Push is a new instrument that solves an old problem: how to
make a song from scratch.With hands-on control of melody and harmony, beats,
sounds, and song structure, Push puts the fundamental elements of music making
at your fingertips - and it fits in a backpack alongside your laptop.
Play and sequence beats. 64 pads give you multiple ways
to make beats. Play, step sequence, and adjust your loop - all at the same time.
A new way to play notes and chords. Play in every key
using the same finger patterns. Move between keys at the touch of a button.
Step sequence and edit both notes and parameters.
When playing instruments, Push’s pads “fold” a keyboard’s
worth of notes to its 64 pads. Different pad colors show the key center, other
notes that are in the key, and any notes you’ve already recorded. Push's
condensed, symmetrical pad grid means large intervals can be reached easily,
and melody and chord patterns can be played using the same fingerings in every
key. Use Push's touch slider for pitch bend.
Packed with sounds. Make music with a studio full of
instruments and effects. Control them all with Push.
Push uses the power of Ableton Live running on your
computer. Live provides Push with a comprehensive collection of instruments and
effects.
All of your sounds are ready to be played, tweaked, and
personalized. Fine-tune parameters in your instruments and effects using Push’s
touch-sensitive encoders and see everything from Push’s display.
Improvise and play with song structure.Capture all of your
musical ideas. Duplicate and create variations. Trigger, re-arrange, and create
new combinations.
Capture everything you play with Push’s unique recording
workflow. Overdub new notes or create variations of phrases, moving quickly
between your song materials with just a few buttons. After you’ve created
ideas, switch to another mode to try them out in various combinations.
When you’re ready to get into detailed arranging, editing,
and exporting your finished song, switch from Push to your computer to find
your music already laid out in Ableton Live - the software that was powering
your work the whole time. Push gives you the best of both worlds for making
music: inspiring hardware for hands-on control at the beginning, and
full-featured music creation software for fine-tuning the details at the end.
Designed by Ableton. Engineered by
Akai Professional.
Push takes full advantage of Akai Professional's decades of
experience building pad controllers for performers and producers. Push’s pads
are engineered to offer both extreme sensitivity for nuanced playing of
instruments and a deep, solid feel for beatmaking.
If you’re familiar with Live, Push complements what you
already know. Live runs in the background, filling your Set with clips and
scenes as you create with Push.
You can switch between Push and Live when you’re ready to
finalize your song, and you’ll find all of your song materials ready for you in
Live’s Session View.
Push is also the ultimate performance controller, with pads
that can be instantly repurposed into a clip launching grid. And Live’s tight
integration with Max for Live lets you customize Push for your own working
style, or reprogram it to add new features and workflows.
Push works with Ableton Live 9.
Live runs on your Mac or PC and provides multitrack recording, instruments,
effects, and everything else you need to make music.
Reviews
By
far the best investment I have ever made.
Before I begin I have
to point out that I have only been an Ableton user for a year. If you are
looking for opinions offered by more experienced users then this is definitely
not worth reading. I have been slowly mastering the basics of Ableton Live 9
and beginning to learn the more advanced concepts. Despite having countless
frustration moments (I almost gave up twice) I have powered through the tedious
learning and am now addicted. Then Ableton released PUSH.
For
those relatively new to music theory and composition, purchasing the PUSH would
be a wise move. After using the PUSH for merely 10 minutes I had probably
learned more about music theory than I would have reading about it for an hour.
I have read reviews that express concern about having features such as a fixed
scale mode or showing where the center key is utilizing a brighter white light
would have an adverse effect on a beginner/intermediate's learning process. All
these features are created in order to streamline the production process. After
I received the PUSH my composition efficiency skyrocketed. This, above all, got
me immediately to what I wanted to do since I purchased Ableton; make good
music.
One
more thing. The quality and look of the PUSH is the best I've seen in any
digital music controller.
WOW!
I have just unboxed
this tonight, but after playing with it for about 20 minutes, and not even
knowing what I am doing, I can already see how this unit is far superior to
either the Novation play pads or the APC40. (I also have an APC 40, and it's
still a great controller, but I already like Push more.
First,
this thing feels like a solid iron block wrapped in space age plastic coating. It
is built heavy, and solid, like it is built to last for years. I would still be
weary of breaking off any knobs, but even the knobs feel like the are built to
a very high tolerance and are firmly attached. The pads are a bit different
than the APC 40. They are not as "squishy" as the APC40, but are
built more like touch sensitive drum pads. One thing I noticed immediately is
that the color of the clips in Ableton match the colors of the non-paying pads
in pad mode. Now you have a total visual cue to match the buttons to your set
in session view by COLOR. That's a great thing and a huge step up from previous
controllers.
Without
even cracking open the manual, the unit booted up, asked for a firmware update,
which I did, and took about a minute, then rebooted itself, done!
There
are 3 modes I found almost immediately: Note mode, clip launch mode, and
sequence mode. I have no idea how the 3rd mode works, but I can see right away
how this one controller could do a LOT in either a recording or live set. I
actually found myself immediately drawn to playing notes on the note grid. I
still haven't figured out the color coding or layout, but it IS playable almost
immediately, and I can see ditching the traditional keyboard in favor of this
unit once I understand how it works a bit better. It's obvious that Ableton
really wanted to make an outstanding INSTRUMENT as well as a solid piece of
hardware, and so far it shows.
I am
excited to get a good night sleep and crack open the manual tomorrow to see how
this thing REALLY works.
