Ableton Push - SonicLAB Review

Designed by Ableton and engineered by Akai, Ableton Push is the Live controller to rule them all - at least that's what you'd hope for given it's coming straight from the source.

We take a look

[Yosser]

if anyone is thinking about this 10 years later, I just goy the original Push one for £75 and it’s brilliant! Built like a tank and works great with Ableton 11. It’s not a flash as the 2 or 3, with its more basic screen and obviously a few fewer features but it can’t be beat at the price!

[sonicstate]

It was tricky to get right without making the pads appear less vibrant than they actually were - sorry about that, hopefully it doesn't affect the content too much.

[sonicstate]

Thanks- that is actually a Synplant parameter, where modwheel is mapped to the overal timbre shift - this is where I discovered that I couldn't actually send any modwheel data

[sonicstate]

I dont think the LCD was dim, I just found the function buttons a little hard to read at certain angles, but as I said in the above comment, once you know your way around, this is less of a problem.

[danieldemayo]

Thank you for showing this working with audio! I've been looking all over and this is probably the only video on the net showing how it works with recording instruments

[sonicstate]

I did find the same issues with visibility using an external power supply too, just not quite bright enough to be immediately clear - I guess once you know your way around the unit, this wil be less of a concern.

[BrentKallmer]

Just an excellent job with this review. Having done some of these videos, I can testify that is much harder than it looks. Thanks for taking the time on this!

[BrianFunkMusic]

Nick, great review, I think I agree with you on pretty much every level. Thanks for the shout out on Mom's Piano :D

[boyakoosha]

One of the best videos I've seen for an overview, good enthusiasm and interesting to watch. Kudos!

[GrahamSpice]

Thanks for posting this look at the Push. Can't wait to get my hands on one.

[mnieuwhof]

Cool review! Your cons did not made me decide not to buy Push... I'm gonna buy it for sure now... This is the first review I saw from a non Ableton Certified Teacher (or are U?) and from a more practical approach... I liked that very much...

[el_dani]

Nick you are definitively doing the best audio hardware reviews in the entire history of internet! thanks so much for all your efforts (and I'm looking forward you going to Frankfurt)

[ohleepowlash]

I watched a lot of reviews of Push, Nick. Yours is by far the best one! I have my Push for a week now and this has been the my best purchase for years - simply because it is so much fun! BTW you can add VSTs with Push - however you will first have to prepare these in an instrument rack and add them to your library (which makes a lot of sense anyway - having your fav VSTs in your library with properly assigned Macro knobs.)

[SinAsTheTic]

it's worth repeating that VSTi can indeed be loaded with Push. create an instrument rack with each of your VSTi and save to user library. search youtube for "Using Ableton Push To Control Non-Ableton VSTi"

[FreeThink]

so glad there aren't any more pedal videos

[StevenRayMorris]

I liked this lighting. Combined with the riff, pretty sexy.

[RichardLondonSoundLab]

i like the new look - the darkness gives it vibe...

[siliconbrush]

Push is the Moog, The Virus of the plugin and sampler generation. This instrument / workstation / performance interface is second best tool I ever bought, the first being my Moog voyager of course :)

[heariseternity]

I like your reviews. Your good at this stuff Nick.

[jimixdnb]

nick, I have to say: I always liked your reviews on equipment the most :) and damn, I'd really love to buy one of these puppies :)