Ableton/Live/UG/36 Push 2/03 Playing and Programming Beats
- 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.
