I'm so glad I started playing the Stick a while back. The duly evolved two-handed multi-tasking playing ability comes in so handy now with the Ableton Push 64 rubber pads grid. Before I picked up the Stick I wouldn't even dream about playing a piano improvisation like this one.

I think the Push is a very good companion to a Stick, since the stuff you learn on one instrument enhances your abilities on the other instrument. See SoundCloud clip image for visual.



https://soundcloud.com/pboy/joy-and-sorrow

(edit:)
And here's another one, played on the Push armed by the fantastic Hans Zimmer Piano from Spitfire Audio. With this sampler patch you can really hear the performance dynamics made possible by the 64 rubber pads of the Push.

I knew you were an awesome Stick player, but your "keys" sounded great! Your piano sound was great, and I liked the pizzicatto strings, although there are better string samples if you want to get picky (I don't mean to, they're pretty decent!). Things really got cooking when you shifted over to the minor, which was my favorite part. Love the lower strings and the flute/woodwinds and just the instrumentation in general in the minor part.

Not to insult you, or to get me in the mix, but I was pleasantly surprised that it sounded very similar in style to a lot of my stuff. It's nice to hear other people doing stuff like this. And this was really good! Thanks for sharing!

But to the medium, not the message: I wasn't familiar with the Ableton push 64, so I looked here: http://www.ableton.com/en/push/ Cool stuff. I use a Native Instruments Maschine, but it's only got 16 pads and I only use it for keyboards as a gimmick, as I prefer a MIDI keyboard. It's great for percussion, though. Thanks for sharing that as well about the PUSH 64. Steve

Hi Steve,

Nice to hear you too are fiddling with this kind of music! The sound sources I wrapped on the Push for recording this are LASS in KONTAKT and Logic's default library grand piano. The oboe is a patch from Spirit Fire Audio. The piano sound works kind of ok in this context, after careful EQ and subtle compressing, but I'm in an urgent need for a really good Concert Grand Piano sampler library. Do you have any suggestion for that?

I knew as soon as I said flute/woodwind that I was probably wrong--oboe!

As to piano sound, whew--that's a 42-page posting reply. That's where I live and breath, before I started Stick 4 months ago. I'll try to be brief and helpful: KONTACKT you mentioned already, so that's the easiest way to get you hooked up.

I actually like to blend (at least) 3 different piano sources together into one MIDI piano that doesn't sound like several pianos but has the fat piano sound I'm looking for. Push that aside--sorry. But there are several excellent piano libraries in the NI KONTAKT series. If you buy or have the Native Instruments Komplete 10 Ultimate (my best recommendation for a beginner (not you of course), for anyone else reading, if you have a spare grand in US cash laying around and don't know where to start).

The Alicia's Keys library in KOMPLETE is pretty good. I like the New York Grand, and others. But the entire suite of wonderful piano libraries and a million things more with keyboard synths and Guitar Rig and on and on and on comes with KOMPLETE and is really a good place to start.

There are many, many good ones, but NI has got the whole shebang, in my very humble opinion. Other's opinions and mileage may vary. Cheers!

Thanks, good points there! I remember the Alicia's Keys has been recommended by many for a long time. Right now I'm checking out the brand new Hans Zimmer Piano from spitfireaudio.com and finding it quite interesting. It's still one day left of enjoying the reduced introduction price... I already own several of spitfire audio's libraries and like their approach of recording in the hall at Air Studios and providing four optional mic positions/types to mix for your preferred production sound. In this library they even provide a set of time phase lined up patches (each sample of more distantly located mics have been time corrected to line up with the close-up mic) and I think that may be a useful option as well.

Oh, thanks, I hear good things about spitfire and I do own some plugins of theirs. I'll have to check that out.

There we go: http://www.spitfireaudio.com/shop/a-z/h ... mer-piano/

About three-fiddy US. A bit out of my price range, unless it's just butter. But I like butter and have been known to pay dearly for it. Cheers!

Found this vid:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oFIFibk1TYw

Cool how it works with "guitar" and "bass" but I see more similarity to the fourth tuning of the melody side of the Stick.

Exactly! I imagine that for a NS Stick player a Push in 4ths chromatic tuning mode would be rather familiar for tapping muscle memory

Per, will the Push work the same way as a controller for other DAW software like Logic? I have a Roland MIDI keyboard, but I'm not a pianist and the small grid of "rubber" keys have strange response to them. Seems rather cheap for a Roland product. I also have a small Korg MIDI pad but I find I really have to hit it hard.

The new version of EZ Drrummer that I have has a new pattern search function that you enter the beat pattern you want and then it list what patterns match in the Libraries. Having a good responsive controller makes that easier. I also have NI's Battery, which is setup on the computer screen in a grid pattern, looks like push would be a good match if I don't have to rely on Ableton software too much, yea or nay?

If Push can work for me like I think it will, I could possible get rid of a keyboard and use the smaller footprint of the Push.

If you by that mean that Push supports the different DAW's native mode the answer is "no" (except for use with Ableton Live that natively supports the Python coded Push design). Or if you're thinking about a standard as the Mackie Control, then the answer is "maybe".

But it works fantastically well as a typical MIDI control surface if you pick up a third-party software adapter utility. Personally I like that better than native support, because it allows you to trim and customise Push to fit your preferred workflow. The utility I'm using is called PXT-General and sold by http://www.nativekontrol.com/. They have a forum at http://beatwise.proboards.com/ where users help and inspire each other.

If using Push by PXT-G with Logic one must make sure to block the virtual MIDI In ports from the Push that are not to be used for playing notes. The easy fix for that is to cable some dummy object to those ports in the environment's layer called "Clicks & Ports". I'm slapping Monitors on the two Ableton ports to prevent them from merging MIDI into the PXT port that is the one I calbe further into Logic's "Sequencer Input". Works like a charm in the background once made part of your boot-up template.

With the PXT-G adapter utility I'm also using my Push with Mainstage and Plogue Bidule. In Bitwig I'm also using the Push, but in a little different way since Bitwig has a native support thanks to a user that hacked a JavaScript that bridges over between the DAW and the Ableton Python. In fact Push works better with Bitwig than with Live in many's opinion. And of course I use the Push with Live, but I'm not so impressed with that as I am with the PXT-G. Oh, and then I sometimes use it with Five12's Numerology as a hardware front end for modular step sequencing. Numerology now supports Push natively and unfortunately this means you lose out on the option to jump around different alternative tuning while playing - only a piano inspired chromatic layout is available in Numerology. And unfortunately (again!) this native support means that if you open the Numerology MIDI plugin inside Logic it takes over the Push from the PXT-G.

Well, that was a quick crash course on the current state of Push