manual/_manual/22_using-control-surfaces/06_Abelton_Push2.html

---
layout: default
title: Using the Ableton Push 2
menu_title: Ableton Push 2
---                        

<p>
  Since version 5.4, Ardour has had full support for the Ableton
  Push2. This is an expensive but beautifully engineered control
  surface primarily targetting the workflow found in Ableton's Live
  software and other similar tools such as Bitwig. As of 5.4, Ardour
  does not offer the same kind of workflow, so we have repurposed the
  Push 2 to be used for mixing and editing and musical performance,
  without the clip/scene oriented approach in Live. This may change in
  future versions of Ardour.
</p>

<h2>Connecting the Push 2</h2>
<p>
  Plug the USB cable from the Push 2 into a USB2 or USB3 port on your
  computer. For brighter backlighting, also plug in the power supply
  (this is not necessary for use). 
</p>
<p>
  The Push 2 will be automatically recognized by your operating
  system, and will appear in any of the lists of possible MIDI ports
  in both Ardour and other similar software.
</p>
<p>
  To connect the Push 2 to Ardour, open the Preferences dialog, and
  then click on "Control Surfaces". Click on the "Enable" button
  in the line that says "Ableton Push 2" in order to activate Ardour's
  Push 2 support. 
</p>
<!--
<p>
<img alt="the Faderport configuration dialog"
     src="/images/push2_dialog.png">
</p>
-->
<p>
  Once you select the input and output port, Ardour will initialize
  the Push 2 and it will be ready to use. You only need do this
  once: once these ports are connected and your session has been
  saved, the connections will be made automatically in this and other
  future sessions.
</p>

<h2>Basic Concepts</h2>
<p>
  With the Push 2 support in Ardour 5.4, you can do the following
  things:
  <dl>
    <dt>Perform using the 8 x 8 pad "grid"</dt>
    <dd>The Push 2 has really lovely pressure-sensitive pads that can
    also generate either aftertouch or note (polyphonic) pressure.</dd>
    <dt>Global Mixing</dt>
    <dd>See many tracks at once, and control numerous parameters for each.</dd>
    <dt>Track/Bus Mixing</dt>
    <dd>View a single track/bus, with even more parameters for the track.</dd>
    <dt>Choose the mode/scale, root note and more for the pads</dt>
    <dd>37 scales are available. Like Live, Ardour offers both
    "in-key" and "chromatic" pad layouts.</dd>
  </dl>

  ... plus a variety of tasks related to transport control, selection,
  import, click track control and more.
</p>

<h2>Musical Performance</h2>
<p>
  Messages sent from the 8x8 pad grid and the "pitch bend bar" are
  routed to a special MIDI port within Ardour called "Push 2 Pads"
  (no extra latency is incurred from this routing). Although you can
  manually connect this port to whatever you wish, the normal
  behaviour of Ardour's Push 2 support is to connect the pads to the
  most recently selected MIDI track.
</p>
<p>
  This means that to play a soft-synth/instrument plugin in a given
  MIDI track with the Push 2, you just need to select that track.
</p>
<p>
  If multiple MIDI tracks are selected at once, the first selected
  track will be used. Note that messages originating from all other
  controls on the Push 2 will <em>not</em> not be delivered to the
  "Push 2 Pads" port. This makes no difference in practice, because
  the other controls do not send messages that are useful for musical
  performance. 
</p>

<h2>Global Mix</h2>
<p>
  This is the default mode that Ardour will start the Push 2 in. In
  this mode, the 8 knobs at the top of the device, the 8 buttons below
  them, the video display and the 8 buttons below that are combined to
  provide a global view of the session mix.
</p>
<p>
  <img alt="global mix mode on Push2 screen"
       src="/images/push2-globalmix.png">
</p>
<p>
  The upper buttons are labelled by text in the video display just
  below them. Pressing one of the buttons changes the function of the
  knobs, and the parameters that will shown for each track/bus in the
  display. As of Ardour 5.4, the possible parameters are:
  <dl>
    <dt>Volumes</dt>
    <dd>The display shows a knob and text displaying
      the current gain setting for the track, and a meter that
      corresponds precisely to the meter shown in the Ardour GUI for
      that track. Changing the meter type (e.g. from Peak to K12) in the
      GUI will also change it in the Push 2 display. The physical knob
      will alter track/bus gain.
    </dd>
    <dt>Pans</dt>
    <dd>The display shows a knob indicating the pan direction/azimuth
    for the corresponding track/bus. Turning the physical knob will
    pan the track left and right. If the track/bus has no panner
    (i.e. it has only a single output), no knob is shown and the
    physical knob will do nothing. </dd>
    <dt>Pan Widths</dt>
    <dd><p>For tracks with 2 outputs, the display will show a knob
	indicating the pan width setting for the corresponding
	track/bus. The physical knob can be turned to adjust the
	width. 
      </p>
      <p>
	Unlike many DAWs, Ardour's stereo panners have "width"
	parameter that defaults to 100%. You cannot change the pan
	direction/azimuth of a track with 100% width, but must first
	reduce the width in order to pan it. Similarly, a track panned
	anywhere other than dead center has limits on the maximum
	width setting. If these concepts are not familiar to you,
	please be aware than many DAWs use a "panner" that actually
	implement "balance" and not "panning", hence the difference.
      </p>
    </dd>
    <dt>A Sends</dt>
    <dd>The display shows a knob indicating the gain level for the
      first send in that track. If the track has no send, no knob will
      be shown, and the physical knob for that track will do nothing.
    </dd>
    <dt>B Sends, C Sends, D Sends</dt>
    <dd>Like "A Sends", but for the 2nd, 3rd and 4th sends of a
      track/bus respectively.
    </dd>
  </dl>
</p>
<p>
  To change which tracks are shown while in global mix mode, use the
  left and right arrow/cursor keys just below and to the right of the
  display. Tracks and busses that are hidden in Ardour's GUI will also
  be hidden from display on the Push 2.
</p>
<p>
  To select a track/bus directly from the Push 2, press the
  corresponding button below the display. The track name will be
  highlighted, and the selection will change in Ardour's GUI as well
  (and also any other control surfaces).
</p>

<h3>Soloing and Muting in Global Mix mode</h3>
<p>
  The Solo and Mute buttons to the left of the video display can be
  used to solo and mute tracks while in Global Mix mode. The operation
  will be applied to the <em>first</em> currently selected
  track(s).
</p>
<p>
  There are two indications that one or more tracks are soloed:
  <ol>
    <li>The solo button will blink red</li>
    <li>Track names will be prefixed by "*" if they are soloed, and
      "-" if they are muted due to soloing.</li>
  </ol>
</p>
<p>
  To cancel solo, either:
  <ul>
    <li>Select the soloed track(s) and press the solo button
      again</li>
    <li>Press and hold the solo button for more than 1 second</li>
  </ul>
</p>

<h2>Track Mix</h2>
<p>Track Mix mode allows you to focus on a single track in more detail
  than is possible in Global Mix mode. To enter (or leave) Track Mix
  mode, press the "Mix" button.
</p>
<p>

</p>
<p>
  In Track Mix mode, various aspects of the state of the first
  selected track/bus will be displayed on the Push 2. Above the
  display, the first 4 knobs control track volume (gain), pan
  directiom/azimuth, pan width, and where appropriate, track input
  trim. 
</p>
<p>
  Below the display, 7 buttons provide immediate control of mute,
  solo, rec-enable, monitoring (input or disk or automatic), solo
  isolate and solo safe state. When a a track is muted due to other
  track(s) soloing, the mute button will flash (to differentiate from
  its state when it is explicitly muted). 
</p>
<p>
  The video display also shows meters for the track, which as in
  Global Mix mode, precisely match the meter type shown in Ardour's
  GUI. There are also two time displays showing the current playhead
  position in both musical (beats|bars|ticks) format, and as
  hours:minutes:seconds.
</p>
<p>
  To change which track is visible in Track Mix mode, use the
  left/right arrow/cursor keys just below and to the right of the
  video display.
</p>

<h2>Scale Selection</h2>
<p>
  Press the Scale button to enter Scale mode. The display will look
  like this:
</p>
<p>
  <img alt="track mix mode on Push2 screen"
       src="/images/push2-scale.png">
</p>
<p>
  In the center, 37 scales are presented. Scroll through them by
  either using the cursor/arrow keys to the lower right of the
  display, or the knobs above the display. The scale will change
  dynamically as you scroll. You can also scroll in whole pages using
  the upper right and upper left buttons above the display (they will
  display "<" and ">" if scrolling is possible).
</p>
<p>
  To change the root note of the scale, press the corresponding button
  above or below the video display.The button will be lit to indicate
  your selection (and the text will be highlighted).
</p>
<p>
  By default, Ardour configures the Push 2 pads to use "in-key" mode,
  where all pads correspond to notes "in" the chosen scale. Notes
  corresponding to the root note, or the equivalent note in higher
  octaves, are highlighted with the color of the current target MIDI
  track.
</p>
<p>
  In
  "chromatic" mode, the pads correspond to a continuous sequence of
  notes starting with your selected root note. Pads corresponding to
  notes in the scale are illuminated; those corresponding to the root
  note are lit with the color the current target MIDI track. Other
  pads are left dark, but you can still play them.
</p>
<p>
  To switch between them, press button on the lower left of the video
  display; the text above it will display the current mode (though it
  is usually visually self-evident from the pad lighting pattern).
</p>
  

<h2>Specific Button/Knob Functions</h2>

<p>
  In addition to the layouts described above, many (but not all) of
  the buttons and knobs around the edges of the Push 2 will carry out
  various functions related to their (illuminated) label. As of Ardour
  5.4, this includes:
  <dl>
    <dt>Metronome (button and adjacent knob)</dt>
    <dd>
      Enables/disables the click (metronome). The knob directly above
      it will control the volume (gain) of the click.
    </dd>
    <dt>Undo/Redo</dt>
    <dd>
      Undo or redo the previous editing operation. 
    </dd>
    <dt>Delete</dt>
    <dd>
      Deletes the currently selected region, or range, or
      note. Equivalent to using Ctrl/Cmd-x on the keyboard.
    </dd>
    <dt>Quantize</dt>
    <dd>
      If a MIDI region is selected in Ardour, this will open the
      quantize dialog.
    </dd>
    <dt>Duplicate</dt>
    <dd>
      Duplicates the current region or range selection.
    </dd>
    <dt>Rec-Enable</dt>
    <dd>
      Enables and disables Ardour's global record enable state.
    </dd>
    <dt>Play</dt>
    <dd>
      Starts and stops the transport.
    </dd>
    <dt>Add Track</dt>
    <dd>
      Opens Ardour's Add Track/Bus dialog.
    </dd>
    <dt>Browse</dt>
    <dd>
      Open's Ardour's import dialog to select and audition existing
      audio and MIDI files.
    </dd>
    <dt>Master</dt>
    <dd>
      Pressing this button jumps directly to Track Mix mode, with the
      master out bus displayed.
    </dd>
    <dt>Cursor arrows</dt>
    <dd>
      These are used by some modes to navigate within the display (e.g
      Scale mode). In other modes, the up/down cursor arrows will
      scroll the GUI display up and down, while the left/right cursor
      arrows will generally scroll within the Push 2 display itself.
    </dd>
    <dt>Repeat</dt>
    <dd>
      Enables/disables loop playback. This will follow Ardour's "loop
      is mode" preference, just like the loop button in the Ardour
      GUI. 
    </dd>
    <dt>Octave buttons</dt>
    <dd>
      These shift the root note of the current pad scale up or down by
      1 octave. 
    </dd>
    <dt>Page buttons</dt>
    <dd>
      These scroll Ardour's editor display left and right along the
      timeline. 
    </dd>
    <dt>Master (top right) knob</dt>
    <dd>
      This knob controls the gain/volume of Ardour's main output. If
      the session has a monitor saec
    </dd>
  </dl>
</p>