Keyboard Month: Expert Picks & Hot Deals

Ableton Push 3 Standalone

Hardware Instrument and Ableton Live Control Surface with 64 Expressive Pads, Built-in Audio/MIDI Interface, and Onboard Processor
Share
Item ID: Push3WP
Ableton Push 3 Standalone
Price:$1,799 and 00 cents
$300.00 suggested monthly payment§ with 6 month special financing‡

In Stock!

Add to Cart
Sales engineer photo
Ask An Expert

Our expertly trained Sales Engineers are ready to help!

What is a Sales Engineer?
Sweetwater Gear Exchange

Have one to sell?
Check out Sweetwater's Gear Exchange!
Learn More

Complete Your Order
Product Image - This Item - Ableton Push 3 Standalone
Ableton Push 3 Standalone
$1,799.00
+
+
=
Buy all:
OR
Ableton Push 3 Standalone
In Stock!
Price:$1,799 and 00 cents
Add to Cart
Add to list
Skip to Description
Most Popular Accessories & Related Items
Back to navigation

This article was Written By

Our Product Research Team

Get to know them!

Push Your Creativity to the Limit

Ripe with creative possibilities, Ableton Push 3 Standalone is a hardware instrument and control surface that enables you to create and edit melodies, harmonies, beats, samples, and even entire songs. Push 3's 64 backlit, MPE-enabled pads provide you with the utmost expressive tactile control, while locked-tight integration with Ableton Live software gives you complete access to a creative arsenal of instruments, devices, and effects. Not only does Push 3 function as an instrument and controller, but its built-in audio/MIDI interface lets you deploy it as a hub for your entire rig. With this hardware at the center of your creative workflow, you can connect external instruments, synths, or effects and record directly into Ableton Live; you can also use Push 3 as a springboard for real-time playing, step sequencing, and clip launching. Moreover, Push 3 Standalone includes an onboard processor, internal solid-state drive, and rechargeable lithium-ion battery, allowing you to record, mix, and play entirely inside the hardware — no computer required. What's more, you can seamlessly send your Live Sets to the Push 3 hardware and vice versa. Thanks to Push 3, creative musicians can stay focused on song creation rather than on their computer screen.

64 expressive, MPE-enabled pads

Creating and composing with a keyboard and mouse is fine. That said, there's something infinitely more inspiring about the tactile sensation of hardware. Each of Ableton Push 3's 64 backlit, MPE-enabled pads boasts an X/Y sensor that detects every slight movement of your finger, enabling you to shape your sounds in myriad ways. Here at Sweetwater, we've found Push 3's pads to be eminently expressive — you can bend, slide, and shift between notes, sounds, and articulations with the greatest of ease.

Built-in audio/MIDI interface

Push 3 houses a built-in 2-in/2-out audio interface that accommodates both balanced line-level and unbalanced instrument-level input sources, enabling you to route instruments, synths, or effects straight into Ableton Live. You also get two balanced outputs and a headphone jack for dead-simple monitoring. Push 3 also supports class-compliant USB MIDI, so you can connect a standard MIDI keyboard or other controller to get hands-on with Push 3's internal instruments or send MIDI data from Push 3 to your other hardware.

Standalone playability

Thanks to its onboard processor, internal solid-state drive, and rechargeable battery, Push 3 Standalone allows you to disconnect from your computer, take your creativity to locales that inspire, and stay present in the moment with your music. You can record, mix, and create music entirely inside Push 3 Standalone's hardware — no computer required. You can send Live Sets to Push 3 Standalone and work on them without a computer; then, when you get back to your studio, send the sets back to Ableton Live.

Ableton Push 3 Standalone Features:

  • Hardware instrument and control surface for Ableton Live
  • Enables you to create and edit melodies, harmonies, beats, samples, and even entire songs
  • Allows for real-time playing, step sequencing, and clip launching
  • 64 backlit, MPE-enabled pads provide you with the utmost in expressive tactile control
  • Tight Ableton Live integration gives you complete access to instruments, devices, and effects
  • Built-in 2-in/2-out audio interface routes instruments, synths, or effects straight into Ableton Live
  • Supports class-compliant USB MIDI for use with standard MIDI keyboards and controllers
  • Standalone version includes an onboard processor, internal solid-state drive, and rechargeable battery
  • Lets you record, mix, and create music entirely inside Push 3 Standalone's hardware — no computer required

Resources

Warranty Info

Sweetwater's FREE 2-Year Total Confidence Coverage Warranty

Extra peace of mind at no extra cost.

  • Save money with FREE parts and labor
  • Get back to making music with the industry's fastest turnaround time
  • Fix it the first time with our award-winning, factory-certified Service Department
Learn More about Total Confidence Coverage
Back to navigation

Tech Specs

  • Type: Standalone Control Surface with Built-in Audio/MIDI Interface/Processor
  • Screen: 9.07" x 1.51" Screen
  • Pads: 64 x MPE-enabled Pads
  • Other Controllers: Touchstrip, Jog Wheel, 8 x Encoders
  • Analog Inputs: 2 x 1/4" TRS
  • Analog Outputs: 2 x 1/4" TRS
  • Digital Inputs: 1 x Optical (ADAT)
  • Digital Outputs: 1 x Optical (ADAT)
  • Headphones: 1 x 1/4" TRS (rear)
  • MIDI I/O: USB, 2 x 1/8" In/Out (breackout cable sold separately)
  • USB: 1 x USB-C, 1 x Type A
  • Pedal Inputs: 2 x 1/4" (footswitch)
  • Storage: Built-in 256GB SSD
  • Software: Ableton Live 12
  • Power Source: Built-in Lithium Battery (2.5-hour life), AC Adapter (included)
  • Height: 1.75"
  • Width: 14.96"
  • Depth: 12.51"
  • Weight: 8.7 lbs
  • Manufacturer Part Number: 90068

What Makes Our Sales Engineers Great?

Sweetwater Sales Engineers are a world-class team of experts dedicated to you. Hand selected from across the globe, each brings a wealth of experience and expertise in the world of music gear to provide you with unparalleled service completely free of charge. Friendly relationships, real trust, and the right gear are only a call or a click away!

Back to navigation

Reviews

The Push 3 is awesome
The Ableton Push 3 is really awesome and cool it lets you use it right away out of the box and comes with a ton of sounds and features it even let me hook up my Korg Multi/Poly and Modwave mk11 to it and I was able to make alot of music with all of them hooked up to the Push 3 so thank you Sweetwater and Ryan Springer for selling me this product.
Standalone in a post 12.2 world is really good
Years ago, I got a Push 2 and found it to be one of the best user experiences for getting ideas going really fast. The ability to switch between playing live or sequencing and using a variety of different sequencing layouts was a much more tactile experience than using a keyboard and mouse. My issue with a keyboard and mouse was always that I needed another input device for velocity sensitivity at minimum in terms of better expression. That said, when trying to be more portable (think groove-box and headphones), the Push 2 tethered to a computer felt like a lot. I could either have the Push 2 on my lap and use that or the laptop, and there were plenty of things that really required using the laptop. I couldn't help but think if only this was a standalone device.

Enter Push 3. When it first got announced, I was underwhelmed by the specs, but I'm no stranger to the idea that the specs don't always articulate what the experience is like. So what is it like? It's absolutely amazing as a standalone device today. Being able to edit follow actions on the unit for either clips or scenes means you can literally configure a full arrangement in session mode. Transferring projects to the computer via WIFI is also so much better than digging out the cable every time I need to get something.

When first comparing to Push 2, I felt like it was not a huge difference in terms of it can be standalone now and there are new MPE pads. That said, the experience of playing these MPE pads is hard to describe with words. It's much more expressive than the Push 2 despite looking so similar. I think the only other device that might compete with this would be an MPC Live 3. That has a speaker, but it also relies heavily on the touchscreen for editing notes... which is just cumbersome to me.

Push 3 gives me the interface I want with tactile controls that intuitively allow me to edit all the things I want to be able to edit in a standalone device without needing to rely on a touchscreen. From that perspective, I don't know of another device that's even in the same playing field. If you make beats, sample vinyl or synths, record guitar or vocals, you can do it all with this device. You might want to add an external preamp if you're doing vocals, but you can legit plug a guitar right into Push 3 and use the Ableton Live Tuner, Pedal, Amp & Cabinet to get a wide range of really nice guitar tones without the need for a separate processor. You could add an additional processor too.

It's a fun, intuitive, and fast way to make songs that you can eventually take directly to the computer to finish, but you can get so close to the final thing with Push 3 before you get that computer back in the mix.

Oh also the battery... anyone that thinks it's not good enough... just the peace of mind that the device doesn't shutdown if it accidentally gets unplugged is amazing.
Great addition to studio
I haven't gone through every use case but first impression is that this really works well. It takes a bit to get used to the menus and option selections work but the learning curve is quick. It is built like a tank and the pads feel great! Shout out to Sweetwater tech support as well. The first one they sent had a defect and would not go into controller mode. They sent a new one out promptly and it works as expected.
Push 3
This device has an extensive learning curve and I have only worked with it for less than three hours so far, but wow holy moly it is awesone.I will be doing online training videos.
Music background: 40 years as an amature guitarist.
Holy Grail
No doubt. This is your holy grail of sound.
Complex to learn. Recommend Push3Bible course.