1. Make a Folder for the Kits
Once you’ve connected your Push 3 via Wifi, you’ll see the Push show up as an icon in your Places view. The Push has its own User Library which is separate from your normal Desktop Ableton user Library.
In the Presets folder of the Push User Library, make a folder where you will store your kits, such as “My Kits”. Right Click to create the folder.
2. Copy your .adg files
By default , drum racks you save are saved in your Ableton User Library under Presets > Instruments > Drum Rack.
Drag some .adg kit presets to your “My Kits” folder. These drum rack kit presets are now on your Push, but they don’t have any samples, so they won’t actually work yet.
3. Copy your samples
In Ableton on desktop, when a user drags in samples to a drum rack and saves the kit, the samples are imported into your user library’s Samples > Imported folder automatically. Unfortunately they are just thrown in here loose, so the folder can be very chaotic. This is likely where your drum samples are.
You can copy over your entire imported samples folder, but that may be way too many files for some users. Alternatively it would be very tedious to hunt down each sample manually. However, I found a workaround for this:
Drag the kits you want to a new Ableton project. Then go to File > Collect All And Save. Make sure you have enabled the options to import the external samples.
Open your collected project and find the “Imported” folder. Now you just need to drag the project’s Imported files folder to your Push’s Imported files folder.
On your push, make sure to exit any project you have open so that it can refresh.
Navigate to your Push 3 User library and find your kits. When you load one up, it should correctly load the sounds. If it doesn’t, make sure that your sample file paths exactly match your desktop user library file path.
If a sample is in Ableton User Library > Samples > Imported > kick.wav
Then the sample in your Push needs to be Push User Library > Samples > Imported > kick.wav
If there is a folder inside of the “Imported” folder, such as Imported > Folder > kick.wav, then you need to match that same folder structure in your Push and include that extra folder.
3. (Optional) Use Kit Maker
If you are familiar with our app Kit Maker, you know that you no longer have to create kits by hand and that you can simply drop in your drum sample packs or Maschine library folders and it will create Ableton kits for you automatically .
If you aren’t familiar with our app, check out how Kit Maker helps you create Ableton Kits from your Sample Packs and Maschine Expansions.
4. (Optional) Transfer Kit Maker Kits to Push
To transfer Kit Maker kits to Push 3, copy over your .adg drum rack presets like we did earlier. You can drag whole folders of kits, such as the “Drums That Knock” folder I used in the video.
Now we need to copy over the samples.
With Kit Maker you don’t need to do the workaround of making a new project to collect the samples.
Kit Maker organizes its samples when storing them in your User Library, so it’s easy to grab just the kit samples you need.
Go back to the Push User Library’s Imported samples folder. We need to do the one time step of creating the “Kit Maker Samples” folder so we can match the folder structure of your Ableton User Library. In the Push’s “Imported” folder, make a new folder called “Kit Maker Samples.” You can drag all of your Kit Maker sample folders here whenever you want to import them.
Push / User Library / Samples / Imported / Kit Maker Samples
For Maschine kits, remember to include the “Maschine Kits” folder inside of the Kit Maker Samples folder, and copy any Maschine Expansion sample folders there in the future. Kit Maker stores the Maschine Expansion samples in that “Maschine Kits” folder in your Desktop Ableton User Library filepath, so you need to match that when copying them to the Push 3.
Hopefully that helps some of you!