressive. When it comes to putting emotion into music, I think it is a lot easier to do so with an expressive, physically embodied musical instrument.

In terms of speed, I'm also not sure how quickly you can create articulations like vibrato and slides with a mouse and keyboard, but that seems like it would be fairly tedious to do manually? Wouldn't that require a lot of envelope tweaking?

Speaking personally, playing on a pad controller uses a different part of my brain and body than using a keyboard and a mouse. When I create stuff with a keyboard and mouse, I am in "design mode", where I am thinking in a deliberate way, similar to programming. When I create stuff on a pad controller, I am in "express mode", where I am not really thinking at all.

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