I’m not new to making music.
I’ve used FL Studio for years.
I’ve worked in Logic Pro X.
I mix and master.
I make beats.
So when I got onto Ableton Push 1, part of me thought:
“How hard can this be?”
Three hours later…
I was arguing with glowing buttons.
I opened Ableton Live, loaded a piano and immediately got confused.
I saw clips.
Pads glowing green.
Other pads glowing blue.
Orange indicators.
Session View.
Arrangement View.
Tracks.
Scenes.
Nothing felt familiar.
Coming from FL Studio and Logic Pro, my brain naturally thinks:
Pattern → Playlist → Duplicate → Build Song
Simple.
Push looked like somebody took FL Studio’s playlist and flipped it sideways.
At one point I genuinely thought:
“Nah… producers online must be lying. This thing makes no sense.”
Turns out…
I was trying to force Ableton to behave like FL Studio.
That was my mistake.
The Biggest Thing Nobody Tells FL Studio Users
Ableton Push is built around Session View first.
That changed everything.
I kept trying to control Arrangement View using Push.
Wrong battlefield.
Session View is for:
- Recording ideas
- Triggering loops
- Layering melodies
- Experimenting
- Performing
Arrangement View is for:
- Building a full beat
- Intro
- Verse
- Hook
- Chorus
- Final structure
The moment I realised:
Session = Ideas
Arrangement = Song
…my brain unlocked.
The Moment Everything Started Making Sense
I discovered:
Tracks go vertically.
Scenes go horizontally.
Meaning:
Track 1 → Piano
Track 2 → Bass
Track 3 → Drums
Launch a scene…
Everything plays together.
That was the moment I said:
“Yoh… this thing is crazy.”
Because suddenly I understood why producers build full beats without touching a mouse.
Why Push Feels Different From FL Studio
On FL Studio:
You often draw notes.
Adjust piano roll.
Fix velocity later.
Quantize.
Push forced me to:
Play.
And that changes things.
Soft hit = softer velocity
Hard hit = stronger velocity
Tiny mistakes = groove
The beat feels more human.
Detroit piano melodies suddenly started making more sense.
I realised something:
A lot of older producers weren’t staring at screens.
They were playing.
That shocked me.
The Most Frustrating Part
Stopping clips.
Seriously.
For almost an hour I kept asking:
“Why is this green?”
“Why won’t this stop?”
“Why is nothing playing?”
“Why did everything mute?”
“Why is that orange thing glowing?”
Later I learned:
Green = Playing clip
Blue = Loaded clip
Orange = Session overriding Arrangement
I fought colors for almost an hour 😭.
Three Hours Later…
In just three hours I learned:
✓ Recording clips
✓ Session View
✓ Arrangement View
✓ Duplicating clips
✓ Playing scenes
✓ Velocity editing
✓ Scales on Push
✓ Fixed mode
✓ D minor Detroit melodies
✓ Recording slower then increasing tempo
✓ Moving ideas from Session → Arrangement
✓ Why Push feels more physical than FL Studio
Most importantly:
I stopped trying to force Ableton to be FL Studio.
That was the breakthrough.
Final Thoughts
Would I recommend Ableton Push 1 in 2026?
Surprisingly…
Yes.
Especially if you’re an FL Studio producer wanting a different way to create.
The limitations become creativity.
The tiny screen.
The weird workflow.
The confusion.
All of it pushes you toward:
Playing by feel instead of drawing by sight.
Today started with:
“What the hell is this thing?”
Three hours later ended with:
“Okay… now I understand why people defend Ableton Push.”
I’m still learning.
But now I’m curious.
And curiosity usually leads to good beats.
— Reggie Beatz
