new novation controller "launchpad"

[borg]

http://www.ableton.com/launchpad

looks really nice.

[Fluxpod]

Its not bad for 149€-199$.Good review here.http://redirectingat.com/?id=690X1299&u ... answers%2F

[dawman]

That's an excellent idea.
The whole knob and slider thing can be seriously minimized with that kind of controlling.
I never bought or played with a monome before, but did the apps people created allow for the GUI to be so well integrated....?
Brotha' Man Fluxpod, I know you had one of these..what size would the 6 x 8 64 above be. Just the width and length, depth I imagine is the thickness and is obiously thin enough.

Nice Find Brotha' Man Borg.....

[Fluxpod]

The 128 i have is way bigger then the novation thingy.The gui is well integrated on the monome but not with all those flashy lights.The novation controller is mostly for ableton and maybe can get hacked to run monome apps with a osc-midi translator java patch.

Size of mine is 8x16.

You can run 3 of these novation thingys together like in the 2 most popular monome ableton control apps(you can run more monomes but..yeah) like 7up and pages.

Its a neat idea for people who want to get into these grid controllers but for me its nothing serious for many reasons,mostly that it aint no osc....and no osc no thank you.

[siriusbliss]

I would presume someone will come up with Monome maps for this thing.

I'm not personally particularly a fan of these for live performance, but it WOULD be cool for show-control and mondo-multimedia installations.

Greg

[Fluxpod]

I would presume someone will come up with Monome maps for this thing.

I'm not personally particularly a fan of these for live performance, but it WOULD be cool for show-control and mondo-multimedia installations.

Greg

I bet someone will do it like with the apc 40.Thing is..the java app will have to convert osc to midi and that is bound to latency.All of what this thing can do and much, i mean...much more you can archieve with a monome.A great example is 64 video fingers.Thats not possible with the novation thingy now.
Video fingers video:http://www.vimeo.com/6255134
Bottom line for me is,apc 40 and launchpad are ableton controllers that may can get hacked to do a bit more.If you want to do more then the monome/arduinome/lemur is the way to go.

[braincell]

It looks like a lot of fun and could be inspirational for Ableton Live users.

[sharc]

Have to admit that I don't really get the hype surrounding these types of controllers.

It's not like we didn't have programmable buttons / pads before now. Am I missing something?

.

[nightscope]

Am I missing something?

Automap.

ns

[sharc]

Automap.

Nope, didn't miss that .

I was tempted to buy one of the SL controllers a while back because of the Automap, but tbh I don't have much in the way of software which would support it. Then there's the Novation build quality. I've had two Novation keyboards over the years and the pitch wheels have broke on both of them. Only keyboards I've had that problem with.

[valis]

Nocturn isn't a bad investment for me at $99, and it's automap capable. It's far from my only controller (and certainly not my primary) so I don't use it as a full HUI replacement. But in Automap changing the immediate assignment of things around is simple, and it's now well integrated into several applications I use. Automap can also output to a software midi port (and take input) so it's still useful in Bidule...also Logic 9 & Automap-3.3b2 are working really well together. So it's nice to have it on hand in the studio (where I've had it since it came out actually.)

As for the cheap hardware, for $99 the only complaint I really have is the overly stuff crossfader (which is the most likely reason it will break.) The knobs on it feel better than I had expected. I wouldn't be surprised to see it only lasts half a year (if that) for gigging but I actually don't think automap is ideal for that (I prefer things to need less fiddling during use for live work.)

I do think that the Maschine, APC & launchpad are targeting a certain demographic and can't say it's a dumb move for the companies involved. I can see where the fixed functionality can be a benefit for the people who use it as a sort of scaled up DJ application aka "live remixing." As such, I probably wouldn't opt for APC or 'launchpad' unless I had some vision in mind for a stripped down Ableton rig. Build quality aside, these devices do all still send midi and are class compliant for that functionality so they don't require specific drivers for that level of functionality. But the integration to the software with a lot of the visual feedback (including the knobs) is a huge part of the functionality and form.

I'm with the sentiments that having gear that's more flexible can be a better investment in the long run (Ohm Livid, monome etc) but I can see the appeal for these devices.

[braincell]

I would definitely get this if I was an avid Live user. On the face of it, it doesn't seem useful since it doesn't add functionality but there is a lot to be said for elegance and ease of use. I would think that this could facilitate a work flow which is conducive to creativity. I recently finally got around to assigning keyboard shortcuts in Cubase and it's really nice. Many of the functions I use are buried in menus and sub-menus and I just got sick of it.

[sharc]

Having just re-read my last post it may seem like I'm not a fan of Novation products. That couldn't be further from the truth. I've still got my Super BassStation and KS4 (with the wonky pitch wheel) and do I love them both. I actually wish they had continued to develop synths although I can see that it probably makes more sense from a financial point of view to have taken the route they have.

I find it strange that with the amount of control surfaces developed over the years from a wide variety of manufacturers that none of them seem to have got it spot on - There's always something missing. I suppose the the Zero SL mkII does still look an attractive buy. It's almost there for me in terms of features. As for the Launchpad, it's probably useful enough for some and at that price point it's certainly not a waste of money. It's not really my kind of thing though.

[braincell]

It comes with a limited version of Live. Is that any good? Seems tempting with that but the last demo version of Live I used wasn't all that functional. That was a long time ago. Anyone know of any demo videos that don't have techno music?

[braincell]

http://www.ableton.com/pages/2009/novat ... d_vs_live8

This answers that question!

Only 8 tracks of audio but it comes with rewire so bouncing will be a breeze.