Recording - February 2014 - 48

Novation Launch Family

you create on the Novation website; once
you've registered your device, you can
download the latest firmware updates, manuals and documentation to supplement the
small paper Getting Started Guide that
comes with each device, and (where appropriate) companion software that helps you
customize how the device works for your rig.
The whole process of setting up each device
takes only a few minutes. These devices all
come with a free download of a very capable "Lite" version of Ableton Live, so you can
try it for yourself if you don't have it already.
While these devices were originally
inspired by Live, they can work with any
clip-based or realtime-composition DAW,
and come out of the box ready to use with
Image-Line FL Studio and (in the case of the
Launchkey Mini) Propellerhead Reason,
with adaptation to other DAWs being a relatively quick and easy task. Cakewalk
SONAR users, who have come to enjoy that
DAW's Matrix View in recent years, should
take special note. I did my tests in Live 9.1.
Launchpad Mini
I reviewed the original Launchpad in our
December 2009 issue; it was Novation's
first Live-specific controller, and became an
indispensible mainstay of my rig that I still
use today. The Launchpad S, a refinement
to the original design, added driverless
support for Windows, Mac, and now iOS,
as well as an optional lower-power mode
that allowed it to be used with iPads. The
Launchpad Mini is essentially a Launchpad
S in a significantly smaller box; the smaller
pads are only a little bit more fiddly to use,
but you can easily take it anywhere.
As on the original and S, the Launchpad
Mini has a grid of 64 soft silicone buttons
to launch clips in Live, and a set of 16
extra function buttons along the top and
right edges. It comes with three sets of
stickers to label those outer buttons-one
for Live, one for FL Studio, and a blank set
you can write on yourself. The main grid
buttons have three-color LEDs to indicate if
a clip's loaded (yellow), playing back
(green), or being recorded (red).
The Launchpad lets you launch clips
from Live's Session View, the controller
mirroring the arrangement of clips as
shown in Live. If you have more than 8
rows or columns of clips, the Launchpad
Mini can show an overview of your entire
Session, up to 64 rows by 64 columns,
and let you quickly zoom in on the 8 x 8
area you're interested in.
If you select the Mixer mode, the
Launchpad Mini becomes a handy control
surface that gives you access to track levels,
48

RECORDING February 2014

panning, Send A and B amounts, and to
one-touch control of clip stop, track
mute/unmute, solo, and track arm (useful
for activating virtual instruments as well as
recording clips). Note that the volume, pan,
and send controls are very coarse, but if
you don't have a dedicated control surface
handy, they can be very useful in a pinch.
There are also two User modes, which
effectively allow the Launchpad to be reprogrammed for a wide variety of MIDI-based
applications. You can use it to trigger drum
sounds in Live's Drum Rack (although the
pads are not velocity sensitive), or control
Max For Live devices with it. Some enterprising programmers have even figured out
ways to use it as a grid-based performance
keyboard à la Ableton's new Push.
By powering on the unit with four of the
function buttons pressed, you bring up a special boot mode. This is where you update
firmware, set whether the Launchpad Mini
operates in low or full power mode, and
where you can do one more incredibly
handy trick: set the Mini's Hardware ID number from 1 to 16. This lets your DAW recognize multiple Launchpads as distinct from
one another, letting you build larger control
surfaces from small pieces... up to six at a
time in Live, for example.
In use, I found the Launchpad Mini just as
easy to use as the original; I didn't mind the
smaller buttons and actually preferred this
unit's more portable size to that of the original. It also felt better built than my original
Launchpad, with a more solid heft; it's
smaller but not a lot lighter than the original. I was easily able to set it up with a second Hardware ID so it could coexist with
my Launchpad in the same Live Session. All
in all, a total winner... only smaller.
Launch Control
As I said earlier, control of volume, pan,
and Send amounts on a Launchpad is very
coarse, with only eight steps from zero to
full-on. Also, it can be a hassle to switch
back and forth constantly from Session to
Mixer mode when you're trying to play or
compose. For folks who'd like to add some
handy extras to a Launchpad or who just
want a very small and focused control surface to use with any DAW, Novation has
released the Launch Control.
This little box is sized to tuck under a
Launchpad or Launchpad S. It offers sixteen
pots, eight pads like those on the
Launchpad S, and a set of six function buttons that change their purpose depending
on what Template is selected. The Launch
Control comes with eight Templates preset at
the factory and eight programmable by the
user. A free Launch Control Editor program

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Recording - February 2014

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