Is it possible to turn off audio inputs on push 3 in standalone to get better latency performance like when you use a sound card on the computer?
Could not find it so I’m guessing it’s not possible. A little strange though as this usually will improve the latency considerably in live and it would be great to have the instrument be as responsive as possible in standalone as well
I share here with all of you the first commercial patch that I have created for the Push 3 Stand Alone.
It is a device that when loaded into the P3 SA loads all the folders within “Samples/Folders/…” and the samples per folder, being able to select any of them without having to load the samples in audio clips. In addition, it allows you to establish a crossfade between the sample we are listening to and the new one by making smooth fades. There is also the ability to load random samples from any random folder. We can also retrigg the start position of the sample and change this. If we press the top button of the device to access the bank, we can see instead of the name of the bank, the name of the folder that we have selected.
The Push 3 is an exceptional instrument but for my work with long pre-recorded samples where synchronization is not important I was missing something like this, so not finding anything I created it from scratch. It has been hard work, and although I was afraid to publish something commercial and then fail, I have decided to share it.
I hope it is useful to you.
I’ve added some improvements in the “Push 3 Sample Selector” … I’ve also copied this post into the Ableton 12 users thread …
NEW IN VERSION 1.1
Hmm my Push has stopped working. I rebooted Live 12 on Mac and it updated, and since then I cannot play the pads, adding a device the big button no longer scrolls. And then it will not boot into SA at all, even if I try to do recovery it just sits there. It was working fine before Live updated.
I’ve sent a message to Ableton support, bu,t of course, it’s the weekend! Ahhhhhhhh…
Transferring to this thread as we were going a bit OT in the Downsizing Your Hardware 2024 thread.
I prefer Ableton’s synths when I’m using Live, over using them on the Push. That’s why I now use a Microfreak as my synth for the Push, and record the audio into the Push., using Push for FX.
There are exceptions. I like Meld on the Push, as the UI is much better laid out than something like Operator, but it’s still a bit convoluted.
My reply wasn’t for @m0ld’s quoted post here though, but rather his one before it about sound design on the Push.
I have edited it to remove your reply. I just wanted to give some context when I tried to move the conversation over here.
Thanks for the correction!
Ok. Here’s the Granulator III mod to allow users to load their own samples from the P3 Sa without connecting it to the computer.
https://maxforlive.com/library/device.php?id=10311
You have to create a folder called “Folders” inside the Sample folder on the P3. There you can add different folders all with your WAV or MP3 files inside of them, but the root as you see it in Ableton should be "Push/User Library/Samples/Folders/ … (your sample folders).
No subfolders allowed at the moment (you can have subfolders but the device won’t read them). If the number of folders and samples don’t show up correctly when loading the device, trigger the “Reload” dial on bank 2 to update the numbers.
All controls on Bank 2. Thanks to Robert Henke for this wonderful device.
After recently making a further push (pun intended) to be ever more Ableton stock plugin focussed (mainly to get my self in a good place to move to Push3SA). I remembered why I was a big UHE synth user. I realised that the Ableton stock synth presents, for me, are pretty “meh”.
So I’ve made a converted effort to really learn the Ableton synths one at a time. What I’ve realised is that programming my own sounds has been surprisingly fun and rewarding. And also lead to surprisingly great results, that sit in the mix fantastically well.
I was in a similar boat when I first got the Push. Before that, until Drift I never really used the stock plugins, that was the first one where I thought it sounded as good as the best VAs from uHe, etc. And probably in the past I’d been overly swayed by plugins purporting to model “the classics”.
Personally I don’t really use presets at all, I tend to either build my own presets for use later or create bespoke sounds for particular parts as part of the composition process. I think the Ableton stock devices work well on Push, if you can manage going through pages of parameters on an Elektron box it’s no worse, probably better given the nicer display.
With that said, though, I tend to use Fors Lode and Glänta in particular as my go-to options in standalone, much smaller number of parameters but they’re carefully chosen and tuned so that you get a wide, wide, range of sounds and are very responsive to real-time tweaking. Pretty much perfect for this application.
I have had fun before picking favourite presets from Diva or whatever and seeing how close I could get with Ableton stock devices. Definitely helped sound design skills and an easier than doing it all by ear as you can look at the vst preset to work out the details.
Since I have no money to buy other synths at the moment, I’ve been using Push to program my own sounds in Meld, Drift, and Wavetable. Being broke has been a blessing because I’ve been learning a lot.
The interfaces may not be laid out consistently, but the engines operate according to different logic, and offer different kinds of control points, so I suppose we trade familiarity for flexibility. I’m down for that trade.
Furthermore, after spending a little time with the Push interfaces for these synths, I have found them to be reasonably well designed. I haven’t personally used any hardware synth that did a better job with as few controls, without hiding parameters, or without requiring a fair learning curve.
And, when all else fails, I just cut the knot by pulling up the screen!
I do the same but with Digitone presets, trying to recreate them in Operator. It’s fun and educational.
Does anyone know a way to trigger clips on the Push 3 SA from an external sequencer (using program change or something similar)?
This is doable by using midi mapping with your computer. Just load your set, then use midi learn to match the desired sequencer step to the desired clip. (For example, let’s say you want Step 1 to fire a clip; just have any arbitrary note get played from step 1 on the sequencer, then map it in Live.) Once you switch over to Push, the mapping should still be there.
At least that’s one way to go about it.
Does this work with program changes as well?
Unfortunately Ableton doesn’t map PC’s. AFAIK the only way to do this is using M4L.
Here’s an (older) device that converts PC’s in to CC’s. I don’t think that would directly address your situation, but maybe some further digging in Max land would reveal a solution.
Does anyone know if Push 3 SA retains the last update or does it revert back to the firmware it shipped with after a factory reset? I’m in the process of trading my Push but plan to demonstrate it to the new owner, wondering if I should perform a factory reset prior to them trying it or to leave it as is.
Pretty sure it reverts back to firmware it shipped with. At least my first push did this when I did factory reset before sending it back (it had hardware issues).
I would ask the buyer what they prefer if I was you. Personally I would have liked to get it with latest firmware if I was buying
It doesn’t revert back to the firmware it was shipped with. Factory reset ‘resets’ the Push 3 to the version installed at this moment.
If you want to revert to the shipped version you have to do a recovery from USB or download the *.swu file from Ableton Archive and install it via a web browser.