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. 
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 donāt really understand this āitās too bigā thing - it would be a dramatically less powerful and flexible tool if it were smaller.
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Just sold mine. I traded in Push 1 (Which was great) for push 2 immediately after launch and have been disappointed with it ever since. Mainly because they were never able to fix the aftertouch response that eventually worked great for push 1. For Drums and sequencing itās pretty great though even though it feels a bit inflexible in the way it can be used with Live and user mode doesnāt really seem practical.
I assume you own a bigger desk than I do 
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Push 2 is awesome but i got rid of mine because it offered too many possibilities. Is it an instrument, a drum rack, an effects controller, a mixer etc etc etcā¦ I realised I prefer an all hardware setup and unfortunately just use Ableton as a glorified multi track recorder that allows me do hone in on some excellent post effects for the final mixdown/masteringā¦
All sequencing duties are taken care of by the Cirklonā¦ now that has opened up pandoras box for meā¦
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Sounds funny to say Push does too much and then mention the Cirklon
I donāt know, I use Push mainly for the scale mode, which I really really love. I wish there was a cheaper controller only for this mode (with nice pads :)) For most of the other functions, Iām much faster with my laptop
Why?
Push 2 is a powerful controller that can be used as a sequencerā¦ amongst a myriad of many other things. Cirklon is deep but nevertheless solely a hardware sequencerā¦
i went through some funny changes. i had the OT, but felt like it was getting in the way of Push, so I sold the OT. But then later i went and sold the Push. I honestly cant remember why I sold Push 2 now. Because I actually quite like it for melodies, so now im thinking about picking up a MiniLab 2. I think it just all started to feel a bit much with Overbridge and everything. The bulkiness annoyed me also. I really wish theyād do a half size version. Iām still attracted to the OT in some ways, but I guess I kinda cant afford to have one sitting around right now. I really dont think i like having too much gear on my studio desk, and have a Midi fighter Twister laying around if I really wanted to CC some values in Live.
To be honest I think Push and to a larger degree Live has been at the centre of me having been āstuck in a loopā mode to speak, for what actually feels like years now. I need to get back to Arrangement, but Push really is a tool for āstarting tracksā, and for years i have started and started and started, but the finishing just hasnāt been happening. Iām trying to think of a way out of it, currently Improv jams feels like the best way, perfecting performance of everything rather than nitpicking over midi notes and waveforms in a session file.
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I am tight on desk space. I use a mix400 stand to be able to keep the push and also tilt it.
I still use the mouse to handle the first slice within a loop when I am playing with in slice mode. Sometimes I also do the old school way of chopping which is grab a loop, put it in a drum cell, grab it again and truncate something new. Repeat. Thereās a mouse involved but the 64 pads give me enjoyment at the end of the day.
Itās such a great controller for battery 4 as well since you can control all 48 cells and have 48 separate transient masters hooked up. That means I can easily slice 3 second loops and blend them in with stock battery drums. They will all sound good together because of transient master.
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Only because the cirklon looks so deep to me, while the push modes are pretty easy to ge your head around. But yeah it does more different things, you are right
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So Iāve had a push 1 and a push 2 since it came out, got it on the trade in thing.
I still think it is fantastic, it really makes live into a cool hands on music making experience imo.
Some small things can be done to make it more so, like creating templates, creating custom rackets etc. to make everything faster from the push.
But for coming up with ideas, jamming, and mixing it is fantastic.
For linear arrangement view work, not so much.
Although when I am in arrangement view it still works as a mixer.
And having the ability to choose inputs and outputs from push now is awesome!
That said my workflow has changed a lot lately due to using more hardware and instruments so I am not so sure of how it is going to fit in my workflow for me anymore.
That said for electronic music creation it is fantastic, and it integrates very well with other hardware since you can now route audio and midi directly from push 2!
And that screen!
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For my love for the scale mode, the smaller launchpad pro seemed to be perfect. But I didnāt find it as playable. The reaction behaviour of the pads felt strange. Maybe Iāll tryit once again
HereĀ“s a trick which might be kind of obvious, but it helped me get out of the loop stage. When youĀ“ve got a loop, or maybe a couple of segments of loops, make a recording. DonĀ“t worry too much about using filters or effects or anything, just try and perform a couple of segments. Voila, you have an arrangement, and you can start to work from there. It might seem like Iām taking the piss, but i was really stuck in that same stage of, hey, I have made 256 loops and fuckall songs, and just getting the loops with a few variations and buildups into the arrangement really helped me to start focusing on songs again.
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Agreed, to go into song from loops mode I would just make different variations to the clips I already had and jammed them out till I liked the ideas, pressed record and worked from there.
Exactly. I found that just fleshing the loops out linearly really helped. And as you get better you can of course use the push to improvise more fleshed out arrangements, and create scenes from more arranged elements, jam a new version with those and filters and snax, itās all fun.
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I donāt remember, is there a way to create a new scene from loops from the push directly? Consolidate to new scene is the function in the menu.
No, i donāt think so. As someone mentioned, with arrangement mode, the push is kind of dead. But as a performance instrument in session view it rules.
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Consolidate to new scene is in session view, it makes a new scene on the right hand side with all currently playing clips, super handy for working out arrangement ideas in session view. But I donāt think you can do that from push either
Anokah:
your right on the money there, push is excellent for playing in your arrangements from session view. Copy/paste arranging is boring and uninspiring.
I must admit I like Push 1 better for playing in session view I donāt even know why I upgradedā¦ 