This is...completely missing the point. It honestly blows my mind how often exemplars of the Dunning-Kruger effect make it to the top on HN. You know that feeling you get as a programmer watching, like, two people code on the same keyboard on CSI or whatever? That's the feeling anyone with expertise in a ___domain other than programming gets when reading comments on HN regarding said ___domain.
The most fundamental appeal of the Push is that it is a very nicely-integrated hardware controller, and -- this is the big thing -- has physical knobs, buttons, pads, etc, a massive selling point to loads and loads and loads of musicians.
An iPad by definition lacks the latter, and will never approach the integration of the Push no matter how much work you put into whichever controller app you're using (TouchOSC, etc). And that's even before you consider the fact that the Push also doubles as an audio interface.
Literally no one in the Push's audience is looking to replace/upgrade the Push's hardware. No one cares what CPU it has. I'm honestly surprised that Ableton published the specs, because it just doesn't matter. It's not a "computer" (even though, yes, technically it is indeed a computer). Depending on which model you buy, its raison d'etre is as an accessory to a computer, more specifically a very specific application; or an appliance designed to run one app and one app only. You might as well be saying that you'd rather buy an iPad over a Tesla because the iPad has a better CPU.
> Obviously I meant replacing the computer part with an iPad, not the controller.
> Good luck running a dozen instances of Diva if you don't care about the CPU
Good luck running...most plugins, u-he or otherwise, on an iPad.
That said, the question of which plugins will/won't work running directly on the Push is an interesting question. It runs Linux, no? u-he is one of the few "big" plugin devs that supports Linux, but if I had to guess, the standalone Push 3 will run first-party Ableton plugins only.
> Good luck running...most plugins, u-he or otherwise, on an iPad.
Yeah that's a good point. OTOH all the U-He stuff is already ARM native for macOS.
But my point about the iPad was more about comparing the cost. If Ableton had chosen to sell the computer part at a more reasonable price (say $300) I would't have even mentioned it.
> Yeah that's a good point. OTOH all the U-He stuff is already ARM native for macOS.
Right, the problem is not a technical one, it's an app ecosystem one. Urs has spoken about this at length on KVR. This IMO is a great reason for Ableton to have not gone the iPad route, because it's a problem that doesn't look like it'll be solved anytime soon.
That's the nice thing about this, you don't need a dozen instances of diva for a live set. If you're traveling and using this, you can freeze the tracks. Otherwise if you're at home you can plug in to your real computer and run as many instances of Diva at Divine quality as you want.
But also this likely won't support Diva, probably just Operator, Analog, etc.
The most fundamental appeal of the Push is that it is a very nicely-integrated hardware controller, and -- this is the big thing -- has physical knobs, buttons, pads, etc, a massive selling point to loads and loads and loads of musicians.
An iPad by definition lacks the latter, and will never approach the integration of the Push no matter how much work you put into whichever controller app you're using (TouchOSC, etc). And that's even before you consider the fact that the Push also doubles as an audio interface.
Literally no one in the Push's audience is looking to replace/upgrade the Push's hardware. No one cares what CPU it has. I'm honestly surprised that Ableton published the specs, because it just doesn't matter. It's not a "computer" (even though, yes, technically it is indeed a computer). Depending on which model you buy, its raison d'etre is as an accessory to a computer, more specifically a very specific application; or an appliance designed to run one app and one app only. You might as well be saying that you'd rather buy an iPad over a Tesla because the iPad has a better CPU.