Well, I recently transplanted from Studio One to FL Studio. I can honestly say that Studio One has become my go to DAW that being said I'm really homesick in terms of a step sequencer, since I produce mostly electronic music and FL Studio's entire workflow is based around step sequencing.

I've tried a lot of different things since I've gotten here and it would be really awesome to use Ableton Push's Step Sequencer to draw drum sequences as well as select drum samples from Push's browser (as was implemented in 9.5) but I also know that MIDI controller support is off when Ableton is a rewire slave. Anyone with any advice?

 

Is the step sequencer on the Push software based? or does the physical unit manage it? ie can you use the step sequencer with a hardware synth without Push being plugged into Ableton?

I have a feeling that its the former.

The reasons you mentioned are why I picked up an M-audio Trigger Finger Pro for $80. Its much more fun than loop recording or drawing notes in S1.

 

Push is an ordinary midi controller unless you start live which turns push into the bemoth we know it for. And to achieve that, live uses python scripts.
You could use pxt-general but all the awesomeness like the step sequencer is centered around live.
http://www.nativekontrol.com/PXT-General.html

 

One little tipp: If all you want is run Ableton in sync with S1 (using separate audio outs of course), you can sync the DAWs using MIDI Sync instead of Rewire. It's not as convenient as Rewire, but it's a working option.
If you don't want separate audio outs, you can either use one of these audio routing VST plugins or virtual audio patchbays that route the audio from one DAW to another on the same host.
This way you could continue to use Push+Live while using S1.

 

Thanks for all the advice everyone!

@fiction I thought of trying MIDI sync but honestly I don't know the first thing about the whole virtual audio cables thing and all that. Don't get me wrong I've tried but usually rewire can be difficult enough the thought of trying to figure out using something else that way is daunting. That being said I'm sure once you've figured out what you need creating a template shouldn't be too difficult.

@fraifikmushi Yeah I've thought of the PXT general route but the whole being able to select samples using it's built in browser really speeds things up a lot of the time.

@MYCbeats I'm really curious as to how your Trigger Finger Pro is set up. Are you using it to control S1's 16 pad drum bank thing or is it the trigger finger's software?

 

Exactly!

I personally would rather create the step sequences inside one DAW and drop the finished mixdown/loop into the other DAW...
Less fiddly and fewer performance issues. And no ReWire limitations.

 

TFP is a hardware step sequencer. The pads are set up to send note values, so it can trigger any VST. I have it set up to sync to S1 clock and then have it trigger Battery. When I'm happy with the pattern, I just record the part in to a midi event.

 

@MYCbeats That's so awesome! I've been wanting so bad to have some kind of in the box step sequencing capabilities that work like some older drum machines. I have both the Ableton Push MK1 and Maschine Mk2 and neither of those satisfies that problem so that it can be used with any DAW it always seems that it needs to be used in a very specific way. I might look at getting one and then possibly selling them both off.

 

To be honest, this is that last M-Audio device I will EVER buy, its pretty shit in every aspect, so I wouldnt rely on it as my sole controller (I use my MAX49).

The pads feel cheap
The knobs are crap, full 127 steps can be achieved with half a rotation, they also jump in value a little bit.
the faders are crap
The knobs doesn't receive midi from S1 unless you use it in MCU/HUI.

But that being said as a 64 step, 64 pattern (16 pads, 4 banks), 16 song, step sequencer it works fine.

All other devices capable of step sequencing that I've looked into either had 32 steps and/or a handful of patterns.

 

Oh woe! I just want a physical midi controller that properly does step sequencing in S1 and doesn't suck! *sigh*

Guess we're all gonna have to go with touch control everything here soon. The future isn't as cool as I expected it to be . . . yet

 

How would you get impact to step sequence after you install PXT-general? What are your workflows with Push and S1?