“The Lego prototype went through many, many phases of moving buttons around... It was playful and not permanent”: Ableton’s Jesse Terry reveals the Lego brick origins of the company's Push hardware instrument as he revisits a rare early prototype

Ableton Push Lego prototype.

Released in 2013, Ableton’s Push was the hardware that turned its Live DAW into a playable instrument (Ableton never liked to think of it as a controller) and, through various iterations, it's been gracing stages and studios ever since.

The original Push was actually built in collaboration with Akai Pro – Ableton had previously worked with Akai on its APC40 and APC20 Live control surfaces – and was designed to bring something different and more integrated to the market.