Ableton/Live/UG/36 Push 2
- Playing, sequencing, sampling, mixing and controlling Live with the Push 2 controller.
- Push 2 is a hardware instrument for building songs in Live: playing melodies, harmonies and beats, working with samples and sounds, and shaping song structure. In the studio it fills Session View with clips without touching the computer; on stage it plays, step-sequences and launches clips.
- Much of its behaviour depends on the current mode and the selected track type. The chapter walks through the main workflows, then lists every control. Ableton's videos are at https://www.ableton.com/learn-push/
- Connect power and USB and switch Push 2 on at the back. With Live running it is detected automatically — no drivers or Settings changes needed.
- Firmware updates ship with Live; Push 2 prompts you and walks through updating the first time after a new Live version.
- Browse mode loads sounds from Push 2 without Live's browser.
- The display shows columns: the leftmost is the device category being browsed or Collections; each column to the right is the next subfolder or the folder's contents. Scroll with the eight encoders above the display or step with the arrow buttons; the two rightmost upper display buttons move up and down the hierarchy. Live's default devices load from the top level.
- Official Pack and Core Library items preview when selected; the Preview button toggles this, and
Shift + the Master encoder sets preview volume. - Load loads the selection.
- What Browse shows follows the last selected device: instruments replace instruments, effects replace effects. An empty MIDI track shows everything — sounds, instruments, drum kits, effects, Max for Live devices and plug-ins.
- For beats, turn on Note mode, then use Browse to load a Drum Rack preset from the Drums section.
- On a track with a Drum Rack, the Layout button cycles the 8×8 grid between three layouts.
- Loop Selector splits the grid into three areas for playing, step sequencing and setting clip length at the same time.
- The 16 drum pads sit in a 4×4 block like Live's Drum Rack. Pad colours:
- track colour — has a sound;
- lighter track colour — empty;
- green — playing;
- white — selected;
- dark blue — soloed;
- grey — muted.
- The touch strip or Octave Up/Down move through larger kits 16 pads at a time; with
Shift, one row at a time. - Hold Layout for momentary access to the 16 Velocities layout;
Shift+Layout locks it, and Layout again unlocks.
- The bottom-right 16 pads play the selected drum at 16 velocities; tap one to enter steps at that velocity.
- Hold Layout for the loop length controls;
Shift+Layout locks them; Layout unlocks.
- The whole 8×8 grid plays drums in real time — useful for large kits, such as sliced ones.
- Switching back doesn't move the 16 step-sequencer pads; use the touch strip or Octave buttons to find the ones you want.
- Hold Layout for the loop length controls;
Shift+Layout locks them; Layout unlocks.
- To load or replace a single pad, press Device, tap the pad, then press the second upper display button (the square icon marks a pad). Browse now loads into that pad, which flashes; tap other pads to browse for them in turn.
- After loading, Load becomes Load Next, with Load Previous beside it, for auditioning neighbours in context.
- To select a pad without playing it, hold Select while tapping, or press the Drum Rack track's lower display button to expand its pads onto the lower buttons and move with the arrow keys.
36.3.4.1 Additional Pad Options for Push 2
- Hold Duplicate, press a pad, then press another to copy it there. This replaces the destination's devices and sound but keeps its recorded notes.
- With one pad selected, encoder 1 sets its choke group and encoder 2 transposes it.
Shift+tap a pad, then tap a pad in the outer ring, to colour it. Pad colours are saved with the Set but appear only on Push 2.
- Tapping a drum pad selects it for step sequencing. Tap steps to place notes; the clip starts playing at the first tap. Steps are 16th notes by default; the Scene/Grid buttons change the step size.
- The Tempo encoder changes tempo by 1 BPM per click, or 0.1 BPM with
Shift. - A moving green step shows playback (red while recording). Tap a filled step to delete it; hold Mute and tap to deactivate it; hold Solo and tap a pad to solo that sound.
- Delete clears the pattern; hold Delete and tap a pad to clear its notes, or its devices if it has no notes in the pattern.
- Step colours:
- grey — empty;
- clip colour — note, brighter for higher velocity;
- lighter clip colour — muted note;
- unlit — unavailable; with triplet steps only the first six pads of each row are used.
- Velocity and micro-timing are covered under step sequencing automation; loop length under Adjusting the Loop Length.
- Optionally turn on Metronome (
Shift + Master encoder sets its volume; lit buttons pulse when on), then press Record. - A count-in, if set in Live, shows as a bar flashing across the display.
- Pads you play are recorded. Record again stops recording but keeps playing; a third press overdubs; further presses toggle between playback and overdub. Progress bars show each playing clip's position.
- Accent makes every played or step-sequenced note full velocity (127), overriding velocity sensitivity and the 16 Velocities pads. Tap to latch it; hold for momentary use.
- New stops the selected clip and prepares a new one on the track for practising. By default it also copies clips playing on other tracks to a new scene and keeps them playing; the Setup menu's Workflow setting changes this.
- Fixed Length makes new clips a set length; hold it to choose the length. With it off, recording continues until Record, New or Play/Stop.
- Recording creates an empty clip of that length and starts at its beginning, following global launch quantization. With Phrase Sync, it starts at the matching point in the phrase: with 4 bars starting at bar 7, recording begins at bar 3 of the new clip.
- Turning Fixed Length on mid-recording stops recording and loops the last bars of the clip.
- Repeat, quantizing and Arrangement recording from Push 2.
- With Repeat on, holding a pad plays an even stream of notes, such as steady hi-hats; pressure changes their volume. Scene/Grid sets the rate.
- Push 2 remembers Repeat per track. Tap to latch; hold for momentary use.
- The Swing knob adds swing to repeated notes and shows the amount when touched.
- Quantize snaps the selected clip's notes to the grid; hold it for options:
- Swing Amount — swing applied while quantizing (also the Swing knob);
- Quantize To — the note value;
- Quantize Amount — how far notes move;
- Record Quantize — quantize while recording, at the value set by encoder 5. Recorded notes don't get swing this way.
- Hold Quantize and tap a drum pad to quantize only that drum's notes.
- With Arrangement View in focus, Record toggles Arrangement recording, capturing everything you do on Push 2.
- With Session View in focus,
Shift+Record starts Arrangement recording; with the Arrangement in focus, Shift+Record toggles Session recording instead.
- Switch tracks with the lower display buttons or the arrow keys, or press Add Track to choose MIDI, Audio or Return and optionally load a device. Inside a group, new tracks join the group.
Shift + a track's lower display button, then a pad in the outer ring, sets the track colour.- On an instrument track the grid plays notes in C major by default: bottom left is C1 (Octave buttons shift it), each row up is a fourth higher, and each pad right is the next scale note.
- Pad colours: track colour for the root, white for other scale notes, green for notes playing (every pad with that note), red while recording.
- A triad is the same shape anywhere on the grid.
- Hold Layout for the loop length controls;
Shift+Layout locks them; Layout unlocks. - Scale opens key and scale settings.
- Upper and lower display buttons pick the key (selected in white); encoders 2–7 pick the scale type.
- Layout (encoder 1) and Direction (encoder 8) set the grid: 4ths (default) puts each row a fourth above the one below; 3rds a third; Sequent lays notes out in order with no repeats, for the widest range. Horiz rotates the grid 90°.
- Fixed on keeps note positions when changing key (bottom left stays C, or the nearest scale note); off moves the root to the bottom left.
- In Key folds the grid to scale notes only; Chromatic shows every note with out-of-key notes unlit.
- Scale settings save with the Set; put favourites in your Default Set.
- Accent, Fixed Length, Repeat and Quantize all work for melodies too. Hold Delete and tap a pad to remove every note of that pitch in the loop.
- Press Layout to switch to the Melodic Sequencer: all eight rows place notes in the clip.
- Hold Layout to reach the loop length pads in the top row;
Shift+Layout locks them (remembered per track); Layout unlocks. - In Key gives one row per scale note; Chromatic shows all with out-of-key notes unlit. The white row (bottom by default) is the root. Columns are steps at the Scene/Grid resolution.
- Octave buttons or the touch strip shift the note range;
Shift+touch strip moves by octaves, Shift+Octave by one scale step. Bright strip lights show the visible range, dim ones where the clip has notes. - Layout again switches to Melodic Sequencer + 32 Notes. Velocity and micro-timing are under step sequencing automation.
- Each loop length pad is a page of steps; page length depends on step size. Drums at 16ths show two pages (two bars); the Melodic Sequencer shows one page of eight steps (two beats).
- Hold one pad and tap another to set the loop; double-tap a pad for a one-page loop.
- Pages follow the playhead by default. Single-tap a page to lock the view there without changing the loop; tapping a page outside the loop sets the loop to it. Page Left/Right step through pages; reselect the loop or hold Page Left/Right to follow again.
- Loop length pad colours: unlit outside the loop; grey in the loop but not shown; white shown but not playing; green playing; red recording.
- Hold Duplicate, press a page's pad, then a destination's, to copy notes onto it (adding to what's there). Hold Delete and tap a page to clear it first.
- This layout combines step sequencing (top half) with real-time playing (bottom half), covering several octaves and steps on one page — good for working out chords to sequence, and for longer phrases.
- The bottom half plays scale notes in real time; pressing a pad plays it and selects it for sequencing. Hold Select to choose without playing.
- Pad colours: track colour for the root, lighter track colour for selected, green for playing, white for other scale notes.
- Octave buttons shift the range;
Shift+touch strip by octaves, Shift+Octave by one scale step. The Scale menu sets which notes appear.
- Tap a step in the top half to add all selected notes there. Hold a step to see its notes highlighted below; tap one to remove it. Holding several steps adds notes to all of them; hold Duplicate to copy one step to another.
- Step colours: clip colour has notes; green playing; white selected; light grey muted note; grey empty; unlit unavailable with triplet steps.
- Hold Layout for the loop length pads in the fifth row;
Shift+Layout locks them (per track); Page Left/Right move between pages. Duplicate and Delete with a loop length pad copy or clear a page.
- Push 2 plays samples through Ableton/Instrument/Simpler, with its controls on the encoders and display; see Ableton/Live/UG/31 Instrument Reference.
- Load a sample with Browse on a new or existing MIDI track. An empty Simpler can't play, and the display prompts you to browse.
- In Device mode the display shows the waveform and Simpler's main parameter bank.
- Simpler sets itself up from the sample's length: short samples play once, long ones loop and warp. Warped samples play at the Set tempo on any note, and warp settings from clips or files carry over; see Ableton/Live/UG/09 Audio Clips Tempo and Warping.
- Mode picks one of three playback modes:
- Classic (default) — pitched, polyphonic instruments with a full ADSR envelope and looping, playing on the melodic grid.
- One-Shot — monophonic, for drum hits and short phrases; simple envelope, no looping, the whole sample plays whatever the note length.
- Slicing — slices the sample without changing it, one slice per pad, made by hand or automatically; suits drum breaks.
- Start and End set the usable region of the sample, for example skipping silence at the start. S Start and S Length are percentages of that region: 50% and 25% play its third quarter. S Loop Length sets how much loops, when Loop is on.
- The Zoom encoder zooms the waveform around the last position control touched.
- Press Simpler's upper display button for Edit mode: lower buttons choose more parameter pages, upper buttons toggle settings; press again to leave.
- Loop On/Off — loop while a pad is held.
- Warp as… — fit Start to End into a number of bars; ÷2 and ×2 fix a wrong guess.
- Crop removes audio outside Start and End; Reverse plays the sample backwards. Both work on a copy, leaving the original file alone.
- Zoom, Start, End, Warp as…, ÷2, ×2, Crop and Reverse work as in Classic mode.
- Trigger plays the sample to the end whatever the pad length; Fade In and Fade Out shape its volume, with Fade Out starting that long before the region ends.
Shift+Play/Stop cuts it off. - Gate starts fading out on release, over the Fade Out time.
- Transpose shifts up to ±48 semitones; the result depends on the Warp Mode. Gain sets Simpler's volume.
36.8.2.1 Legato Playback
- Classic and One-Shot can repitch a sample without restarting it, like Legato Mode for clips: in Edit mode, open the Global bank (second lower display button), set Glide Mode to Glide, and in Classic set Voices to 1 (One-Shot is always mono).
- Playing pads legato then transposes without changing playback position. Keep Warp on; Complex Pro usually sounds best.
- Zoom, Start, End, Warp as…, ÷2, ×2 and Reverse work as in the other modes.
- Slice By chooses how slices are made:
- Transient — at transients; Sensitivity sets how many, up to 64.
- Beat — at the beat Division chosen.
- Region — a chosen number of equal slices.
- Manual — none automatically. Turn on Pad Slicing, play from a slice, tap an empty pad where a new slice should start (later pads shift up), and turn Pad Slicing off when done.
- Slices fill the left half of the grid from the bottom left in rows of four going up, then the right half the same way.
- The grid uses the 64-pad drum layout; Layout cycles to Loop Selector and 16 Velocities.
- Playback: Mono plays one slice at a time; Poly several; Through is mono but plays on through the rest of the region. Trigger/Gate work as in One-Shot, according to the Playback setting.
- Nudge moves the selected slice marker (
Shift for tiny steps; Zoom to look closely); Split Slice halves the selected slice. Hold Delete and tap a pad to remove its slice.
- Jump to a track with its lower display button, or step with the left and right arrows.
- Selecting a MIDI track on Push 2 arms it so you can play right away; its Arm button turns pink in Live.
- Hold a track's lower display button, or Record plus that button, to arm it manually (red in Live, with an icon on Push 2's display) — for recording audio, for instance.
- Up/Down move one scene. In Scene Workflow (Setup menu) they launch the scene; in Clip Workflow only the selected track's clip. Playback starts immediately and takes over the play position, as with Legato Mode in Live.
- Device mode puts the encoders on the parameters of Live devices and plug-ins.
- Upper display buttons select devices on the track. Press the selected device's button again for Edit mode, where lower buttons pick parameter pages; the leftmost upper button goes back.
- Devices with more than eight pages, such as Operator, show an arrow on the rightmost lower button to scroll on; the leftmost goes back.
- Add Device opens the browser with every device type the track can take. Loading an instrument this way replaces the current one, as in Browse.
- New devices go after the selected one; MIDI effects always go before the instrument and audio effects after.
- Hold Delete and press a device's upper button to delete it. Hold Mute and press it to switch the device off or back on (shown grey). Holding Mute for a moment locks it on until pressed again.
- Hold an effect's upper button and turn any encoder to move it in the chain.
- Racks have their own icons on the display.
- Press a selected Rack's upper button to unfold or fold it; an underline marks what it contains. Drum Racks fold only from within Live.
- With the Rack selected the encoders control its Macros; select a device inside to control that device instead.
- Hold the Rack's upper button to show its chains along the bottom, selectable with the lower buttons.
- Mix toggles between Track Mix and Global Mix modes.
- Track Mix: lower buttons pick the track; the first two upper buttons switch between Mix (volume, pan, sends) and Input & Output (routing and monitoring). With more than six returns, arrows scroll the sends.
- Global Mix: the encoders control volume, pan or sends for the eight visible tracks, chosen with the upper buttons. Arrows scroll extra sends or tracks.
Shift gives fine adjustment. Master selects the Main track; press again to go back.- With Split Stereo Pan, Global Mix shows the pan value but disables the dial; Track Mix shows the split sliders.
- Group Tracks and tracks holding Instrument or Drum Racks have their own icons and can be unfolded with a second press of their lower button, so their tracks or chains can be mixed. Arrows reach any that are pushed off the display.
- In an unfolded Drum Rack, hold Select and tap a pad to jump to its chain.
- Press Automation (lit red) to arm Session automation recording; encoder moves are then recorded into the clip. Press again to stop.
- Hold Delete and touch an encoder to delete its automation, or reset the parameter to default if it has none.
- A white dot marks automated parameters; a grey dot marks overridden ones.
Shift+Automation re-enables all overridden automation.
- In both step sequencers, holding steps lets you edit settings for just those steps:
- in Clip mode — note settings;
- in Device or Mix mode — device or mixer automation for the time those steps cover, even on steps without notes.
- Clip mode adjusts the selected clip. On an audio track with no clip, Push prompts you to load a sample.
- The display takes the clip's colour and name. Drum notes show in their pad colours; note opacity shows velocity. The view scrolls with a playing clip.
- The second upper button toggles Loop. On: Loop Position (where the loop starts), Loop Length, and Start Offset (where playback starts within the loop; it moves with Loop Position when they coincide). Off: Start and End of the region played once.
Shift adjusts in 16ths. - Encoder 1 zooms around the last position control touched.
- Audio clips also have Warp Mode, Gain and Transpose (
Shift for cents, which sets Detune in Live). - Clip mode shows played or sequenced MIDI for review and editing; the display changes with the pad layout.
- Every layout adds Crop, which deletes material outside the loop.
- In the 64 Notes, 64 Pads and 64 Slices layouts, the display shows incoming notes, folded so every note fits. Session mode shows the same view.
- In the step sequencer layouts, a translucent white box marks the sequenceable area — one page of steps. A box at the far left shows its pitch range.
- Lines at the far left show where the clip has notes, thicker where there are more, so notes can be found without the computer screen.
36.14.3.1 Melodic Sequencer
- Eight notes per page. Move the area sideways with the loop length pads or Page Left/Right, and up or down with the Octave buttons or touch strip.
36.14.3.2 Melodic Sequencer + 32 Notes
- The display fits every note in the clip and highlights where selected notes sit. Move sideways with Page Left/Right or the loop length pads (fifth row while holding Layout).
- In the drum and slicing Loop Selector and 16 Velocities layouts, only the selected pad shows; move sideways with the loop length pads or Page Left/Right, and pick a different pad to change rows.
- Hold a step in any sequencing layout: the display zooms to its page, highlights its notes, and the encoders set:
- Nudge — offset from the previous grid line as a percentage; negative is early;
- Length — coarse, and Fine length;
- Velocity.
- Hold several steps to edit them together (the display shows the range); hold an empty step and turn an encoder to create a note with those settings.
- For drums, hold Select, press a pad, and adjust every note that pad plays.
- Session switches the grid to launching clips, with Scene/Grid buttons launching scenes. Hold Session for momentary Session mode, or hold Note while in Session mode for momentary Note mode.
- Pressing a pad launches that clip; on the selected track an empty pad records a new clip.
- Pads show clip colours; playing clips pulse; recording clips pulse between red and their colour.
Shift+pad, then an outer-ring pad, recolours a clip. - Mute and Solo act on the selected track, or hold them and press a track's lower button. Stop Clip stops the selected track's clip, or hold it and press a track's button;
Shift+Stop Clip stops everything. Holding any of these for a moment locks it on until pressed again; while Stop Clip is locked, tracks with playing clips pulse. - Live draws a coloured border round the slots Push 2 is controlling.
- Hold Duplicate, press a clip, then tap another slot to copy it there.
- Up/Down move one scene, Octave buttons eight; Left/Right move one track, Page buttons eight.
- With Clip mode in focus the display folds to show every note of the clip, handy for recognising it or watching incoming MIDI. Hold Select and tap a pad to select a clip without launching it.
- Hold Layout for the Session Overview.
- Session Overview zooms the grid out so each pad is a block of eight scenes by eight tracks, covering 64 by 64; each scene button stands for 64 scenes. Tap a pad to jump there — row three, column one is scenes 17–24, tracks 1–8.
- Hold Layout for momentary access;
Shift+Layout locks it; Layout unlocks. - Colours: white for the current block (bordered in Live), green where clips are playing, unlit where there are no tracks or scenes.
- Setup holds brightness, velocity response and workflow settings.
- Velocity, all defaulting to 5, with a curve showing striking force against output:
- Pad Sensitivity — higher means less force for high velocities.
- Pad Gain — shifts the whole curve up or down, most noticeably in the middle.
- Pad Dynamics — higher pushes results to loud or soft; lower clusters them in the middle.
- Pad Gain 4 with Pad Dynamics 7 gives a linear curve.
- Display Light and LED Brightness default to 100%; very low LED brightness can make pad colours look wrong.
- Workflow sets how Duplicate, New and the Up/Down arrows behave:
- Scene (default) — Duplicate captures all playing clips into a new scene and keeps playing them (like Capture and Insert Scene); New does the same but leaves an empty slot on the current track; Up/Down move a scene and continue seamlessly.
- Clip — Duplicate copies only the selected clip to the next slot (
Shift+Duplicate captures a scene); New prepares an empty slot on the current track; Up/Down move only the selected track's clip.
- What every control does:
Transport and tempo
- Tap Tempo — tap on each beat to set the tempo; with Start Playback with Tap Tempo on, four taps in 4/4 also start playback. The encoder above changes tempo by 1 BPM, or 0.1 with
Shift. - Metronome — toggles the click; the encoder above sets swing for Quantize, Record Quantize and Repeat.
- Play/Stop — toggles Live's Play; when stopped,
Shift+Play/Stop returns to 1.1.1. - Record — in Session focus: record, then play, then overdub. Hold Record and a track's lower button to arm it. In Arrangement focus it toggles Arrangement recording;
Shift swaps the two. - New — stops the selected clip and prepares for a new recording.
- Fixed Length — new clips get a set length, chosen by holding it; turning it on mid-recording loops the last bars.
- Automate — toggles Session automation recording;
Shift re-enables overridden automation; with Delete, clears the clip's automation.
Editing
- Delete — deletes the selected clip (or Arrangement clip in Arrangement focus); with a pad, its notes or the pad; with a clip, device or track, that item; with an encoder, its automation or resets the parameter; in Slicing mode, a slice.
- Undo — Live's Undo, even for actions made elsewhere;
Shift to Redo. - Duplicate — per Workflow mode; also copies drum pads, tracks (with a track button) and Session clips.
- Convert — Simpler in Classic or One-Shot becomes a Drum Rack on a new track with the Simpler on the first pad; Simpler in Slicing mode becomes a Drum Rack of slices on the same track; a Drum Rack pad's devices move to a new track. An audio clip can become a Simpler or Drum Rack track (warp settings kept), or be converted with Harmony, Melody or Drums to MIDI.
- Double Loop — doubles the loop and its contents.
- Quantize — quantizes selected notes, all notes, one drum's notes, or audio transients; hold for settings.
Mixing and tracks
- Mute, Solo, Stop Clip — act on the selected track, other tracks, pads, steps or devices as described above; hold to lock.
- Master — selects the Main track; again to go back.
- Add Device, Add Track — as described in their sections.
- Far-right encoder — Main volume, or Pre-Cue volume with
Shift. Shift on any encoder gives fine control.
Modes
- Device, Browse, Mix, Clip, Note, Session — enter each mode; holding Device, Mix, Clip, Note or Session switches temporarily.
- Setup — settings menu.
- User — turns off Push 2's built-in functions so it can be mapped to other things in Live or other software. Its encoders work best as "Relative (2's Comp.)"; turn slowly left while mapping to get it. See Ableton/Live/UG/34 MIDI and Key Remote.
Playing
- Touch Strip — pitch bend (default) or mod wheel when playing an instrument (Select+tap switches), note range when step sequencing, drum bank on Drum Rack tracks.
- Scale — key and scale for instrument tracks in Note mode: Fixed, In Key/Chromatic, key and scale type.
- Layout — Session Overview in Session mode; in Note mode, playing vs step sequencing for instruments, or the drum layouts for Drum Racks and sliced Simplers.
- Repeat, Accent — retrigger held pads at the Scene/Grid rate; full velocity for every note. Hold for momentary use.
- Scene/Grid — launch scenes in Session mode (Select+press selects without launching); set step and repeat resolution in Note mode.
- Octave Up/Down — octave for instruments, 16 pads for Drum Racks, eight scenes in Session mode; unlit when there's nowhere further to go.
- Page Left/Right — previous or next page of steps; eight tracks in Session mode.
- Arrow keys — move through the Set, tracks and scenes, or browser columns.
- Shift, Select — extra functions and fine adjustment; select clips or pads without triggering them.
36.17.0.1 Using Footswitches with Push 2
- Two jacks on the back take momentary footswitches. Footswitch 1 is sustain. Footswitch 2 toggles Record (recording or overdub vs playback) with one tap, and acts as New with a quick double tap.
- If a pedal works backwards, plugging it in while pressed usually fixes it; pedals with a polarity switch are more reliable.
