All About Ableton Push 2 and Push 1 With Live 9.5

While I was at the beach here in Mauritius, Live 9.5 dropped – a free update for all users. There are plenty of articles on all the new features in Live 9.5, so I won’t rehash them here. Instead I want to focus on Push. The new and the old, because there’s plenty of news on this alone.

Ableton Push 2 in Action

Push 2

From today you can buy Push 2 which was deveoped by Ableton alone. Without help from Akai like with Push 1. It’s EUR 699, USD 799, or GBP 499. These new key features are included:

  • high-resolution RGB display
  • better tactile feedback of pads and buttons
  • full plug-in support (AU/VST)
  • full integration with the new sampling capabilities of the overhauled Simpler in Live 9.5

Ableton Push in Action

Ableton Push 2 Tutorials (22 videos)

Check out the hands-on video by Create Digital Music

And don’t forget to read Peter Kirn’s extensive review of Push 2. He was lucky enough to get a unit to test beforehand. He also mused about the features you get as Push 1 user or even when you’ve got none in this article.

Ableton Push 2: First Look by Ski Oakenfull for Point Blank

Try Before Buying

Curious to see if it’s worth getting Push 2? You can try it out at one of the Ableton User Group events happening all over the world in November.

Check Ableton’s website for the dates and places.

Trade 1 for 2, Save 30% and Do Some Good

If you already have Push 1, but now would rather be the proud owner of Push 2, there’s some good news for you. You can trade in your model, save up to 30% depending on the condition and do some good. How? Returned units will be refurbished and given for free to music education projects for kids and teenagers, alongside versions of Live, of course.

You don’t have to decide right away. The offer only ends on May 1st 2016 and is available for lots of countries (although not all).

More information on trading Push 1 in for version 2.

Push 1

Most of the features are available for Push 1 as well. Apart from the ones that rely on the improved hardware, of course. This is not meant to change any time soon either.

New features available for Push 1

  • It is now possible to load VST and AU plugins. Hotswapping plugins with Push enables browsing the plugin’s presets (AU only).
  • Samples can be browsed from Push (will be instantiated in the new Simpler).
  • It is possible to preview sounds from the Push browser.
  • In Drum Racks, pads can now be duplicated.
  • Scales settings are now saved in Sets.
  • Clip length can be adjusted with a resolution down to 1/16th.
  • When pressing Fixed Length during a recording, the last portion of the recording will be looped of the specified length.
  • Fixed a bug which would cause the Clip selector in the step sequencer to be displayed after deleting a Clip.

Push 1 comes with some limitations when working with the new Simpler though. Here’s a tip from Ableton how to work around this.

What do you think of Push 2? Are you going to get one or even trade it?

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17 Responses

    1. Ich vermute es mal, hatte aber noch keine Zeit zum Testen. Entweder vorher Backup machen vom Push Ordner und selber testen oder warten, bis ich dazu gekommen bin. Werde sie aber sobald wie möglich updaten, falls sie nicht mehr gehen. Könnte trotzdem eine Weile sein, da ich immer noch etwas krank bin.

  1. Yepp! Push 2 will be mine soon 😉 And my Push 1 will be given to some education project soon by trade in. How great is this?!

    1. It’s really great. I can even envision local non-profits near you or I, where there is potential for volunteering, making a request for a Push 1. I know I felt a lot better about not playing my Olds Ambassador trumpet, for example, when I was able to march it right into my old high school and hand it to the music department.

  2. Bin mal gespannt wie die 9.5 läuft, da es keine Beta gab. Die letzte Beta in meinem Account war die 9.2.3b4. 😉

  3. Hi, MPE bei Push 2 ist scheinbar wohl nicht dabei ,auch kein Arpeggiator section oder rythm section ?!
    Wohl immer noch standard pads zum Spielen von sounds alla maschine Gun ?!das ist so 90 ger Roger Liin oder soundboard jükeyboards kann Live also gar nicht nutzen …traurig…
    Midi controller project mapping , gibt es da was in Live 9.5 so wie Bitiwg 1.2 ?
    Sounds editieren über das schöne Display ,..live 9.5 scheint nix dazu gelernt zu haben beim editieren.?
    Funtioniert der Parameter reset immer noch nur rudimentär und auch nur über die del-Taste ,also nix dezidiertes ?
    Gibt es entlich fest eingebaute neue modes alla .pXT live remote script feature’s , oder 2 modes only schon wieder ..?

    ist der Browser immer noch so grausam schlecht Grade wenn es um die eigen Libary geht…(Speichern, vorhören )

    hoffe doch hier gibt es mehr infos über Live 700 €uro Kontroller

    Denn er scheint nett zu sein aber nicht innovativ ….

    Da gehen andere DAW’s und Controller Erbauer wohl voraus….ohne Ableton Live..
    Schade hoffe es dauert nicht weitere 2 Jahre bis Live MPE fähig wird…

    Würd gern per not Automation oder pitch bend sehen und auch spielen…
    MfG Jacky

    1. Yes, the whole scripts were rewritten from the ground up for Push 1. The colours are defined somewhere in there, but until I find the time to decompile the scripts, figure out the changes and then implement all the different colour schemes (24 by now), you’re gonna have to live with the default from Ableton. And I doubt I will be able to do this before January, tbh.

      1. I wonder if the skins will even have the same meaning now that clip color can be inherited from the track object, and note view on the push takes on the track color palette as well.

  4. The new display is beautiful; I wonder if the logic behind the order of device parameters incorporated some of the suggestions from the “community mappings” out there? (https://forum.ableton.com/viewtopic.php?f=55&t=198946&hilit=community) Or if the order of parameters and banks was at least revisited when Ableton put this much care into the push display? I guess I could take my computer and Push with me to the Open-House event in NYC later this month, and we could compare side-by-side…

  5. Ich finde Push 2 wirklich gut.
    Was mich allerdings stört, dass die Weißdarstellung der Pads wieder variiert.
    Es ist nicht so schlimm wie bei Push 1 aber es sind trotzdem Unterschiede zu sehen.
    So etwas sollte in dieser Preiskategorie eigentlich nicht vorkommen.
    Das Problem könnte so einfach gelöst werden -> hochwertigere LEDs verbauen!
    Außerdem dachte ich, es würde eine 4 LED für die Weißdarstellung verwendet, das sollte dies überhaupt nicht vorkommen.

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