Push 2. How are users finding it after honeymoon?

I sell my Push 1 and bought Push 2. Yes, Screen is superb! But – the hardware gets worse. The Encoders feel cheaper then the old ones. They all have different resistances. Some move too easy, some not so easy. The Buttons feel strange because you have to push them “into the case”. When you dont hit them correctly nothing happes. And the Pads: the old ones played a lot more dynamically.
Well - i guess when you never owned a push 1 everything is fine. But compared to the old one the Push 2 quality is so lala …

Never touched OG push but not a fan of the Push2 squishy buttons either. Rest feels/looks pretty nice to me tho.

@polymono sounds like a dud unit…Id complain to Ableton.
on mine the pads are much more dynamic and even in resistance. similarly the encoders feel better and all are about the same resistance, no issue with the buttons for me.

I did a trade in with my Push 1, but for about a week I had both to compare side by side.
also, I recently had an issue with my original Push 2 , Ableton instantly replaced it (great service) and can say both were much better than my push 1

i checked today a unit in the store. no difference to my unit. means: different resistance, less dynamic. there is a threat about the dynamic in the ableton forum. nearly everyone is complaining about it (compared to the old push) - in terms on play a synth on the pad … not fingerdrumming.

for me, push is too big
also the knobs are too slow
also it is too ugly

but… I love the possibility to make sequences, then only play parts of it (like first 16 beats… or second 16 beats… etc…

I picked one up recently in the sale. Gotta say, I love it.

Heaps of fun

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I’m one of the earliest adopters of push 2. I got it the first week ableton announced it.

The Good.
Usually I will hear something on records I’m listening to, or while listening to FIP radio. I can get a rough estimate on what I need to record because if you chop records with the push 2 long enough you understand the auto slice algorithm. You can easily do auto slice at 50%, zoom in with the push and do fine tuned slicing with your mouse on the right hand. This is the fastest I have ever worked on any machine.

The pads are a great improvement compared to V1 especially if you practice for an hour or more. I can get good drum dynamics finger drumming on the push 2.

Most of the time after I am done building my slices I don’t look at any display. I will just keep tapping pads sketching ideas and using the down arrow to write the next draft.

The bad.
For synth and chords playing the pads aren’t going to do it. I will practice my chops on the linnstrument or midi keyboard. Groove3 and other websites can teach you basic keyboard theory you might as well practice that then use the pads to play the chord.

I’m indifferent on the knobs. I use them on my plugins and can dial in sweet spots well enough.

This controller won’t fill every single need you have. The best need is there are 64 pads and when you are slicing longer samples you get a better chance to audition ideas without having to press a pad bank. Sampling is my first musical love so being able to run through stacks of records is the biggest selling point for me.

will still run my loops through hardware but it will go back in live for me to manipulate the the push 2.

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The Rytm can do longer sequences than 64 steps in fact the Rytm can do infinity tracks with the use of condition trigs. Look it up! I own the Push2 and Rytm. For drum tracks The Rytm can get you more unexpected funkiness while the Push can get you more options in general but you’ll be missing the very important analog aspect of the Rytm. Would I get rid of one over the other, HELL NO! If a gun was put to my head, I’ll let go of the Rytm only because the Push2 is way more versatile.

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Don’t like the melodic step sequencer, love everything else.
The display is great, the pads are amazing. And nothing else made it so easy and inspiring for me to find nice melodies than the scale layout on the pads.

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do you have a explict link to keyboard theory. cant find something like that in groove3.

and another thing thats annoying with push 2: sometimes it takes up to 20% of my cpu - push2display task … the fan of my 3 year old macbook pro always runs when push 2 is connected …

I was hoping to love the Push 2 but I never got it to fit into my workflow. I’ve been using Ableton Live since Version 5 so I know quite a bit of key commands. I kept finding myself going back to the mouse and the keyboard. I also started playing around with standalone hardware (the Rytm and the Octatrack) which I intuitively grasped much quicker than Push 2. The one thing that Push 2 does better than a real machine is slicing breakbeats to a drum rack and then being able to play them. This is the one feature I wish I had on the Octatrack (where I’m still trying to wrap my head around slicing). It’s very nice but unfortunately not for me. I also hate how big it is. It really is a desk hog.

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for me it’s too big, too.
I sold it once, forgot why I didn’t like it, bought it again… now it’s sitting here, taking all my desk space and I will sell it again :grin:

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Seriously, for how flat it is, why does it have to take up so much room?

no idea. It’s a pity. The pads are so great and I love the scale mode. but still… too huge for me this thing

Push 2 is great, just not for me. The whole get away from the computer by using a …computer thing doesn’t work for me. Tried Maschine, Push, Push 2, but never got anything significant done. Even though I have to say that Push 2 is a beautiful piece of kit, it just didn’t pique my curiosity like other stuff does. Seems like it’s new owner is about to let it go, too.

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It is indeed very big.
But it could be the only thing you need, so in that since, not too big.
Trying to travel/implement it with other gear, yes, the size becomes a hindrance.

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once again :wink: I don’t know. Have a love and hate relationship

Owned push1 which I exchanged for push2 under ableton offer. Have since sold push2 to free up space for hardware (octatrack, rytm, bsp). Wanted push2 to use live like a drum machine and had a rack set up with 8 instances of utonic drum synth and maxdorlive control. Could program great to automation from push2 but very tedious moving between parameter pages as some parameters would be at different page depths. Also my computer was not up for playing nice with the dsp load of the rack and fx plus synth tracks ao as soon as i got the rytm push2 became redundant. Well i could have kept as a nice ctrl surface but needed the desk space more.

Push2 is probably the last thing leaving my studio. Ok, before my speakers. :slight_smile: I have only two wishes: 1) renaming tracks, 2) a key to open GUI of devices and plugins. These are the only reasons why I need my keyboard and mouse.

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Push 2 is great and don’t really understand this ‘it’s too big’ thing - it would be a dramatically less powerful and flexible tool if it were smaller.

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