Novation Launchpad Mini MK3, Portable MIDI 64-Pad, USB Grid Controller for Ableton Live and Logic & AKAI Professional MIDImix - USB MIDI Controller Mixer with Assignable Faders & Master Fader

I bought this because my Mk2 LP, althogh lovely to look at, is a bit to big for my stage setup and occcasionally fell off the synth I generally put it on.Points to note - Has full RGB, a little fainter than a full size version, but still easily visible under stage lighting.- in clip launch mode the bottom right button is no longer a scene launcher but toggles track arm/mute/solo. I didn't find this change a problem (though I thought i might) - Components is fantastic allowing easy customisation of the user screens, really useful feature. If you configure it for faders it is more sensitive than the older models doing roughly 1.5dB increments rather than 6 if you tap repeatedly. - It's true plug and play with Ableton Live, no need to go into control surfaces to set it up - The session overview (which enables you to scroll 8 rows at a time instead of 1 seems initially to be missing (it used to be accessible on older models by holding down the session button but that now does something else). However the support team helped me out, this is now accessible by double tapping session instead of tap and hold.Obviously it's not as fully featured as the X and the Pro, and the buttons are not velocity sensitive, but if you want a very capable and cheap clip launcher that can be readily customised for other uses this is probaly it.Will also apparently work in Logic Pro X for triggering Apple Loops, there is a setup in Components to do that, but i have not tested it.

So this product is really FANTASTIC, VERY good value for the price. Had only "one minor problem" with the supplied USB cable, it wasn't fitting correctly had to replace it with a different one. A word of note also Novation tech support is VERY GOOD ! NOTE for coders, when you'll attach it to Windows it will appear not as just one but TWO "MIDI ports", the one labelled actually as "MIDI2 ... " is the real MIDI port, the other is another thing. Said that all the rest is very good "does the job as stated" !

Highly recommend for anyone looking for a reliable instrument.

This launchpad arrives with the minimum of instruction but after plugging it in to a USB port and clicking on the ‘getting started’ link, the walk-through set-up is very good. I have Ableton Live 11 installed and the product configured itself automatically for use after starting the software. If you don't have a copy of Ableton Live, a free 'Lite' version is available to download after product registration.I carry the launchpad in a pocket of my laptop case. The pads are a nice size and are velocity sensitive. I can easily use them to play notes or create drum patterns. They also reflect the colour of the clips loaded into Ableton Live’s session view when not playing (Green when the clip is active).There are 3 modes of operation: Session, Note and Custom with everything well labelled and most of the function pads are nicely backlit. I would say that a working knowledge of Ableton Live is preferred to get the full benefit of the Launchpad. However, the basics are relatively easy to learn.The user guide for this product can be downloaded before purchase so you can see if it’s right for you. This is NOT a stand-alone musical instrument and must be used with some music production software. I like it.

I had a novation launchpad mink mk2 for a while, but seemed to stop using it, as I thought it was kind of limited in what I wanted to do, so I sold it. I was then looking for another launchpad for help in programming drums etc, I was looking at the Pro version, but couldn't justify paying out all that money, so I compromised and bought the Launchpad X.The Launchpad X is very versatile, one good thing about this is that all the lights work straight away, without having to do any midi tweaking in Ableton Live.I love the touch sensitive pads, and the music mode, all you have to do is select the key and mode, and the lights on the launchpad correspond to relevant notes in that key, this brings a whole new way of music making, and great for those trancey arps, funky basslines etc.If you've used previous versions of the launchpad (mk1's, mk2's), you'll be surprised just how much better this is, highly recommended.

I upgraded to this controller from the Mark 1.Pleasantly surprised. The software for custom layouts is good. The increased range of colours for the pads is really useful. Perfect for making animated displays, if you like messing around with that kind of thing.My only gripe is that FL Studio doesn't support it out of the box like the Mark 1. That's entirely down to Image Line though. There are patches available for it made by the image line community. Works flawlessly.I wish Novation would support android and not just apple. So if you want to use this with an android powered tablet or phone you won't be able to.That being said. Great piece of kit. The price is fantastic for a solid, well built controller. Genuinely feels like it should be more expensive.

Quite simply an incredible piece of equipment that can be made to work as the centre of your music creation. If you are getting started in music production you can get overwhelmed with choices that can lead you down many rabbit holes.Believe me I know. The secret is to make one choice that is the springboard for all others. Do yourself a favour and get a cheap laptop and audio interface and this controller to start your journey. Doing this in of itself opens up all the software that is included with this product. Sign up for Amplify Studio (also by Novation) to export packs to Ableton Live,( included with this purchase) and you will be on your way to creating your own music.

Great Service

Excelente para mi flujo de trabajo para controlar la sesión en Ableton Live, Muy fácil de usar y configurar. Los pads se sienten y responden muy bien. Bueno, bonito y barato.

I love this controller.Most people are buying this to use in Ableton, but if you're using MPC 2.x as your DAW and want to access more than one pad bank at a time with physical pads, you know there are exceedingly few options out there. This gets the job done almost perfectly (I'll explain the "almost" below).Before that though, to review the controller more generally, outside of APC, I can say that while other people in the reviews seem to have complaints about the velocity pads, I've found them to be fantastic. To be clear, I'm not using the velocity function - I have it set to activate at full level with the lowest trigger threshold (in the controller's velocity settings), and adjust the velocity as necessary in MPC. Compared to the other controllers I own (The Mpk Mini Mk2 and the MPC Touch) though, these are by far the best in terms of fewest double-hits and in terms of missed-hits/consistent response. I can actually get decent finger drumming going on this, whereas with those other controllers, I could only do so for a very loose approximation of what I want to record, and have to adjust the grid after the fact.While there are features designed to work with Ableton exclusively, many of the best features on the LPX are baked into the device itself. First of those is the Scale Mode, a sub-setting in Note Mode, pictured above (Image 1) beside my MPC Touch. You can choose from 1 of 20 scales to enable at a time, decide which key the scale will play in, which key the scale plays in, and whether non-scale notes appear on the pad or not. Purple pads are the root notes, blue are the non-root scale notes, and unlit pads are non-scale notes. In the image above, the Scale Mode is set to display only scale notes, and is in 3-finger Overlap.The Overlap (5) settings decide at which point a given note repeats in the row(s) above it. Simply put, the first setting, Sequential, puts octaves on either side of a row with the scale notes in-between, giving you access to 8 octaves at once. The next 4 modes are a range of 2-Finger to 5-Finger, allowing you to play the scales ascending with 2 to 5 fingers, and allowing access to a range of 2 to 5 octaves at a time. It's not the easiest thing to describe but it's quite intuitive once you get hands-on.Additionally, the first of the factory-installed custom modes (that can be removed/replaced or moved to a different Custom Mode slot) offers a keyboard layout with four octaves at once, pictured above (Image 2). The purple pads are set to C by default, and the L/R Transpose buttons will shift that by a half step at a time. A-G are in-between those in each octave, and the sharps/flats are appropriately placed above those. The Up/Down Octave buttons can be used to shift the octave range displayed.The most important Custom Mode setting for me is the Drum Pad template. You can configure and apply these to correspond to whichever inputs are appropriate in the DAW you're using, and you can use two custom settings so that it essentially works as the controller's Drum Mode designed for Ableton, only on non-Ableton DAWs. Pictured above (Images 3-4) are my two Custom Mode profiles designed to activate pad banks A-D and E-H, respectively. The two groups of 64 pads can be switched between as easily as pressing the corresponding program key on the right side of the controller.At this point, I should mention that if you thought the APC Mini might have some way of working in MPC as a drum pad, I've got bad news for you. It just won't work for four pad banks at a time. It's possible that Akai might update MPC's MIDI Learn function at some point in the future to allow for those mappings, but currently, you can only program the APC Mini (and any other MIDI controller) to access 16 pads (one pad bank) at a time. The Launchkey takes it all out of the DAW's hands with the custom programs, and allows you to bypass all of that noise.You may notice older reviews that mention that there are only 4 custom programs available, but the firmware has been updates since then, and the LPX now allows for 8 custom modes that can be switched between on the fly, regardless of connection.I used one of those modes to map some basic MPC hotkeys, so that I can zoom the grid in and out vertically or horizontally, pan the grid vertically or horizontally, tap tempo, undo/redo, play/playstart, record, over dub, switch tracks forward/back, switch sequences forward/back and switch view modes. It helps a lot to be able to access a lot of those functions without moving over to my computer keyboard or my other controller while recording using the LPX.While I haven't tried it out, you can also apply customer sliders to the pads, and the pads can be set to be sensitive enough that you can run your finger along a row or column like piano keys and activate them all neatly, so I expect they'd actually make for decent slider controls.There are only a couple of minor downsides I can name. For one, it would be nice if it received feedback from non-Ableton DAWs so that corresponding lights on the controller activate when those inputs are being played back in the DAW.If you're particularly interested in Scale Mode, while I love it on the LPX, I noticed the APC Mini had a couple of advantages in that regard, as well as a debatable one. The debatable one is that the scale modes are different between the two devices. It's subjective, and a matter of which scales people find more important to have accessible. If you want the Flamenco Scale, for example, you're out of luck on the LPX. Both devices contain 20 scales though.Where the LPX missed out on an opportunity that the APC Mini takes is that the APC Mini, in the chord settings, allows you to hold down a setting button, activating a marquee across the pads that spell out the function of the setting button being held. With 20 available scales, it's a really huge help to be able to have the labels for all of them within reach. Not just for the Scale Mode, but for any number of the numerous settings on these devices that aren't always easy to recall without a map. The LPX is certainly capable of displaying text. Pictured above (Image 5), you can see that the settings menus use the LEDs to display the name of the menu, and certain settings/mode switches activate marquee-style text. It just can't be used to identify setting buttons though, which means you need to have the manual handy if you want to know what all 20 scales are.It would be nice to be able to alter the colors that display in Note Mode, outside of Custom Mode(s). I'd like to establish a color scheme on it identical to MPC 2/x and my MPC Touch, but that's very minor. It's possible that it can be done in the LPX's Program Mode, but it's a pretty involved process that I don't entirely understand yet, and that doesn't seem to be for the faint of heart. As the name suggests, there is something resembling programming required to use that mode, and most people will find it easier to use the Novation software to customize the LPX for most purposes.A chord mode would be nice as well, seeing as how much of that heavy lifting was already done when the Scale Mode was designed. I can access some chords in MPC, but they won't activate if I play the corresponding notes on the LPX. It's good in its own way, as it allows me to have two modes for two devices - I can play chords with one hand on the Touch and notes with the other in the LPX. Still though, it would nice to be able to use those interchangeably.None of those are enough to knock a star off of my review though. This is a fantastic device, and works better in Akai's software than Akai's own comparable offering, which is frankly beyond me. Even aside from being virtually the only game in town in terms of accessing 4 pad banks at a time in MPC, the LPX is a great little controller for the price., and has greatly enhanced my workflow and general fun in MPC 2.x.

I'm using the Launchpad Pro mk3 to play a hardware synth, no computer, no Ableton integration, and I love it. Here are my notes:Playability and accessibilityIf you have physical issues and need to play in different positions for comfort, there are some nice features here:-I like that there are several grid keyboard layouts to choose from; they don't list them as right/left handed, but they do work out that way.-When it's in one of the hands-on-playing modes, all of the other menu selection buttons around the bottom and side shut off so that you don't accidently change screens with an errant tap.-Besides the nice color contrasts, there are a few small nubs on the diagonal grid buttons that can help you find and keep your location while playing.-The buttons have very little travel and are soft to the touch; they aren't mushy or clacky and you don't have to thump them to register something. Very responsive. Comfortable to play on for several hours. You can lightly rest your hands on the buttons without triggering them.-Menus/settings are quick to queue up on the fly and I think the color patterning is a real bonus; you can see things at a glance much faster than if you had to scroll a tiny alpha-numeric screen.tldr: I like that it works well for low light, there's high contrast, and I don't have to squint at a screen. It's easy on my hands and can be customized for R/L/both; locking menus behind a "shift + button" for access means I can rest my hands on the edge without selecting things by mistake._______________Other notes:-UPDATE: Ah! For MIDI over USB, I just needed a cheapo USB hub to connect to my synth and the Launchpad. I dug something out of my junk drawer; it's probably 15 years old, no separate power, just a dongle with 3 usb ins and 1 usb out.-The sequencer is very quick/straight-forward to use. It helped to watch a tutorial, but I don't feel like I have to reference the manual each time or keep post-it notes with reminders of button combinations nearby. None of that.-Decent build quality and it's lightweight. I really like that the rubberized bottom isn't just a few nubs on the corners, but it outlines the perimeter of the box and gives a more stable base that won't slide around or become lopsided._____________________SummaryI bought this thinking I would try out the Akai too and maybe a Linnstrument if everything was too DAW focused (I just want a grid controller for external synths), but I'm just going to stick with Novation on this. They've managed to tap into my lack of patience for learning menus and setups and created a really functional controller.

Pad muito prático por ter compatibilidade total com Ableton live.

Estava querendo um controlador MIDI com um layout diferente do usual teclado. Com o Launchpad X eu consegui criar não só um, mas 3 layouts completamente diferentes. Muito bom!! Vale notar que não funcionou muito bem com o Reaper e por isso precisei migrar para o Ableton (que também é muito bom, só é muito mais caro).