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Novation Launchpad Ableton Live Controller for Performance and Composition, LAUNCHPAD
Product: Novation Launchpad Ableton Live Controller for Performance and Composition, LAUNCHPAD Sale-$199.00!
List Price: $249.00
Amazon Price: $199.00 Click Here To See Amazon Sale Price
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The new Novation Launchpad has been jointly designed by Novation and Ableton, integrating instantly and seamlessly to provide a powerful and musical way to physically and visually interact with Ableton Live. Whether you’re a DJ, performing musician or studio producer, Launchpad gives you all you need to truly ‘play’ Live. Just load up Live, plug in the Launchpad, and you’re ready to roll. With a multi-color 64-button grid and dedicated scene launch buttons, Launchpad is purpose built for triggering and manipulating clips in Live, and it also offers a totally new way of controlling Ableton Live’s mixer. Launchpad’s buttons can be used to sketch out beats with drum racks, and they can be assigned to other functions in Live using Ableton’s ‘Learn’ mode. Launchpad ships with a dedicated ‘Launchpad edition’ of Ableton Live 8, but can control almost any other music software using Novation’s award-winning ‘Automap’ control software. Automap provides a customizable display and editing control maps and allows the user to operate the Launchpad as a standard MIDI controller, creating custom MIDI maps with 72 of its buttons transmitting either CC or MIDI note data. Since Novation was born in 1992, the company name has become synonymous with world-class analog modeling synthesizers and unrivalled MIDI controller keyboards and solutions. The product range continues to receive critical acclaim from the music press and win numerous awards for outstanding technology and usability. Fantastic build quality, true musical instrument feel and intuitive controls are just three of the reasons why Novation’s digital musical instruments are simply a joy to play.
- Amazon Sales Rank: #992 in Musical Instruments
- Color: Multi
- Brand: Novation
- Model: LAUNCHPAD
- Released on: 2009-11-01
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 3.54″ h x 12.13″ w x 12.60″ l, 2.20 pounds
Features
- Seamless integration of Launchpad and Ableton Live
- Backlit multi-color 64-button grid provides instant session overview
- Ideal for launching clips and scenes
- No additional power supply needed - single lead USB-powered from your computer
- Supports multi-unit operation - connect up to 6 Launchpads at a time
Mostly A Great Clip Launcher
I have owned one of these for four months and have gotten a good grasp of its relative strengths and weaknesses. The Launchpad is a natural extension for Live’s Session View. There is just enough visual information implanted on the interface for you to identify clips easily. The User1 User2 modes are great for a few MIDI triggers but lack any serious expression as the pads themselves aren’t velocity sensitive. The mixer mode might be useful for some but I never touch it due to the limited resolution of expression and the immediacy required for their proper function (if minimalism is your goal in this department, seek the Korg nanoKONTROL USB Controller, Black). The saving grace, outside of its Session mode, is the user created software. The Launchpad has been transformed into a monome like device, a visual harmonic table, a step sequencer and a few other creative apps that are hard to describe in a concise fashion. When loading Live 8.1.1 (Vista) the Launchpad will sometimes not be detected and will need to be replugged into the USB port and Live restarted (it only seems to happen less than 3% of the time).
Physically the device seems sturdy ‘enough’ it has fallen a few feet onto a rug a couple times but I wouldn’t call it ‘road worthy’ since it’s still made of plastic. The pads have a nice soft rubber texture though kinetically clunky when being pressed dead center. There is a decent amount of give on the pads before it triggers but in practice it isn’t a big deal especially without velocity sensitivity. The LED lights aren’t entirely uniform in brightness and color. You might receive a unit with a few slightly brighter pads or ones that display more red but it’s only noticeable when all pads are lit up of the same color.
I don’t know of any other open grid interface device that comes close to its price which probably explains the $199 price tag. Regardless of the competition, the Launchpad feels more like a $100-$150 device (due to aforementioned limitations of the device). When all said and done, I would buy one again if I had to. There isn’t anything on the market right now at this price for the utility you gain from having it. The Akai APC40 Abelton Performance Controller might be an alternative solution if you don’t have any other control devices for Live and don’t need its alternative functions or its minimalism.
Fantastic at what it does
The launchpad seems fairly limited in what it can do, but it does it very well. I’m a total newbie to Ableton Live. I recently bought Live 8 Suite, and I’ve been spending a good deal of time learning it. I’m fairly versed on the basics of the software now, and I can create scenes, clips, tracks, etc.
The launchpad is super easy to use…there is a one page instruction sheet, which is all you need if that. It works right out of the box with Ableton as advertised…no hiccups there, and it is really fun to play with. Once you’ve got some tracks setup, and some basic clips to bounce off, you can quickly record-arm a clip and record on the fly. My one year old son gets a kick out of pushing the buttons
You can also control the mixer settings for clips with it. I believe you can also tweak the sends which is one way to dynamically modify audio/midi efects, but I don’t think you can do much to control any other effects, which is my only minor grievance. I kind of wish it had some knobs or sliders, but then again those would make the unit less portable — subject to breaking. This this is built well, and I’m impressed with Novation and the integration with Ableton is solid.
Emulates the Monome 40h at a fifth of the price. Launches Live clips as expected
The launchpad is an elegant and minimal grid of 64 buttons. Unlike the Other Ableton grid controller, the launchpad’s 8×8 grid of buttons makes it a perfect device for emulating the Monome and running any of the many Monome apps. Search for “nonome” and you will find plenty of information on turning the launchpad into a universal grid controller.
The only downside seems to be that the Launchpad requires a driver, and that it speaks slow MIDI rather than the faster and more flexible OSC protocol. Given the very low price, it is easy to overlook these compromises.
I was also surprised that Novation used a full sized USB-B plug rather than the Mini-B that my Korg Nano and Akai LPK25. Again, not a big deal, but Mini-B would have been nicer.
I’m currently using Logic as my primary DAW. I installed the Launchpad edition of Live and verified that it works with the launchpad, but my main interest is in using the Launchpad as a Monome. The included version of Live has great tutorials and is very complete, so I may start to do more work with Live.
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