Pocket Push

Control clips, volume and devices with the pocket pusher.

Installation

1. Install nodejs
2. Open the Terminal (mac) or PowerShell (windows) application and type npx pocketpusher.
3. Start Ableton Live
4. Select "PocketPush" as Control Surface in 'Settings' > 'MIDI'.
5. Scan the QR code with your smartphone or tablet

Features

• Control up to 8 tracks (+ Master)
• Control up to 8 macros (of the first device of every track)
• Clip loop manipulation: Set length, double length, half length, empty clip.
• Clip manipulation: create and delete clips.
• Track manipulation: mute, volume, trigger clip, select track.
• Scene manipulation: Duplicate, delete, launch.
• Fixed clip length: automatic punch out of clip recordings.
• Delay recording: discard initial bars when recording (automatically set loop start marker).
• "Record scene": duplicate the scene, then empty clips of armed tracks.
• "Record clip": add a new clip to every armed track with a fixed length, in session record mode.
• Automatically select armed track.
• Automatically configure input to correct instrument when track is armed (to do)
• Show chords and song progress (annotate clips with C / F / G / C, one bar per slash)

Known bugs

• This software is in beta and might not be live performance ready regarding stability and bugs.
• The delay function briefly plays the first notes on the first loop, then skips to the right (delayed) position.
• The app is not optimized for running many smartphones/tablets in parallel.

Changelog

• 1.0.0 (2023-05-09) Grid view, large screen support
• 0.9.0 (2023-05-04) Initial release

Usage

todo - write documentation for usage

Hints

The track status indicators have hidden gestures:

• swipe up: fire previous clip
• swipe down: fire next clip
• swipe left: mute / unmute
• swipe right: arm
• tap: arm track (scene, clips, setup) or select track (fx)

The app supports two workflows:

Scene-based:

• Your track is divided in sections called 'scenes', e.g. intro, verse, chorus, bridge.
• You use 'launch scene' to progress in song sections.
• You use 'duplicate scenes' to add variation, by overdubbing, changing device macro's or emptying the clip and then re-recording it.
• Con: Your session view contains a lot of duplicate clips, it is hard to see which clips have changed.

Clip-based:

• You build your main loop track-by-track, e.g. drum, bass, chords, melody.
• Then, you add variation by recording alternatives and variations per track (e.g. intro, verse, chorus, bridge)
• You progress in the song by adding/removing these variations (fire clip or mute track).
• You like to see what variations you have per track, and don't like it when there are many duplicate clips in your session view.
• Con: It is harder to launch a scene (where all tracks change to a variation at once).