I’m a big fan of Pigments and Arturia (and Bleass are one of my personal favs too), but, don’t underestimate Ableton’s synths!
If you think of them as ‘stock synths’ you miss the point… their utilitarian appearance tends to disguise how good they are, AND, you have to think of the engines as components/modules to build from… Instrument Racks are the key to this… start building them up with the Synth Engines and all the other FX, and it challenges anything else available.
Drift, Analog, Operator and Wavetable are all superb starting points for sound design.
I know them very well and I didn’t say that they are not good starting points for sound design, just that overall are not on par with pigments and Arturia stuff.
Having a different opinion doesn’t mean that I don’t know them. I’ve used the whole suite extensively. That’s why I wrote imho. It’s subjective.
UX/UI it’s uninspiring and clunky esp if you want to make complex patches (wavetable is not that bad), compared to Pigments and similar plugins.
Sound-wise they require a lot more tweaking than pigments, there is something with max based synths/fxs that tends to have a character I don’t like.
As I was typing out my agreement, I realized @CCMP’s point about Instrument Racks. Ableton’s synths are boring on their own - but my Peak’s raw sound only gets me so far before I turn on the chorus or delay. My Microfreak more or less has a dedicated pedalboard. I multitrack my Syntakt because some machines need chorus and other fx a lot of the time. Almost everything I’ve ever done with FM8 relied heavily on the FX. Same with Pigments. Why do I treat the Ableton stock synths differently simply because the effects aren’t bundled into the synth?
I do think that the core sound of the Ableton instruments is mostly “ok” at best - but even the synths I do love the sound of (Take 5, Typhon, Peak) get effects anyway. Fors’ Lode has solved that problem for me, I think, but until the max4live duplication glitch gets resolved it’s not a great solution for me on P3S.
I’d def hold out to November to see what the suite upgrades/deals/push offers are.
I have standalone and suite. I heavily use max4live stuff, it’s awesome and worth it to run fors instruments for example along with lots of other goodies.
I only really use operator from abletons instrument collection, it’s not MPE and the UI isn’t great on Push in my opinion, so I wouldn’t invest in standalone basically along with suite if you’re not interested in max.
Push excels at more sample based stuff and the audio realm for the standalone version. I use it as a sound recorder, capture things straight in and chop them up.
If I want to sketch chords and Melodie’s, yeah there’s tons of presets, plenty to get an idea out and then finish off on the desktop with some nice VSTs or more detailed sound design. I think that’s the concept of the thing, I don’t spend ages doing sound design on the standalone version, it’s good for capturing ideas without fuss, and then really quickly getting you into a full dedicated project.
Then again if that’s what you’re after Note on a phone replicates a lot of that functionality too for a lot cheaper and more convenient.
Is there any synth with a supersaw built in? I know I can use unison, but then I lose polyphony and it usually also costs a lot of cpu.
I’m trying to recreate a synth strings patch I made on my MC-707 that is built on 3 supersaw oscillators. I’m not really getting close yet, because of the lack of a supersaw oscillator (afaik).
I hope my new P3S will be able to replace my MC-707 to downsize my live setup.
Drift’s unison mode doesn’t sacrifice much polyphony and is reasonable on CPU. Stacking three of them in an instrument rack might get you close to your MC patch.
Fair enough, what you wrote didn’t read like you’d had much experience of them.
I really like Pigments as I said, but personally I never find its sounds work well in actual tracks… it’s interesting to use and conceptualise ideas with, but it never makes it’s way in… well it hasn’t yet.
That’s why I mentioned Bleass’ synths, because I have used their synths (and Wavetable and Operator).
But, yes, it is all subjective.
Reading this makes me want to make a Peak equivalent as an Instrument Rack… it’d be interesting to do it and use the Peak as a controller…
Anyone else using a Novation SL MKIII together with Push 3 (in controller mode)?
Previously with Push 2, I was able to turn on auto arm by setting the pad mode to Notes and turn it off by setting the pad mode to Session view.
However, with Push 3, auto arm is always on and I can’t find a way to turn it off. So in pad mode Session view, the column of the selected track is always red and when I press a red pad, it starts recording.
When I disconnect the SL MKIII the issue is gone.
I suspect this is a bug, but maybe someone knows how to turn this off?
I think thats a problem with the internet over all. If you research for a device, you will end with knowing (most of the times) that it is the most awesome and the worst product ever made at the same time.
People who buy it and just use it, mostly don’t post reviews on the internet, of even if they did, stopped doing so, because the lost interest in people telling them they are wrong.
I don’t want to talk down any issues people have, but I cannot find myself and my personal experience with the P3 in most of what is posted about it. I have not any of my other groove boxes in the “studio” since I bought the P3, I rarely turn on any other synths I own, and while I experienced some bugs over the past months (mostly not being able to select notes to edit in clip view, or that stuff that might happen with an active wavetable synth selected), all of them seem to have disappeared over the patches. I was very unhappy, that the P3 misses a song mode, but I found out, that moving over to a computer for that final touch is not only very easy, but a workflow that I really love and don’t want to miss anymore.
I even use the P3 as Amp-Sim and FX Unit for my Guitar currently.
I feel very happy, that it is that way, because I know how much I struggle in situations where the device I work with doesn’t provide the workflow, that I am looking for, and how much of a pain it is for me to follow the workflow a product provides me, so I am very lucky that it seems to just match. And I also know how hard it is to accept, that a product, that you bought with high hopes, high expectations and for a lot of money, may just don’t fit.
And over all, no-one really knows how many P3 units were sold, but I bet its hell a lot more than this people complaining about it
How many midi channels has P3 to control external gear?
16 for TRS out and for USB-A?
I have a Squarp Pyramid and on
bank A: Rytm (8-11 channels)
bank B: A4 (4 channels)
bank C: DT (8 channels)
bank D: H90 (1 channel).
So, basically I need max 24 channels. Is the P3 capable to handle these MIDI information?
I use Blokas Midihub to keep Midi organized.
How stable is Midi clock in comparison to ERM/ Usamo?
You can add a usb hub to expand the number of usb ports, so it is pretty much unlimited. If you need more 5 pin DIN midi outputs, you can add a device like iConnectivity mioXM.
Maybe a small thing but a nice thing about the mioXM and XL on Push 3, is that the custom names you configure in Auracle, show up on Push. This is not the case on Maschine+ which really pissed me off!
