Push it real good
Push 2 (and, to a lesser extent, Push) owners are in for a few extra treats with Live 10. For starters, Push 2’s display now visualises EQ 8’s spectrum and filters, Operator’s envelopes, Echo’s Echo Tunnel and Wavetable’s wavetables in all their highly informative glory.
The new Melodic Sequencer + 32 Notes mode for Push 1 and 2, however, is the big story, opening up real-time sequencing and real-time play at the same time. Accessed via the Layout button, MS+32 mode divides Push’s 64 pads horizontally into two banks of 32. The bottom bank is used for real-time playing, and hitting a pad or multiple pads also selects it/them for step sequencing in the top bank of pads, as single notes or chords. Hold a step pad to highlight all of the notes playing on that step in the bottom bank, where they can be removed if needed. Holding the Layout or Note button switches row 5 to the loop length controls. It’s a fast, fluid system, although the lack of an option to make the top pad bank only show active steps for the currently selected note is surprising.
Less transformative but welcome nonetheless is Push 2’s displaying of MIDI notes in the selected clip (no, you can’t move them or anything), the addition of the Crop and Audio to MIDI functions to the button array, and folding/unfolding of nested chains. A couple of Live 10’s new features also get Push support: Split Stereo Pan in Track Mix mode, and navigation of Collections in Browser mode on Push 2.