Push 1
This is a guided tour of the Push 1 demo configuration.
Make sure to also see the hardware reference to find out important information regarding your controller.
Overview¶
Modes¶
This config comes with nine modes pre-configured.
These modes are shift, select, delete, volume, track, device, sends, browse, and clip.
They are all mapped to controls of the same name (sends is mapped to the control pan_send).
Six of these modes, volume, track, device, sends, browse, and clip are set up exclusively, so that enabling one will disable the others.
shift and select will only be active while they are held.
Pages¶
This config comes with six pages pre-configured.
By looking at pages.yaml, we can see these pages are named home_page, alt_page, session_view_page, ring_devices_page, keyboard_page, and blank_page.
Push's eight state buttons have been configured as a group.
They are the multicolor buttons below the display, and they will each take you to a different page on a press.
As some buttons are unassigned, if you add a new page it will automatically be assigned to one of the free buttons.
Named controls¶
Push's eight select buttons have been configured as a group.
They are param controls, bound to the selection state of the eight tracks in view of the session ring.
Pressing one will select the relevant track, and the button will become brighter to indicate that.
Holding one of these buttons will arm the track exclusively, while pressing with shift will arm non-exclusively.
Holding a button while holding delete will delete the track.
Four transport controls are configured, for the controls play, record, metronome, and automation.
These controls will indicate the status of the relevant transport function.
On a short press, record will fire the action list SREC, starting Live's session record.
On a long press, it will fire SRECFIX 8, starting session record for a fixed length of 8 bars.
Push's eight scene buttons have been configured as a group.
Pressing a scene button will launch the scene at that position of the session ring.
Pushing a scene button while holding shift will launch scenes below the ring.
Pushing a scene button while holding select will select the scene, but not launch it.
Pushing a scene button with both shift and select will select scenes below the ring.
The undo control trigger's Live's undo feature.
The duplicate control duplicates the selected scene.
The new control inserts a new scene.
master is another param control, bound to the selection status of the Main track.
stop, also a param control, is bound to the target SEL / STOP, and will be brighter when the selected track is playing (and can thus be stopped).
The controls in and out are found to the right of master and are marked with the ↪ and ↩ symbols.
Pressing these controls will move the session ring across by eight tracks.
When the mode device is active, a short press on these controls will move left and right through the devices on the selected track, while a long press will move to the first or last device.
mute and solo are both param controls, mapped to the functions you'd expect.
The controls note and session will enable the pages keyboard_page and session_view_page respectively.
The D-pad will move throughout the Live set.
If shift is held, the D-pad will move the session ring one step at a time.
Matrix pages¶
home_page¶
actions¶
Enter the first page by pressing the first state button.
The top-left quadrant is the section actions_top_left.
Opposite actions_top_left is actions_top_right.
Taking up the bottom half of the matrix is actions_bottom_double.
These three sections have been left mostly unconfigured.
alt_page¶
The top half of the matrix still features actions_top_left and actions_top_right.
This demonstrates how we can have sections appear on multiple pages.
select_control¶
In the bottom-left is the section select_control.
It's full of param controls that show dynamic feedback.
In this case, every control is mapped to the currently selected track.
The top row controls the track's mute, solo, arm, and input monitoring state.
The second row is mapped to the first four devices on the selected track.
If the track has less than four devices, you will see that one or more controls are off.
Note that these controls are configured for top-level devices, i.e. not devices nested in racks.
By pressing a control, we can select the corresponding device.
By holding shift, these controls map to the bypass state of the devices.
The third and fourth rows are mapped to the first eight parameters of the currently selected device.
Pressing a control will toggle its parameter between its minimum and maximum.
While shift is held, the next eight parameters will be controlled.
track_control¶
In the bottom-right is the section track_control.
It features 16 ring_track controls that are bound to tracks rightward of the session ring.
These dynamic controls give feedback about the playing, arm, and selection state of their bound track.
A short press will select the track, and a long press will arm it.
If your Live set has less than 24 tracks, one or more of these controls might appear off.
session_view_page¶
__session_view¶
The top six rows are occupied by zcx's session view.
This works much the same as the Push's native session view.
Pressing a pad will launch the respective clip slot.
Pressing a pad with select held will select the slot.
Pressing a pad with delete held will delete the clip in that slot.
See the session view lesson for more detail on configuring this section.
session_controls¶
The bottom two rows feature the section session_controls.
The top row are param controls, bound to those track's selection status.
The bottom row will set its respective track to a random color, which isn't particularly useful, but it's there to demonstrate how we can target ring tracks with action lists.
keyboard_page¶
This page features a full-size keyboard view for playing notes. See the keyboard view lesson to learn more about how it works.
From this page, you can also access two overlays:
scales¶
By pressing the scales button, you can toggle the scales overlay.
This is similar to the scales interface from the Push factory script: 14 of the controls set the tonic of Live's Scale Mode, which is reflected on the keyboard.
These buttons are arranged in a Circle of Fifths pattern.
An additional button toggles the keyboard's in key status.
When scales is active, the top two rows of the matrix will let you select one of sixteen scales.
note_repeat¶
Pressing the repeat button toggles the note_repeat overlay.
With this overlay, the scene buttons will set the keyboard's note repeat state.
Leaving the keyboard_page will automatically disable the note_repeat overlay.
ring_devices_page¶
This page features only one section ring_devices, which fills the whole page.
Again, this section deals with the eight ring tracks.
Each column has eight param controls to affect the first eight parameters of the first device of the relevant track.
Press a pad to toggle the parameter between its minimum and maximum.
Release a pad after a hold to toggle the parameter again.
blank_page¶
This page contains one section — blank_section — an 8x8 unconfigured grid.
It's a great place to start experimenting with zcx's capabilities.
Encoders¶
Push's eight main encoders — the ones above the display — are configured as a group.
The six buttons in the top right of the controller — corresponding to six modes — determine what parameters they control.
By default, with the volume mode active, they control the volume of the eight ring tracks.
With shift active, they control the pan of those tracks.
With the mode sends active, they control the first eight sends of the selected track.
With the mode device active, they control the first eight parameters of the selected device.
With both device and shift active, they control the next eight parameters.
The mode track offers a compromise between these modes.
enc_1 and enc_2 control volume and pan of the selected track.
enc_3 and enc_4 control the first two sends.
enc_5 through enc_8 control the first four parameters of the selected device.
By holding shift we can control the next two sends and the next four device parameters.
The browse and clip bindings have been left unassigned, ready for you to assign them to any arbitrary parameter.
(Remember, you can always re-assign any of these preconfigured bindings).
enc_master (to the right of enc_8) controls the Main track's volume.
With shift held it controls the cue volume.
enc_tempo, the leftmost encoder, always controls the selected track's pan.
enc_swing, to its right, controls the selected track's volume.
Controlling tempo with zcx
Unfortunately, the current version of zcx cannot natively bind to Live's tempo. If you have Max for Live, you can add this free device to your set, and bind a zcx encoder to it.