Basically, the pads are inconsistent. Velocity sensitivity is wack. Aftertouch is the only way to get a loud note. It might be a duff machine… given that reviews said how awesome the pads were (especially the CDM review).
They are VERY sensitive to the lightest touch but there’s no way you could use them to play with consistent dynamics, let alone intentionally varying dynamics.
Every other aspect is well-made and well-designed. I don’t think it could replace my Octatrack as I first thought, but with the right racks set-up in Live it could probably get pretty close.
As it is though, with the crap Pads, it’s going back for a refund.
I spent a couple of hours playing the pads at various speeds/force tonight and they have improved a lot. I only get an unexpected very loud or quiet hit one in 20 or so hits now - where it was every 4th or 5th. So it is getting better. There doesn’t seem to be a pad that is worse than any other so I think they just may need a bit of breaking in.
My encoders are all perfect. The notched Tempo encoder is a bit weird, but I wont be using that much anyway.
I’ve played around with designing sounds on Operator, slicing loops on Simpler, making a beat with the Step Sequencer and generally setting up a Project from scratch, using Push 2 to add tracks, instruments, insert fx and return tracks. All without looking at Live on the PC.
It’s a lot of fun. Certainly a lot more than just a clip launcher with some sampling tools tacked on. I can see how you could create a track from scratch without ever looking at the monitor, once your 3rd party plugins are configured.
I just booted up Push2 and Live to check this out but I’m getting the dreaded USB Device Not Recognised again… and it’s past my bedtime so it will have to wait until tomorrow. Thanks for the suggestion. I’m guessing that it is not that that was causing my problems because I was able to get a range of velocities recorded - they were just inconsistent across pads. As I say though, they seem to have improved with play.
Thanks for posting your thoughts.
Push 2 is very enticing.
As I’ve been using Overbridge with Live 9 more and more, I’m considering swapping out my Monomachine for Push 2.
Watching some of the videos that show Push 2’s new screen in use with soft synths make it very appealing.
I’ll be watching and listening for more reviews.
Regarding the pads, every midi controller or instrument I’ve ever owned with pads required some break-in. Some more than others.
I am still waiting to get my Push 2. One big hope was, to get an improvement of the pads. I played lot’s of melodies/chords using the isomorphic keyboard mode of Push 1, but it hurts my fingers after some minutes and velocity was an issue. I had to repair velocities in Ableton after recording too often.
Good to hear that there is a breaking-in required. I would have been very disappointed after unboxing
Turning the PC off and on at the wall so that all USB ports lost power seems to have fixed the Device Not Recognised black hole. I’m now running it from a 15ft long USB extension and it’s extremely responsive.
The pads are much better today. Huge relief that they just needed breaking in - I was gutted when I first started playing.
I’m going to experiment with step sequencing and “p-locks” now.
