Got a great deal on push 2 a few months back. Had zero time to learn it since but seems great from the few hours I’ve had on it and the recent beta updates sound like they’re on top of most of the problems/missing features.
Been thinking about picking up an rc505 recently. My rc300 is great for guitar but doesn’t midi slave and I want something desktop for synths etc.
Wondering if push 2 can do just as good/better job if I set up template/s? Never used ableton’s looper for more than 5 minutes. Seemed a bit clunky but I think that was my fault. Going to look at it properly tonight. Thinking I could set up a few track templates and maybe this’d beat/equal the rc505? Studio use only, I’d def get the rc505 if for live use.
Anyone using push 2 and ableton looper and happy with it compared to dedicated hardware? I have all my hardware on my interface inputs so going the ableton route would also save me thinking about new routing/buying a mixer to bring rc505 in to the chain.
Any insight would be great, thanks.
Edit - from what I understand, you can’t overdub audio on to a loop clip in ableton session view. This would be kind of frustrating, killing a part of how I usually use my rc300 looper. But I guess there are workarounds, considering ableton has unlimited clips etc.
Thanks for confirming you can’t overdub on clips. Yeah I’ve tried the ableton looper very briefly in the past but somehow didn’t get a great grip on it. At least not in the way I wanted to use it. I was hoping to get some time to try it out again tonight but looks like it’ll have to wait til weekend.
Edit - I think I wasn’t very clear, I meant that as far as I remember, I couldn’t overdub on to a looper clip after I’d ended the recording of it, I couldn’t return to a clip later in a session and activate overdub again. But it’s very possible I’m remembering innacurately and Looper clips are always open for overdubs?
For feature set Ableton will beat out any outboard looper gear simply because you can have any amount of additional effects/tracks/instruments, etc. That said, toting a laptop to gigs is a bit scary for me but I guess DJs do it all the time.
Ableton’s looper effect by itself is pretty basic but as you can see from this vid: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8GFfVvEjCI it can be extended to any number of instances.
The other option would be to set up a project with a number of audio tracks and then using those for different takes. This gives you ultimate control over muting, panning, adjusting levels, etc.
Plus if you have a really good session you can use Save As to preserve your tracks permanently.
I use the Looper Device for ambient music quite a lot. As mentioned before it beats any hardware looper since you have infinite tracks, unlimited recording length, easy pitch shifting and if wanted perfect tempo-sync. Recorded loops can easily be exported to an audio track by drag and drop.
The downside of the looper is it´s limited control interface. Without a mouse the looper can be a pain. Worst case scenario is to dail the record-button in the wrong direction and clear the recorded loop instead of setting it to play-mode. Push has no “buttons” for controlling the looper device, the first rotary knob in “device” mode cycles through the four modes (stop, record, play, overdub). This is not cool and shows that the looper is not receiving a lot of attention from the develpers.
Ableton Looper may look quite simple at first glance but it’s actually very powerful if you consider as a part of Live. Thanks to dummy clips, you can automate absolutely anything and in whatever way you want, which open the door for some very crazy live-looping techniques not possible on any hardware looper (why not reverse the loop every 3 bars and pitch it up & down every 4 bars while it overdubs ?).
I’ve record and released a whole album using it with slide guitars and effect pedals and used a lot of those techniques with great success.
I bought a Push 2 two weeks ago and the looper is indeed poorly implemented but it’s very easy to workaround that using Dummy Clips: you cans et one for recording, another one for overdubbing etc… and colorcode everything as you wish. I’ve yet to build a set for myself with Loopers & Push2 but it might actually be more immediate than using the Lemur app that I was using before to control it.
I’ve started working on a Push 2 setup (also waiting for a midi pedal, but will concentrate on Push first!). Dummy clips, several loopers, playable effects…
(We got our piano tuned and I got really inspired to do some recordings on it.)
This might very well turn into a tutorial at the Cabinet of Curiosities.
Looking forward to the vid.