The thing that was most immediately evident to me, and which I continue to appreciate is Push’s build quality. Compared to surfaces like the APCs, it feels more slick and professional. The rotary controls are excellent quality. They feel great. They are also touch sensitive and infinite, so I’m never running into issues of controls jumping to some random state when turning a knob. The pads feel great, and I can tweak the sensitivity to my liking over a very broad range. There’s a few velocity curve options, and I tend to use either the stock setting or the most “curved” setting. The size and weight of Push is great as well. Ableton found a great balance between providing lots of features and keeping things portable. It fits well in my studio.
I like having the eight rotary controls follow whatever device is selected. This feature is like 4Live.me One on steroids. It gives me a whole lot more flexibility than the conventional way of midi mapping controls to CC knobs on a midi controller. And for those that still want the old school way, Push provides a very basic user mode, and a “lock to surface” feature. Between those three modes of adjusting Live controls, Push has me covered. Now I find myself using physical controls to scroll through layers of drum samples and to write automation more than I did with just a CC knob equipped keyboard by my side.
I also like Repeat mode, and find myself using it all the time; Mostly to play hi hats, but it comes in handy with playing other sounds as well. It’s fun and intuitive, and I dig that.
It seems like a minor thing, but I love having the tempo control, metronome button, and tap tempo buttons as dedicated, always accessible controls.
I was looking forward to having a different method of playing chords and melodies at my disposal when I first got Push. The isomorphic concept of playing music is a very cool one, and I’m always on the lookout for trying various isomorphic musical instruments. I have to say though that I find myself using Push to play chords and melodies a lot less than I thought I would. I have extremely rudimentary keyboard skills, and good guitar playing skills coupled with a Roland guitar to midi controller, and it turns out that I prefer one of those two ways of playing over using Push most of the time. I do, however, like the pads for playing drums. I find myself using my keyboard and Push equally as much to play drums. I like the feel and the sensitivity of the pads a lot.
There’s a few details that I dislike about Push that I should mention:
The lettering on the black buttons is tiny and dim. I find myself craning my head getting really close to the buttons to make sure I’m pressing the right one. Even when they’re fully lit, they’re hard to read, especially in daylight.
The black buttons have too much resistance. I’ve compared those buttons to other equipment, and they are just so much tougher to press than any other button in my studio: A pain in the butt when Push sits on anything unstable or wobbly.
I wish scales were saved with the project. Not only does the scale setting re-set to C major when power cycling push, but it also re-sets when opening and closing a project while keeping Push turned on. Double bummer.
There are two design philosophies that Ableton had in mind when designing Push. First is the idea that users are able to create a basic track without looking at the computer screen at all. This approach really doesn’t add anything to my workflow. Why would I want to scroll through patches in the LCD or use the very basic step sequencer when I can do the same tasks so much more efficiently with keyboard and mouse? Secondly, Push is created with session view in mind, and I work in arrangement view 95% of the time. Because of this, there are a bunch of buttons on Push that I basically never touch. If you work in Session view a lot and you like to avoid the mouse, or if you perform live, you’ll love the “close your laptop” features, but I’m left wondering what kind of awesome tools Ableton could pack into Push if its design philosophy was a bit more in line with my needs.
In short, I love this box, but not necessarily because of the features that define its identity. The excellent build, some of its peripheral features, and the flexibility of the rotary controls are features that I would really miss if I had to part with my Ableton Push.
