Ableton Push 3 Standalone

Published 2023-12-03. Last modified 2024-12-28.
Time to read: 41 minutes.

This page is part of the av_studio collection.

Ableton Push 3 Standalone, tilted back on a folding guitar stand

Yesterday, my new Ableton Push 3 Standalone was delivered.

The Ableton Push 3 Standalone box is heavy (13.1 pounds / 6kg)

I purchased this device because it is the first of its kind: a standalone DAW realized in hardware. Just like the Arp 2600 I purchased in 1979, I think this device introduces a new form of musical expression.

I recommend that most people not purchase a P3S because Ableton does not provide proper support, and even a full year after release, the product is still missing basic functionality.

Like the early versions of the Arp 2600, the P3S is quite heavy (3.95 kg / 8.7 lbs) – although it is only about a quarter as heavy as the early Arp 2600s, which were 43 pounds / 19 kg. In fact, the P3S is heavier than most laptops, but they are not meant to be pounded upon during a performance.

Top view of an Ableton Push 3 Standalone

Ableton Push 3 Standalone supports ADAT I/O, which means it should plug right into my RME audio interfaces. It also has differential 1/4" audio TRS outputs.

P3 and P3S

People often use the nickname P3 to refer to the Ableton Push 3, but the nickname does not specify whether the reference is to a standalone device or a standard device, which requires a computer. In this article, I use ‘P3S’ to mean the standalone variant.

P3S Presents As an Ableton Live Subset

Since the P3S only presents a subset of the functionality of Ableton Live, packaged as a hardware product, it is essential to know how to use Ableton Live before attempting to learn how to use the P3S. One of the features of Ableton Live that P3S does not surface is arrangement view, so you just need to know how session view works to operate P3S.

A more complete explanation is that an actual copy of Ableton Live runs internally, but the graphical user interface (GUI) is not visible, and certain aspects of the GUI are mapped to the controls and the small LED display. Unmapped aspects of the GUI are unreachable, which can be frustrating to experienced Live users. I discuss this further throughout this article.

A good hands-on resource for self-study or teacher-led classrooms is First Steps with Ableton Live – A classroom project by Matt Ridgway. The free learning resources are here.

Push 2 Successor

Upon the first anniversary of the P3S release, there is still not much documentation available for the P3S. However, it is an evolution of the Ableton Push 2 (P2), so if you cannot find information about how to do something, look for Push 2 instructions and try to consider the physical differences if you can.

This can be awkward because, if you have never used a P2, learning about an older device that you do not have can be frustrating.

The attempt to find information might be fruitless because there are aspects of the P3S that have no analog in the P2 or P3.

The sorry state of P3S documentation is unacceptable.

Tough Love

As is often the case when I write about a product, I made many statements in this article that sound critical, but every product has room for improvement.

There are two types of products in this world:

Products that people do not use
Products that people complain about

– From David Cooper (paraphrased)

This article has evolved as the product evolves, and as I learn more. Hopefully, new users who read this article will have an ever-smoother experience with the product. The design of this product is good, the materials are high quality, but the implementation is woefully incomplete. P3S is a promising product, but new users are likely to experience a needlessly frustrating and confusing experience, and some limitations force users to use a decidedly suboptimal workflow for common operations. Stated more directly: users cannot avoid wasting massive amounts of time.

One day, months or years from how, assuming that the product eventually evolves to the point that it provides value commensurate with its high cost, I will recommend it. Upon the first anniversary of release, and after talking extensively with Ableton, that day still seems far in the future. Ableton has not released a roadmap that indicates how and when the product’s fundamental deficiencies might be overcome.

Tiny Printed Manual

A printed manual, 4.5" x 6" in size, was provided. I cannot read it without a magnifying glass because it is set in 4-point type. The quarter placed on the manual helps show the scale. Only seven pages of the manual are printed in English. Not much of a manual.

When I purchased Ableton Live 8.14 in June 2010, it came with a 2"-thick printed manual. I had no problem reading it, and it was well written. Times have changed! Now we pay more, but get less.

The manual can be viewed online here (it redirects to www.ableton.com/en/push/manual if your web browser's default language is English), and can be downloaded in PDF format here and here.

Tiny, Artistic and Illegible Documentation

It would be easy to miss the other printed documentation in the box. This documentation is on the same color paper as the packing material.

The text is also minuscule, and the black ink used does not contrast well against the brown paper it was printed on. The result is that the material is useless. I cannot read it without a bright light and a magnifying glass.

The same diagram is also provided on the first page of the manual.

Another potentially useful but illegible labeled diagram

The same diagram is also provided on the first page of the manual; however, the explanatory text in the manual for this image, while legible, is less detailed.

Audio Output: 2 x 6.35 mm balanced audio outputs.
Audio Input: 2 x 6.35 mm balanced audio inputs. You can switch between line (balanced), instrument level (unbalanced) and high-Z (like a guitar).
ADAT In and Out: Connect an ADAT extender to access an additional 8 inputs and outputs.
MIDI In and Out: Connect MIDI devices via MIDI Type A 5-pin socket to 3.5 mm cables.
USB-A: Connect MIDI controllers or class-compliant MIDI interfaces.
External Power: Power and charge Push, DC 20V 3A.
USB-C: Use Push as a control surface for Live.
Dynamic Ports: Switch between pedal input and CV output. Up to four CV outputs are accessible with break-out cables.
Headphones: 1 x stereo 6.35 mm output.
Power Button: Press to turn Push on and off.

Toslink / SPDIF / ADAT

I purchased two 25-foot Toslink / SPDIF / ADAT cables. Although the specifications say 5 meters (16.4 feet) is the maximum length of this type of fiber-optic cable, much longer cables can be used. These cables do not carry electricity; they carry light generated by LEDs, so they do not need gold-plated connectors.

Toslink fiber-optic cables are used for SPDIF and ADAT. These cables are provided with protective covers over the ends. Often, you can kinda-sorta plug in these cables without removing the protective covers, and they kinda-sorta work. However, they will not click into place and will fall out easily with the protective covers on. Be sure to remove the covers before use!

When you have two 1/4" audio cables, one for output and one for input, you cannot tell them apart unless they are labeled. Because of the potential for confusion, you might plug the cables into the wrong jacks. This is not the case with fiber-optic cables; when plugged in, the end of the output cable glows red because of the LED in the sending device that provides the signal. This is the cable that should be plugged into the P3S ADAT In jack.

The red LEDs used in Toslink cables emit normal light; they are not lasers. If you accidentally point the light into your eye, there should be no damage.

P3S Cooling

The P3S has no fan; only convective cooling is possible through the bottom of the enclosure. However, the gap between the bottom of the heat sink and whatever the P3S is placed on is only about 1 mm, which does not allow for significant airflow. This severely limits the effectiveness of the heat sink.

The bottom surface of the P3S is uneven: the four rubber feet protrude slightly beyond the heat sink, and the heat sink covers less than half of the bottom of the unit. This means that unless the heat sink is removed, it is quite awkward to attempt to keep the unit cool by placing it on a heat-conductive surface like a slab of stone tile.

Thus, the best option for keeping a P3S cool is to place it on a stand that provides good airflow. A single large fan would be quieter than several smaller fans, because it would spin more slowly.

Tilted Stand

I find working on devices with this form factor awkward unless they are tilted up. It seems I end up hunching over for hours, resulting in neck and shoulder pain.

The display would be easier to read if the unit could be slightly tilted up.

The P3S is quite heavy, and you might press its pads urgently, so it would need a sturdy 15" wide stand. As mentioned in the previous section, airflow is important. I found an inexpensive solution: an adjustable folding guitar stand.

The stand does not weigh much, even though it is quite sturdy, and it folds up nicely. It does not tilt back, unfortunately. I am on the lookout for something equally light and portable, that provides more flexible options.

st3ndstore sells a stand on Etsy that seems interesting.

No Phantom Power

The P3S microphone input is unable to provide phantom power. This is unfortunate. That means only dynamic and some ribbon microphones can be used, unless phantom power is provided externally.

Furthermore, the P3S microphone preamp does not offer much gain. Some dynamic microphones, such as the popular Shure SM7B, put out a weak signal, which means the signal-to-noise ratio of that microphone when used with a P3S is poor.

I use a Cloudlifter CL-1 with my Shure SM7B; this preamp also works very well with condenser microphones such as my Neumann U87 Ais. However, because the Cloudlifter requires phantom power, I purchased a Neewar PP1 Phantom Power converter. Both of these items together compensate very well for the P3S’s shortcomings regarding microphone support.

The Neewar PP1 has a battery that lasts up to 40 hours and recharges via USB-C. Be careful when turning it on - a large DC pulse is emitted. Mute the microphone input before turning the PP1 on or off.

The combination of Cloudlifter and a phantom power converter works well; however, they and their cables add to the list of things that could be sources of problems when setting up on location. These items should be unnecessary; the P3S preamp should provide phantom power. Providing phantom power is yet another reason the capacity of the P3S battery needs to be increased.

NB: The Neewar PP1 manual says that it should only be used with condenser microphones, and not with ribbon or dynamic microphones. Since the Cloudlifter behaves like a condenser microphone it works fine.

Cannot Configure Audio Inputs Separately

The two audio input jacks are configured together; the setup you specify applies to both inputs. That means they can both be treated as:

Balanced line inputs, for example a microphone (+4 dBu nominal, +18 dBu maximum, signal path gain 0 dB)
Instrument inputs, for example an electric piano audio output (-2 dBu, +12 dBu maximum, signal path gain +6 dB)
High-Z inputs, for example, a guitar (-22 dBu, -8 dBu maximum, signal path gain +26 dB)

The P3S inputs cannot be individually configured; for example, it is not possible to configure one input as a balanced line input, while the other is configured to be high Z input.

The gain cannot be adjusted for either audio input. EQ and compression are also not available. These inputs are rather basic; I would like to see results from a proper test of these inputs.

If you want to have a guitar on one input, and a microphone on the other, set the inputs to line inputs and use a direct box on the guitar input to convert its signal to line level. Depending on whether the direct box features an XLR output or a 1/4" TRS output, an XLR-to-TRS adapter may also be required.

Living Dangerously

Missing Software

The P3S does not include essential utilities for maintaining a Linux system. This omission exposes all such devices to a wide host of possible issues, including hard bricking, due to perpetual lack of basic maintenance.

Some commands that I consider to be essential for doing basic maintenance include the all the commands used in Ableton Push 3 NVMe Replacement:

e2fsck.
gparted.
resize2fs.

A complete list would worthy of an entire article. More essential commands and the most basic security consideration (the P3S has no security provisions of any kind):

Firewalls, for example iptables and ufw.
I find it odd that ssh is not available from a P3S shell, however the sshd daemon runs, and scp is provided.

Other essential tools not present on a P3S:

rsync command and daemon.

Backups Practically Impossible

Since the P3S does not provide a viable means for performing regular backups, owners of P3Ses are vulnerable to unrecoverable problems.

I wish the P3S provided the ability for the USB-C connection to export the filesystem, as if the P3S was just an SSD drive. The would allow many different mechanisms for backing up the P3S, without any extra work by Ableton. Alternatively, a second bootable partition could be provided containing a backup utility like clonezilla.

Licensing

Ableton Live is available in three editions: Intro, Standard and Suite. This table shows the capabilities of each edition. As you can see, one of the differences is that Ableton Live Intro is limited to 16 Audio & MIDI tracks.

P3S requires an Ableton Live license, and at the time of writing, a license for Ableton Live 11 Intro is included. Live 12 Intro will likely be included instead shortly; I do not know the timing on that.

MusicRadar published How many tracks can Ableton Push 3 Standalone actually run?, and they reported that P3S supported 40 tracks before encountering problems. I interpret this to mean that the limitations of Ableton Live Intro can be removed by purchasing a license for a more capable edition.

One Ableton Live license can be used to authorize two computers. I found that the authorization process for the P3S does not diminish the number of authorized computers for your Ableton Live license.

Getting Started

This morning, I received the following email:

Welcome to your new Push

Here’s some help getting started

Learn Push

Push’s built-in lessons will show on the screen the first time you turn Push on; they’ll take you through the essentials step by step. You can return to the lessons at any time by pressing the lightbulb button on the top left of your Push.

You’ll also find lots of helpful video tutorials in our Learn Push series. These cover everything from setup and Session View to sound design tips. Check out the Learn Push videos >

More help when you need it

Our Help area is the place to go to answer your questions about Push. There you’ll find articles covering almost every aspect of Push and Ableton Live, plus further video tutorials, a dedicated Push section of Live’s user manual, and much more.

Happy music-making!

That email was properly thought out. Kudos, Ableton!

Power supply and Heat

The 65-watt custom power supply produces 3.5 amps at 20 volts, which is common for laptop power supplies. This means the power supply is readily replaceable.

The Push has no fan and no vents. It is essentially an internally dispersed 65-watt heat source, thermally coupled by a 3" square thermal pad at its hottest point to the bottom panel, which acts as a heat sink. Letting a factory-fresh P3S rest on a blanket for 20 minutes while running did not cause overheating.

The small orange power button is located on the back of the unit, at the upper left when viewed from the normal orientation for usage.

After using the Push for a while on my lap, I noticed that the Push was warming my lap, much like a laptop would. Most of the heat comes from the right side of the Push. That area has a rubberized mat covering the underside, presumably for the comfort of a user who puts it on their lap.

In Ableton Push 3 NVMe Replacement I go into a lot more detail about the P3S heat situation, with many photos and a few definitions of technical terms.

Learning

Some articles about the P3 are available, including a few about the P3S. None of the articles have date stamps, unfortunately. All of my articles have date stamps for when they were originally published and when they were last updated. It would be helpful if Ableton did the same.

Unfortunately, most of what you need to learn about the P3S has not been published yet. Frequently, you must find documentation for the P2, and try to adapt it to the P3S. For example, I could not figure out how to delete a clip that I had recorded. An internet search retrieved dolltr!ck’s entitled “Ableton Push: How to Delete Clips”. Her videos teach viewers about the P2. The location of the Delete button is in a different location for the P3S; however, the information worked. All that is necessary to delete a clip is to hold down the Delete button and press the clip button.

The video My Ableton Push 3 Workflow. Interface, features and tips is the best way to learn about the P3S. It is made by Anna Fruit, not by Ableton. Once your P3S is authorized, learn by following along on your P3S as Anna goes through each step.

I discuss other learning resources in the rest of this article, and in the References section below, but I recommend you start with this one.

The next video is a performance that Anna recorded using a P3S.

More videos are provided at the end of this article.

Tutorial

I plugged in my P3S, turned it on, and several minutes later, “Welcome to Push” appeared on the display. The tutorial then started.

The tutorial could be slightly improved. “To adjust the volume of an output, first press the volume encoder to select the correct one.” I found that the rotating knob must be pressed down before turning it. A better message would have been: “To adjust the volume of an output, first press the volume encoder down several times to select the correct one.”

The P3S was connected to a stereo system via two 1/4" TS monophonic plugs. I had no idea if I was supposed to hear sound at this point or not. After I fixed a cabling issue, sound could be heard when I pressed on a pad.

I found myself wishing I could touch a button or combination of buttons that would play a demo, so I could adjust sound levels. I eventually figured out how to do this.

One of the instructions was: “Turn the jog wheel to highlight an item, and press it to take action on an item.” Turning and pressing did nothing.

The next instruction was, “You can also nudge the jog wheel left or right”. Again, trying that did nothing. I suppose if the Push was in a certain state, those controls might do something. However, the tutorial failed to indicate how to achieve that.

Later, I learned that when you want to back up from a submenu to the previous menu, just nudge the jog wheel left. It would have been really helpful if the tutorial had mentioned that.

This tutorial was minimalist in the extreme. I had expected much more. In particular, this ‘tutorial’ did not generate music. Considering that the purpose of this device is to make music, a tutorial should have as one of its primary goals to show how to generate sound.

Demo Set

P3S has a demonstration Ableton set, accessible at the end of the disastrous tutorial just mentioned, by pressing the Demo Set option. You can restart the horrible tutorial at any time by pressing the Learn button, which has a lightbulb icon. Rapidly click through the tutorial until you see the Demo Set option, then push the lower display button under that menu item to load it.

Save The Demo Set

Press Save as soon as it loads, so you can recall the original Demo Set at any time.

A name is automatically generated for each set when you save it. This is helpful because a computer keyboard is not provided with P3S, and computer keyboards are not recognized by the device. Spelling out file names using the jog wheel is tedious. The automatically generated name consists of several words stuck together, like "Embellished Disco Turnip," which is cute but problematic: two users who save the same demo set end up with different names for the same set. If you are preparing many songs in standalone mode, the automatically generated names must be changed to keep track of them. For me, the lack of computer keyboard support is a constant irritation.

If you have Ableton Live connected, the demo set will load into it, and you can save the set on your computer. The track lanes are rather narrow; to make them wider, hold ALT when resizing a track lane, and all the others will also resize. This is what you should see after resizing the track lanes:

The next few sections are a few things you might want to try using the demo set.

Play Scenes

The demo set has eight scenes, laid out in horizontal rows. Each scene is shown twice: as a horizontal row in the display and as a horizontal row in the 8x8 button matrix.

When the demo set loads, the topmost scene, labeled 1, is selected in the display; this scene is named Intro.

Scenes are comprised of clips, which might be audio samples or MIDI notes. Clips are arranged in vertical columns, called tracks. By default, all the clips in a track share the same audio settings.

Press the jog wheel down to play all the clips in the selected scene (horizontal row). The scene will start to play at the beginning of the next bar.

Turn the jog wheel slightly to select another scene; scene 2 is named Verse A. Notice that the name of the selected scene is briefly displayed after you turn the jog wheel. Play it by pressing down on the jog wheel again.

Another way to play all the tracks in a scene is to press one of the scene buttons immediately to the right of the 8x8 button matrix. You can recognize a scene button because it has a green arrowhead on it that points to the right. Scene names and numbers are not shown on the scene buttons.

Scene buttons also double as repeat interval buttons, which is why you also see green fractions on the scene buttons. Don’t worry about repeat intervals just yet.

While a scene is playing, try pressing a lit button from another scene. The clip on the track that was previously playing will stop, and the chosen clip will start playing at the beginning of the next bar. This is because each track (vertical column) only plays one clip at a time.

To stop the set, press the Play button, which is the bottom-left button containing the green triangle. The triangle will change color to white when not playing a scene.

This UI Needs Work

Complex tasks are best performed when working with a user interface that presents context. Providing context, such as menu breadcrumbs, can be a big help for users.

I spent most of 3 days in the Ableton booth at Superbooth 24 (more on this later). Ableton provided about a dozen P3S devices, and they proved to be a popular attraction.

I gave myself a challenge: whenever a visitor spent a lot of time on a P3S, I went over to their machine right after they left and tried to learn the exact state of the P3S without touching it.

Whenever I could not guess, I would call over an Ableton expert. These were people who were the actual Live programmers, or trainers, and other expert users with years of experience. More than half the time, they could not figure out the state of the P3S either, so they would perform actions that would back out of whatever operation the previous user had initiated until they were able to recognize the state of the P3S.

Often the P3S had been left in an invalid state; for example, the cursor selected a MIDI note that was outside the loop area, which meant the cursor was invisible. This means the user quietly left in frustration. I learned that many potential users had quietly left the Ableton booth in frustration, and the Ableton employees in the booth were none the wiser.

I believe that I have proven that my ignorance is not the problem; the P3S just does not provide proper clues to the user regarding its internal state.

The menuing system should always display context, which might be implemented as breadcrumbs.

The Help button could be extended to act as a modifier, so detailed help information could be shown regarding specific controls as well as the overall state of the P3S. That information is maintained internally but is not summarized and presented to the user.

I expect that most of the P3S units that have been sold until now just sit on a shelf, unused, merely because the P3S does not have a succinct and consistent means of displaying context.

Here are some references regarding breadcrumbs:

Updating

After the tutorial, the Push displayed “Update Push to use the latest features. To update, go to the Setup menu, connect to Wi-Fi and then navigate to the Software tab.”

Before I could follow those instructions, I had to find out how to reach the Setup menu. After looking around for a bit, I saw a gear icon on a button on the upper left of the Push.

When I pushed it, the display showed many things, but did not self-identify with the word ‘Setup’ anywhere on screen. I found myself wondering, once again, ‘What am I looking at?’ If the UI had displayed contextual information, such as breadcrumbs, this would not have been a problem.

Connecting to Wi-Fi

I found this procedure to be non-intuitive. The photo above is labeled with the step numbers to follow to connect to Wi-Fi.

The Wi-Fi menu item is only displayed when P3S is in standalone mode, which means if Ableton Live is controlling a P3S, this menu item will not be seen.

Press the button under the label Wi-Fi.
Press the button above Wi-Fi off to turn on Wi-Fi.
Wait while the list of Wi-Fi networks populates, then turn the knob above the list of Wi-Fi networks to select the desired Wi-Fi SSID.
Press the button over the Connect menu item.

Now an unlabeled list of the alphanumeric characters appears. You are expected to realize that this is where you enter the Wi-Fi password.

I connected an external USB keyboard, but the P3S did not recognize it. Keyboard support could easily be provided, and it should be.

The big round knob to the right of the display is used for that purpose. Turn it to select a character you want to enter, then press the round knob to enter it. There are buttons labeled Space and < Delete if you need them.

Press the button glowing green over the Done menu item when you have finished typing in the password.

If you typed in the password correctly, the SSID you attempted to connect to is shown at the top of the list of SSIDs in green.

Solved: Large DC Pulses

The following section (Update 2024-05-24) was written after owning the P3S for 6 months. The section after that (Updating the Firmware) was written when I first received my P3S. I presented the information this way because I wanted readers to know that the problem described in the older section has been solved, and to understand how they can update their P3S with firmware that implements the solution. I hope readers do not find the out-of-order presentation of information confusing.

Update 2024-05-24

I met with an Ableton programmer at Superbooth 24. He told me that he had personally addressed the DC pulse issue and that the fix would be provided in a firmware update. Other Ableton employees confirmed that the firmware update should either have been publicly released recently or would be soon. After arriving back home, I found that an update to v1.2.5 was available, and an update to an undisclosed version of the P3S internal Live v12 was also available.

Firmware updates are not functional until after the P3S has rebooted several times. For a P3S that has firmware older than v1.2.5, this means many large DC pulses are emitted during the firmware upgrade process. Each DC pulse causes a loud boom to be heard if speakers are connected to the audio output jacks.

💥

After the firmware update, the DC pulses that caused the loud booms were gone. The next section describes the problem that was solved with the firmware update. You should follow the steps described in that section to update your P3S; do this without connecting the TRS audio outputs.

I also upgraded to Push 3 v2.0.2, which apparently installs a version of Live 12.

After the update, I found that the main output level had to be set at -8.3 dB, or the output signal would be badly clipped. I am unsure at this point if this represents a change or not.

Updating the Firmware

Now that my Push was connected to Wi-Fi, I pressed the button underneath the Software* menu item. The display looked like this:

I thought I should update the unit before authorizing it, in case the updated device might authorize more reliably. I pressed the Update button, and in a few minutes, the device updated.

The Push went completely dark for about 15 seconds after updating, then the message “Updating firmware, please wait” appeared. After about 3 seconds, the message “Update finished. Please turn Push off and on again.” appeared.

💥

A P3S emits large DC pulses through its two 1/4" TRS outputs whenever it is turned on and off. If you connect P3S audio via these outputs, be sure to turn down the audio system before updating P3S, and before turning it on or off.

💥

I had to hold the power button down for a few seconds before it asked me if I wanted to turn it off. When it turned off, the stereo speakers went “boom”, twice. The P3S emits large DC pulses through the 1/4" outputs each time it turns off.

💥

When I turned it on, the speakers were silent. The message “Updating the firmware” appeared for about 10 seconds, and the speakers again went “boom”. The message “Updating the firmware” appeared again for several minutes, and the speakers went “boom” twice more. The message “The firmware update was successful” appeared, and the speakers went “boom” three more times.

💥

The P3S emitted a total of eight large DC pulses during the update process.
Audio devices should not behave this way!

I went back to the setup menu and saw the following versions: