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Push 2 / Nuendo Bridge — turn an Ableton Push 2 into a full control surface for Nuendo & Cubase (free)I've been building a bridge that lets an Ableton Push 2 drive Nuendo and Cubase as a proper, deeply integrated control surface — not a generic MIDI-learn mapping. It's free, open source, and runs on macOS and Windows. There are no templates to set up and no MIDI learn: you launch a small background app and drop one MIDI Remote script into your DAW, and the Push lights up ready to go.
It works identically in Nuendo and Cubase. Version 14 and up is supported; a handful of features use the newer MIDI Remote API 1.3 (Nuendo/Cubase 15).
What it does
Mixing
- Eight track faders on the encoders with live VU meters, peak/clip detection, and real track colors pulled from the project
- Bank through your whole session eight tracks at a time (or one track at a time with Shift)
- The lower row switches between Mute / Solo / Monitor / Record-Enable
- Dedicated Sends (pre/post, bypass, levels) and Pan pages, plus a combined per-track view (volume, pan, six sends)
- Control Room integration: the master encoder rides your Main or Phones level, with a full page for click, sources, mute, dim and talkback
- Inserts page reads all 16 insert slots per track; bypass and deactivate instantly, open plugin windows, and edit parameters right on the encoders
- Add a plugin straight from the Push — browse your Nuendo plugin collections by folder, as a clean vertical list showing name, type and manufacturer, with optional grouping by type or vendor. It's cached to disk, so it opens instantly and remembers where you were
- A built-in Plugin Mapper (a web tool at localhost:8100) scans your VST3s and lets you drag the parameters you actually care about onto custom pages of eight encoders, with readable labels. Fuzzy name-matching lines them up with the DAW automatically
- Plugins that can't be scanned from disk (iLok/Waves shells, stock plugins) can be captured live from the running instance through DirectAccess — nothing in your rack is off-limits
- Channel Strip control (v15): the whole chain as color-coded modules, per-section bypass, and a live, bidirectional EQ curve that redraws as you work
- Full pad playing with scales, chromatic and piano layouts, and configurable keyswitch rows (8 or 16 pads, latchable) plus a drum layout
- Note Repeat with selectable rates, an Accent mode, and Quick Controls per track
- The AI Knob: point your mouse at almost any parameter in the DAW and turn one encoder to control it
- Key Commands: the note-value buttons can fire up to 64 of your own Nuendo Key Commands across eight pages — programmed from a web editor that imports your actual key-command set, so it matches your version and language
- MIDI CC control, an XY pad for two-parameter moves, and a touch strip for pitch bend, modwheel or volume
- Play, stop, record, loop, metronome, automation-mode cycling, undo/redo, add/duplicate track, and more directly on the surface
- Long-press command menus on six buttons open on-screen menus of related Nuendo commands
- A Navigation mode turns the pads into zoom/scroll/marker/nudge shortcuts
- Assignable footswitch and expression pedals on the Push's two pedal jacks, plus a Setup page for aftertouch, velocity curves and more, and backup/restore of your settings
- An Ableton Push 2
- Nuendo or Cubase 14+ (some features need 15 / MIDI Remote API 1.3)
- macOS or Windows
- A virtual MIDI port (the app walks you through it)
- Website: push2bridge.kaikuaudio.com (https://push2bridge.kaikuaudio.com)
- GitHub: github.com/mbourque-mix/Push2Nuendo-Bridge (https://github.com/mbourque-mix/Push2Nuendo-Bridge)
- Downloads (Mac & Windows): Releases (https://github.com/mbourque-mix/Push2Nuendo-Bridge/releases)