After a year of experimenting (Akai APC64, APC40 mk2, MidiMix, APC Mini, Push 2, Launchkey mk4 and SL 61 mk3), I finally found the right combination for my workflow and playing style.

Using Ableton, the Launch Control XL3 takes care of mixing and device control duties, the middle Launchpad Pro mk3 handles clips, scenes, and recording parameters while the rightmost Launchpad Pro is the instrument that stays in Note and Chord mode 99% of the time.

Delegating things this way works for my brain, my hands, and keeps me in a creative flow. I’m not fumbling with an entire cockpit of a dozen controllers and getting lost, nor am I constantly pressing buttons to switch between modes with a single controller trying to do everything. For me, this setup works.

As a guitar player and not a keyboard player, playing the grid in 3-finger mode makes perfect sense to me and chord shapes on the grid feel like chord shapes on the guitar neck (albeit different shapes, obviously). The response of the pads is fantastic and begs for expressive playing.

I also barely touch the trackball or the keyboard. I LOVE this constellation of controllers for making my ambient music. My experimenting is done, at long last.

Anyone else wanna share their Novation setup?

Adding some spice to an ambient & trancey techno track.

Novation Peak is one of my favorite synth,
so why not go dual?

#novation #novationpeak #elektron #dawless #techno

Pretty much it. I still haven't bought my Launchkey, and would like to know if there's some other way than logging in to Components to read the latest firmware changelog.

Mainly bc I've been reading things on the speed and reactiveness of the encoder knobs and faders being not so responsive or acting up , but also I've read the latest firmware supposedly fixed that.

Since I still don't have the controller with me and my current laptop is about to get replaced soon, I don't want to even start anything registering, logins, etc. I'll do all that from scratch in the new computer.

As I said, I think I could check the changelog in Components but I'm just wondering if there isn't, idk, a PDF or text file I could promptly check by myself?

Thanks a bunch! 🙏

Hey all, had question for the community: Has anyone used their LCXL 3 with ProTools? And if you have, is it worth picking up?

I am looking for a cheap solution to a fader control surface.

I own a Launchpad Pro Mk3 that I cannot use because the LEDs are too bright.

I am visually impaired—almost completely blind—and one of the conditions affecting my vision is photophobia. In short: I can barely see anything, and the little I can still see disappears when I look at a light source. In summary, any light source looks and feels like a flashlight aimed at my eyes.

The main reason I bought this controller was precisely to avoid staring at a computer screen, but unfortunately, I haven't found a way to turn off or even dim the LEDs, turning this beautiful machine into an expensive paperweight.

Honestly, I don't know if what I'm asking for is possible, but if someone built the system, I'm sure someone else with similar knowledge can modify it.

Some extra info:

What I want: My main goal is to completely disable the LEDs on all the pads; if there were a tool allowing me to choose the LED color and brightness, that would be even better.

If you can handle this job, please get in touch so we can discuss the details; I've never hired a developer before, so I'm not sure what to expect regarding budget and timeframe.

Notes:

- I contacted Novation support, and although they were polite and attentive, the final answer was the same as what I've received from other companies regarding accessibility in the past: "Unfortunately, we have no plans to do anything about it," or something to that effect.

- I know it's possible to lower the LED brightness in the settings, but even the dimmest setting is too bright for my visual condition.

- I also know it's possible to turn off the LEDs in the settings, but they light up again as soon as they're used—unlike the Launchkey Mk3, which can be used while the lights are off.

I hope to find someone willing to help me with this.

Thanks!

A chromatic playing technique I’ve been exploring on the keygrid..

The layout is chromatic horizontally, with perfect fourths vertically. Rolling through five consecutive notes across a row lets the line continue in the same horizontal position on the next row.

I start with a fast descending run, break the movement down slowly, then finish with a brief demo at roughly 200 BPM in sixteenth notes.

Anyone else experimenting with chromatic fingering patterns on the grid?

I have a brand new Novation Launchkey mini MK4 that I'm using with Ableton and I'm just going through figuring out all the different features. I'm trying to use the sequencer to program drums however I'm having an issue so far. Once I've selected my drum on the keyboard and then hit the pad to program it, the pad lights up and saves the step, but I don't get any playback automatically. I have to press the play button for playback, and have to set a one-bar loop for it to repeat. I've looked at a couple of different tutorials and I can't see what I'm missing. I've got the latest firmware, have the launchkey mini MK4 set as the control surface, and have selected track and remote in the input and output ports

I’m trying to use the Zones feature on the SL Mk3 to control two different Kontakt instruments in Ableton. I was able to configure the zones to control both easily enough, but am having some issues getting the Sustain pedal to work the way I want it to.

My goal is to get my Zone 2 instrument to be affected by the sustain while Zone 1 is unaffected. When I have Channel 1/Channel 2 selected respectively in “MIDI From” in Ableton, the sustain doesn’t do anything at all. If I change “MIDI From” to “All Channels”, the sustain works, but then of course it disregards the zone assignments.

Does anyone have any experience with setting this kind of thing up? Thanks!

I bought a Used FL37 from Guitar Center, and I am trying to follow along with how-to videos, but I can't get my keyboard to do what it's supposed to

I can't do basic things like send each channel to its own pad - pressing the shift button is making different buttons light up on my keyboard

Tutorial I am trying to follow is linked and timestamped here

When the guy in the video holds shift, the bottom 8 pads light up. When I hold shift, the Scale Chord, User Chord, Custom buttons, and the bottom rightmost button light up. I have no idea why my buttons look different even though I am doing what he is doing

I have factory reset the keyboard and I can record notes on the piano roll, etc.

I am new to FL studio, and very new to music production in general, so please me know how i can fix this!

Before anything, I am pretty new in this whole synth world with very weak understanding on sound design. I do own multiple synths such as Summit, Digitone2, Microkorg2 and Typhon. I do love the Summit as I learned everything about sound design on it but I can't ever get it to sound like Take 5 which i've only had a listen on Youtube. Typhon has the sounds I want but its monophony makes me look elseware.

So my quesion is, can it be achieved? I know it's not the right word but can't describe it in other words than 'warmth.' I am willing to sell everything else but Summit at the moment to purchase the Take 5 if I need to but wanted to make sure that it's not possible with the Summit.

Any other recommendations are also welcome that has that sound but isnt more expensive than Take 5 second handed.

Thanks in advanced! Happy producing guys!

My controller is communicating with Ableton in that I can press the low C note and get a kick sound, but it won't change which drum is selected so that I can step sequence. when I play a different piano key and hear a different sound, it doesn't change the selection.

Ableton is 11.3.43

Running on a MacBook

Midi settings have launchkey mk4 as the control surface and the 49 daw out as input and output as well as the track and remote settings below.

the midi drum channel is set to all ins. if I change it to the launchkey, it no longer receives midi, but when I'm hitting a piano key on the launchkey with all ins selected, it does play a drum hit, but won't change the selection.

I have factory reset the launchkey and made sure it's fully updated.

what am I missing?

I have just completed the first of a five-album arc, and used Novation controllers for the entire project.

Recorded in Ableton using Omnisphere 3, I used 2 Launchpad Pro mk3’s and a Novation Launch Conteol XL3. These controllers made the whole process of composing, performing, mixing and mastering a real joy.

I used one LP as the instrument; primarily staying in instrument and chord mode. As a guitarist and not a keyboard player, I find staying in 3-finger/4ths mode allows me to play chord patterns and melodies that make sense to me. I love the responsiveness of the pads, and they allow for really expressive playing.

The other LP is reserved for clip and scene selection as well as recording duties. Having this separation of duties between the two LP’s allows me to stay in a creative flow and not hop around between modes so much to get things done.

The Launch Control is brilliant for mixing and mastering tasks, Macro control and midi mapping to vst’s. There’s no lack of encoders to do anything that needs doing, and I much prefer faders for volume control over encodes (ever tried to fade out four tracks at once at varying levels with encoders?)

Novation made the creation of this project a lot of fun and very intuitive, and the controllers will be on my desk for a long time. Thanks, Novation!

Peace,
Shawn
Heavens Spin Gray“Imminence” Full Album

rather than having scale mode applied across all 64 pads, is it possible to have it applied to perhaps only to a lower-left 4x4 section?

im thinking of using the Launchpad / Mini to control/trigger:

1) Serato Sample (with the top half 32 pads) in a 4x8 section

2) a bass synth (with the lower left 4x4 section, sort of like a mini- MPC/Maschine grid)

3) the remaining lower right 4x4 section, again like a mini-MPC/Maschine grid, to trigger a sampler with one-shots, vocals, FX, sweeps, etc.)

i want the bass synth (lower left 4x4 grid) to respond to different scale setups, but have the scale applied to JUST THIS SECTION, thus leaving the bottom right for my one-shots & the entire top half for Serato Sample

(the attached image shows the newer FL Pad Mini, but hopefully this could apply to the older version Mini's as well?)

Just got an email from Novation to update my LCXL3 to the V2.1 version

"Launch Control XL v1.2 is available to download now. This update adds a new relative encoder mode accessible via Custom Modes, improves fader responsiveness, and introduces a DAW Connection setting that allows you to decide whether to automatically switch modes when connecting a compatible DAW. It also includes a small bug fix."

Once you've updated the device, you'll need to select an encoder, click on "advanced" and then change the behaviour to "relative"

One inconvenient of relative mode is that the encoder's LEDs don't change colors in relative mode.

Another nice feature is that you can now prevent the LCXL from automatically switching to DAW mode when you launch a DAW or open a new DAW project (which was really annoying).

You do this on the device itself (press "track <" and " track >" simultaneously, then press "page down" until you get to "DAW connection", and set it to "only launch control", press "mode" to confirm.

the update also applies to the LC 3, the FLkey2 and the Launchkey MK4

Following up on the two-hand Launchpad playing I shared here.. I put together a short visual comparison of C major & D major on a piano keyboard and a keygrid.

On the piano keyboard, these chords use different patterns of white & black keys. On the Launchpad’s chromatic, perfect-fourths layout, moving the same chord shape two pads to the right takes you from C major to D major.

The notes change from C-E-G to D-F♯-A, while the interval relationships stay the same.

This is one of the features I've been exploring in my playing and teaching! The video shows the two layouts side by side in under a minute.

Interested to hear from others using their Launchpads (& the new FLPads!) for chord and melody playing. How have you approached learning the layout?

How come the lpp mk3 doesn't have custom keystrokes? Its like the only launchpad that doesn't have keystrokes. Even the new FLpad has them. Im just confused because the lpp mk3 is supposed to be the best launchpad of the launchpad series and its really bothering me. Can some people make request to add keystrokes to get novations attention please?

I guess (I'm aware of, actually) that this has been long discussed but still, please allow me to bring it up just in case it sparks new insights I can grab for a better choice. Thanks in advance!

So. Complete beginner here and full of doubts: After deep research (as I save money for it) I thought I was completely sold on the Arturia Keylab 49 (either the Essential or the regular, depends on budget availability at the time of purchase lol) but since I started researching the Launchkey models... not so much. However, and although I plan to use Ableton Live I'm starting to see a lot of benefits from this Launchkey series for what I'm sensing could be a far more streamlined experience using Ableton with it.

I get Arturia Keylab's integration with Live is also spot on, but I think many of the advantages the Novation brings in the table regarding actual use of the DAW... idk, Im now not so sure the Arturia matches that.

The Sequencer or the Transport functions, or the more straightforward session view management... To name just a few.

However, and although many other daily workflows are also perfectly doable with the Arturia, I also FOMO on the seemingly amazing Analog Lab if I opt for the Launchkey.

Novation has recently released the counterpart (called "Play" if I'm not wrong) featuring Oberheim synths which is great, but to be fair, I think the Arturia Keylab Essential is behind the Launchkey, while the regular model wins in some parts (has aftertouch and more IO features i.e.) but still...

I might purchase the Arturia MicroLab only to have the chance of getting Analog Lab (even if the shortened version) and having the Launchkey as the main controller (I'm aiming at the non-mini 37 or even the 49 keys)

What do y'all think? Anyone here with the same "conflict" that can share thoughts? Has anyone regretted buying one instead of the other? Any further advice? Many thanks!

🙏🙏🙏🙏

Añade un comentario...

Control was working fine and did what I needed it to do. Tried to get it to learn an EQ plugin and it started doing this. A google search said that there is a “handshake issue” so I tried a different USB port and a different cable and it’s doing the same thing.

No idea what is happening.
Help?!

Hello, I've got this controller a few days ago but the ableton preset won't work (screen says "ableton is offline" no matter what I do) I've tried using the Learn mod with automap 4 but it doesn't seems to work either (automap is not supported by novation anymore). I can still use ableton's mapping function but I find it quite bad and limited i would really like another solution.

I don't use reddit much but i will try my best to answer to everyone.

Thanks a lot.

Have been back and forth with Taylor for a few weeks at Novation, with getting me a part# or the ability to purchase an aftertouch strip. These usually cost $20-$30 US, online for various manufacturers.

My aftertouch stopped working, coincidentally soon after the last firmware update. I have already reinstalled the update, tried various troubleshooting methods. And nothing.

Instead Taylor at Novation wants me to purchase an entire keyboard assembly which is over $150. That doesn’t even include the repair costs. The Bass Station II, a product they still sell and manufacture.

Please any suggestions or information or if you can connect me with someone who can help me with obtaining the aftertouch strip that is used in your Bass Station II.

Hi! I’m currently researching the original Novation KS HyperSync implementation for my project.
Could you please help me by taking photos of the settings of the 8 factory HyperSync templates (01–08) on your KS?
For each template, I need 3 photos, one for each HyperSync editing page:
Page 1: DELY / CHOR / EQ / PAN
Page 2: LFO1 / LFO1 DEL / LFO2 / LFO2 DEL
Page 3: the remaining HyperSync parameters (levels/depths)
So in total it would be 24 photos (8 templates × 3 pages).
Please select HyperSync 01, take a photo of all 3 pages, then HyperSync 02, and so on through HyperSync 08.
It’s important that the factory values are not changed — I only need to see the values displayed on the screen.
If possible, please also include the template number/name in the first photo of each set.
This would be extremely useful for reconstructing the original KS HyperSync data accurately.

Thank you!