Caution: The normal operation of this product may be affected by a strong electrostatic discharge (ESD). In the event of this happening, simply reset the unit by removing and then replugging the USB cable. Normal operation should return. Trade Marks The Novation trade mark is owned by Focusrite Audio Engineering Ltd. All other brand, product and company names and any other registered names or trade marks mentioned in this manual belong to their respective owners.
Contents 1. Introduction...........................................................................................................................6 1.1 Launchpad Pro Key Features.....................................................................................................6 1.2 In the Box..................................................................................................................................7 2. Getting Up and Running...........................................................
7.1 Overview.................................................................................................................................27 7.2 Triads.......................................................................................................................................27 7.3 The Note Area.........................................................................................................................27 7.4 Saving Chords & Playing them back..........................................
9.10.1 Editing Tempo and Swing...............................................................................................................................................47 9.11 Print to Clip...........................................................................................................................48 9.12 Projects..................................................................................................................................49 9.12.1 Saving your Sequencer Project.........
1. Introduction Launchpad Pro is our most powerful grid controller for producing: both in Ableton Live and with your hardware. It gives you everything you need to create and perform your tracks. Launchpad Pro is the perfect beating heart of your studio. Use the powerful 32-step sequencer to create tracks with your hardware and software and create evolving and intricate sequences with probability and mutation.
1.2 In the Box • Launchpad Pro • USB-A power adapter • USB-C to USB-A cable • 3x TRS Minijack to DIN MIDI Adapter • USB-C to USB-C cable 2. Getting Up and Running We’ve made getting up and running with Launchpad Pro as easy as possible, whether you’re a brand new beatmaker or a seasoned producer. Our Easy Start Tool provides a step-by-step guide on getting set up that is tailored to your needs, whether you’ve never made music before or you just want to download your included software.
2.1.2 If you’re on Windows: 1. Press the Start button and type “This PC”, then press enter. 2. In This PC, find the drive: “Launchpad Pro”, and double click. Inside the drive, click the link: “Click Here to Get Started.html” 4. You’ll be taken to the Easy Start Tool where we’ll get you set up. 2.1.2.A – Open the Launchpad Pro drive to view its contents 2.1.2.
2.2 Launchpad Intro If you’re brand new to Launchpads, Launchpad Intro is a great place to start. Choose from a variety of curated packs from Ampify Music and start performing immediately. Your Launchpad Pro will match the on-screen grid - press pads to launch loops and one-shots to build up your track. To get there, plug your Launchpad Pro into your computer and visit intro.novationmusic.com/.
2.3 Ableton Live Ableton Live (often referred to as Live) is a unique and powerful piece of software for music creation. Ableton Live 10 Lite is provided with your Launchpad Pro, which gives you all the tools you’ll need to get started with making your own music. Launchpad Pro’s Session Mode is designed to control Ableton Live’s Session View. If you’ve never used Ableton Live before, we recommend visiting our Easy Start Tool (see 2.
1 6 3.
4. Launchpad Pro Interface 4.1 Modes Modes are the core of the Launchpad Pro interface. They allow you to switch between views, offering different functionality in each. There are five different modes available – Session, Note, Chord, Custom and Sequencer. 4.1.A – Launchpad Pro’s Mode buttons Press a mode button (above) to enter the respective mode. The currently active mode will be lit pale green. Currently available modes will be lit white.
4.2 Shift Shift is a consistent control throughout Launchpad Pro [MK3]. Shift functions can be identified by the small text on the bottom of relevant buttons – see below, where Save is the shift function for the Projects button. 4.2.A – The Projects button has Save as its Shift function When Shift is held, available functions will be lit gold, while unavailable functions will be unlit.
5. Session Mode 5.1 Ableton Live’s Session View Session mode is designed to control Ableton Live’s Session view, seen below. If you’ve never used Ableton Live before, we recommend visiting our Easy Start Tool (see page 5). Here you’ll find your included Ableton Live 10 Lite download code (if you choose to register your Launchpad Pro), alongside videos covering installing, the software’s basic features, and how to get started making music with your Launchpad Pro in Ableton Live.
The ▲▼◄ ► buttons let you navigate session view. The outline in the Session View grid shows the area currently visible on Launchpad Pro. • Press a pad to play the corresponding clip in Ableton. The colour will match between the screen and pads. • When a pad is pressed it will flash green, indicating that the clip is queued and will soon begin to play. When a clip is playing, the pad will pulse green. • Only one clip may play at a time per track.
When a track is record armed, you may use the Session Record button [O] to enable overdub recording of the currently playing clip. 5.1.C – The Session Record Button, which has Capture MIDI as its shift function Press Shift and Session Record to access Ableton Live’s Capture MIDI function. Live 10 is always listening to MIDI input on armed or input-monitored tracks and capture MIDI lets you retrieve the material you’ve just played on those tracks.
5.3.2 Clear a clip Hold clear and press a clip on the 8x8 grid to clear it, deleting it from the Session View grid. If in Note Mode, pressing Clear will instantly clear the currently selected clip. 5.3.3 Duplicate a clip Hold duplicate and press a clip on the 8x8 grid to copy it to the clip slot below. This will overwrite existing clips. If in Note Mode, pressing Duplicate will instantly duplicate the currently selected clip and select the newly created duplicate.
5.3.7 Fixed Length Fixed Length allows you to define a bar length for any new clips that are recorded. Press Fixed length to enable or disable this behaviour. The Fixed Length button will be lit white when it is disabled and lit blue when it is enabled. The number of bars that will be recorded when Fixed Length is enabled can be defined. Hold Fixed Length briefly and the Track Select buttons will begin to pulse blue.
5.4.1 Record Arm Overlay the Track Select buttons with Record Arm track toggles. When pressed, the clip in the corresponding track will stop playing. 5.4.2 Mute Overlay the Track Select buttons with Mute track toggles. When pressed, the clip in the corresponding track will stop playing. 5.4.3 Solo Overlay the Track Select buttons with Solo track toggles. When pressed, the clip in the corresponding track will stop playing. 5.4.
5.4.9 Fader orientation Volume, Pan, Sends and Device are each sets of 8 faders. The faders are vertical for Volume, Sends and Device, whereas they are horizontal for pans (see below). Press a pad to move the fader position up and down (or left to right). For Volume and Send faders, tracks are arranged horizontally across the pads. For Pan faders, tracks are arranged vertically. 5.4.9.A – Faders for track pans (left) and volume (right) 5.
5.6.1 Undo Hold Shift and press Record Arm to Undo your last action. Press it again to undo the action before that, and so forth. 5.6.2 Redo Hold Shift and press Mute to Redo the last Undone action. 5.6.3 Tap (Tap Tempo) Hold Shift and repeatedly press Sends to set the tempo at the rate would like to set. 5.6.4 Click (metronome) Hold Shift and press Solo to toggle Ableton Live’s click function on or off. 5.
6. Note mode 6.1 Overview Use Launchpad Pro’s Note Mode to play drums and melodic instruments expressively with the velocity and pressure sensitive 8x8 grid. The layout of Note mode is variable, with the option to have a chromatic, scale, or drum layout. You are able to customise Launchpad Pro’s playing surface to suit you. When in any layout, use ▲▼ to increase or decrease the octave, and use ◄ ► to transpose the grid by a semitone up or down.
6.2.A – Note Mode in Chromatic Mode with 5-finger overlap selected Blue pads represent notes in the currently selected scale (C Minor by default), purple pads represent the root of the scale, and blank pads represent notes outside of the scale. The default chromatic layout seen here is similar to that of a guitar, with an octave being two pads up and two pads across. This allows for guitar chord shapes to be used.
6.3.A – Note Mode in Scale Mode with Sequential overlap selected 6.4 Note Mode Settings Note Mode settings allow you to switch between Chromatic Mode and Scale Mode, change the currently selected scale and root note, alter Note Mode’s layout with overlap controls, and change Note Mode’s MIDI channel. Enter Note Mode settings by holding Shift and pressing Note or Chord. Note and Chord will pulse green when in Note Mode settings.
The Chromatic/Scale toggle will switch between Chromatic Mode (lit dim red) and Scale Mode (lit bright green) upon being pressed. Overlap allows you to alter the layout of both Chromatic Mode and Scale Mode. See 6.5 Overlap for a detailed explanation. The Scale Viewer shows which notes are in the currently selected scale on a piano layout keyboard. Blue pads show notes in the scale, the purple pad shows the root, and the dimly lit white pads show notes outside of the scale.
6.6 Drum Mode If an Ableton Live Drum rack is loaded to the currently armed track, Note Mode will represent the current state of the drum rack, showing which slots are currently filled. In Ableton Live, load a drum kit into a MIDI track by selecting a Drum kit from the browser and double clicking it (or alternatively drag it to a track). If you cannot hear anything, ensure that the track is record armed and that monitoring is set to auto (see 5.5 Record Arm & Recording).
7. Chord Mode 7.1 Overview Chord Mode allows you to explore, build, and save complex chords easily. Chord Mode’s layout is designed specifically for playing chords that always work together. 7.1.A – Chord Mode layout 7.2 Triads The orange column of pads in Chord Mode represents triads. Pressing one of these pads will play back three notes that form a triad, such as C, E and G to form a C Major chord.
Horizontal rows in the Note Area represent chords. Play any three adjacent horizontal notes to play a triad. To find nice chords particularly easily, try playing chords across only one horizontal row at a time and including the left-most pad in each chord. The three leftmost notes in each row play a basic triad, with the 3rd interval raised an octave. The fourth note from the left plays a 7th, while the fifth note along plays a 5th raised an octave. 7.
8. Custom Modes 8.1 Overview Custom Modes turn Launchpad Pro’s 8x8 grid to be a deeply customisable control surface. Custom Modes can be created & edited using Novation Components – our online hub for all Novation products. You may also back up any Custom Modes you create here. We have several Custom Mode templates for you to download and explore on Components. To access Components, visit components.novationmusic.com/ using a WebMIDI enabled browser (we recommend Google Chrome or Opera).
Custom 6 provides Program Change messages 64-127. Custom 7 is a non-lit version of Custom 3. Sending MIDI notes to this layout will light the pads in a colour that corresponds to the velocity of the incoming notes. This is a legacy layout that matches User 1 from previous Launchpads Custom 8 is a non-lit layout that matches the layout of Programmer Mode. Sending MIDI notes to this layout will light the pads in a colour that corresponds to the velocity of the incoming notes.
8.4 Setting up a Custom Mode To set up a Custom Mode, open Novation Components and connect your Launchpad Pro. 8.4.A – Setting up a Custom Mode in Novation Components Within a Custom Mode, each pad within the 8x8 grid may act as a Note, a CC (control change), or a Program Change message. The pads may behave either as toggles, triggers or momentary switches. Momentary behaviour will turn on a note when the pad is pressed and release the note when un-pressed.
8.5 Lighting Pads with external MIDI By default, Custom 7 & 8 have all pads unlit. MIDI Note messages sent to Launchpad Pro will light pads according to note number and velocity. The note sent will determine which pad lights up, and the note’s velocity will determine the colour. The RGB LEDs are capable of outputting 127 colours, the index of which can be found in the Programmer’s Reference Guide. Additionally, all pads and buttons can be lit in Programmer Mode.
9. Sequencer 9.1 Sequencer Overview Launchpad Pro features a powerful 4-track sequencer that may be used with both software and hardware equipment. It features many powerful and creative functions to help you to generate interesting musical ideas. To sequence your software, connect Launchpad Pro to your computer via USB. Ensure that your software is set to the same MIDI channel as the sequencer track you wish to control it. See 9.
Sequencer Play Area in Drum Layout 9.2.1.A – The layout of Steps View 9.2.2 Assigning to steps Notes may be assigned to steps by holding a note in the Play Area and pressing a step. Up to 8 notes may be assigned to each step. When a step is held, notes which are assigned to it will turn red in the Play Area. The step will also be previewed when pressed. Alternatively, you may hold a step first, then press notes in the Play Area to assign notes to steps.
9.2.5 Playback Press the Play button to begin playback from the start of your patterns. You can resume from the middle of a stopped sequence by holding shift & pressing play. Notice that play turns gold when shift is held. 9.2.6 Recording into the sequencer Press the Record [O] button to enable live recording to the sequencer. Recording is enabled when the record button is red. When enabled, notes played in the Play Area during sequencer playback will be recorded into the sequencer.
9.2.8 Using multiple sequencer tracks Four independent sequencer tracks are available on Launchpad Pro. Press the lit track select buttons to select between them. Each track has a specific colour, which is matched between the track select buttons and the Play Area. All four tracks play simultaneously. 9.2.8.A – The four sequencer tracks are colour coded 9.2.9 Using the Sequencer with Ableton Live Be aware of which MIDI channels you wish to send each track to in Ableton Live.
9.2.9.B – Setting the MIDI channel of each track to match Launchpad Pro Make sure Monitor is set to Auto, then arm all 4 tracks by holding command (Mac) or control (Windows) as you click each record arm button. Alternatively, disable ‘Arm Exclusive’ by right clicking the record arm button. This allows you to arm multiple tracks without holding command/control. 9.2.9.C – Setting Arm Exclusive in Ableton Live 9.3 Patterns View In the Launchpad Pro sequencer, each 32-step sequence is a Pattern.
9.3.A – Patterns View 9.3.1 Chaining Patterns Patterns may be chained together by pressing two patterns simultaneously – these two presses will define the start and end point for the chain. When you press play, the patterns will play one after another. A chain may consist of up to 8 patterns, for a total of 256 steps. 9.3.2 Queuing Patterns During playback, press a Pattern (or a Pattern chain) to queue it to play next.
been playing from the start of playback. Tip: If queued switching between patterns of different lengths has left your track out of sync, use an instant pattern switch to knock it back in time. 9.4 Scenes Scenes allow you to trigger multiple patterns for all tracks in a single press and may be chained to build up a longer song structure. Scenes are represented by the 16 white pads at the bottom of Patterns view. 9.4.1 Assigning to Scenes Hold a Scene to preview which Patterns are assigned to it.
9.4.4 Clearing a Scene To clear a Scene, hold Clear and press the Scene you wish to clear. This will return the Scene to its default state (Pattern 1 for all tracks). 9.4.5 Duplicating a Scene To duplicate a Scene, hold Duplicate and press a Scene to copy it. While still holding Duplicate, press another Scene slot to paste the copied Scene there. If you keep Duplicate held, you can paste the copied Scene multiple times. 9.4.5.A – Scenes occupy up the 16 bottom pads in Patterns View 9.
1/16 is the default sync rate, where each step corresponds to a 16th note. Increasing the sync rate is a great way to increase the sequencer’s step resolution at the cost of overall playback time. Reducing the sync rate is useful for creating longer patterns that don’t require quite as fine detail, such as long, evolving pads. 9.5.2 Pattern Playback Direction The four pink pads control the playback direction.
9.5.3 Pattern start and end points The start and end point of Patterns may also be changed when in Pattern Settings. Pressing a step will select the end step of the currently viewed pattern, with the end step displayed in peach. Hold shift to instead view the start step of the current pattern (also displayed in peach). While shift is held, the start step may be adjusted in the same way as the end step.
9.6.2 Live Recording with Velocity When live recording, multiple notes with varying velocity values may be recorded to a single step. In this case, range of velocities will be displayed using bright and dim pads. The bright pads indicate the lowest velocity and the dim pads show the range up to the highest velocity. 9.7 Probability Probability is a powerful tool that keeps your sequences evolving and moving. It can be a great way to add variety and surprise to drum sequences. 9.7.
4. 50% 5. 63% 6. 75% 7. 88% 8. 100% (eight pads lit) For steps with multiple notes, the probability is independent for each note. That is, if a step has 2 notes with a probability of 50% assigned to the step, there is a 50% chance for each note to trigger. This means sometimes only one note may play, sometimes both notes will trigger, and other times neither note will trigger – their probabilities to play are exclusive.
9.8 Mutation Mutation allows you to add a further element of randomness to your sequences. Apply mutation to a step to add a chance for the pitch of the notes to be altered upon playback. 9.8.1 Editing Step Mutation You can view and edit the mutation that notes on a step possess by pressing Mutation. 9.8.1.A – The Mutation view The top row of the Play Area becomes a slider for the value of the currently selected step. To select a step, press a pad in the top half of the grid.
9.9 Micro Steps Micro steps allow for access to an increased resolution for note placement. This is great for creating strumming effects or quickly re-triggering a single note. 9.9.1 Editing Micro Steps Press Micro Steps to edit the assignment of notes. The 6 leftmost pads on the top row of the Play Area represent the micro steps for the currently selected step. To select a step, press a pad in the top half of the grid.
9.10 Tempo and Swing The Tempo and Swing views allow you to adjust the bpm (beats per minute) and swing of your track. 9.10.1 Editing Tempo and Swing Enter the Tempo or Swing view by holding shift and pressing Device or Stop Clip respectively. In Tempo view (blue/white), the number displayed represents the current tempo in bpm. In Swing view, (orange/white) the number displayed represents the current swing value.
9.11 Print to Clip Sequencer patterns may be instantly transferred from Launchpad Pro to Ableton Live and placed in clip slots, with no need to record them. Print to Clip is extremely useful for taking your ideas from the sequencer into more complete tracks within Ableton Live. This function is accessed via the Print to Clip button.
9.11.C – (Ableton Live Lite only) When 8 clip slots are full, Print to Clip will be unavailable. The Print to Clip button function will only be available when connected to Ableton Live. 9.12 Projects A Project is an entire copy of the Sequencer state, including Patterns, Scenes, Scale/Root, Track Types and Track Channels. There are 64 project slots that may be saved to, allowing you to build many tracks on Launchpad Pro. 9.12.
9.13 Sequencer Settings In Sequencer settings you are able to change the current scale and root note, each Track’s type (Drum, Scale, Chromatic), and the MIDI channel each track sends on. 9.13.1 Accessing Sequencer Settings Sequencer settings may be accessed by holding shift and pressing Sequencer. 9.13.1.A - Sequencer Settings view 9.13.2 Track Types The three track types available are Drum, Scale and Chromatic. Select between these three options using the 3 pads at the top right of the grid.
9.13.4 Selecting the Scale Scale select lets you choose from 16 different scales. Press a pad to select a scale. The selected scale will be lit bright white, while unselected scales will be lit dim blue. The selected Scale will persist throughout Note, Chord and Sequencer Mode. The available scales are: Natural Minor Harmonic Minor Marva Natural Major Bebop Dorian Todi Dorian Blues Whole Tone Phrygian Minor Pentatonic Hirajoshi Mixolydian Hungarian Minor Melodic Minor Ukrainian Dorian 9.13.
10. Setup 10.1 Setup Menu Launchpad Pro’s setup menu allows you to set your preferences across many aspects of the controller. There are five pages available: LED, Velocity, Aftertouch, MIDI, and Fader Behaviour. To enter the Setup menu, press and hold Setup. The top 4 rows will display the characters LED, indicating the topic of the menu. Use the five leftmost Track Select buttons to access the different Setup pages. 10.2 LED Settings 10.2.
10.3 Velocity Settings The second Track Select button accesses the velocity (VEL) settings for Launchpad Pro. 10.3.A - Velocity Settings view Press the Enable/Disable Velocity toggle to enable or disable velocity globally on Launchpad Pro. The pad will be lit bright green when velocity is enabled, and dim red when disabled. Three Velocity Curves may be selected between. Low requires higher force to trigger high velocity values, and high requires lower force for high values.
10.4 Aftertouch Settings The third Track Select button accesses the aftertouch (AFT) settings for Launchpad Pro. 10.4.A - Aftertouch Settings view The Pressure Mode can be chosen to be Aftertouch disabled, Polyphonic Aftertouch or Channel Pressure. The selected mode will be brightly lit, the other dimly lit. Channel Pressure sends out a single pressure value for all pads/notes. The highest pressure value across the 8x8 grid will be transmitted.
10.5 MIDI Settings The fourth Track Select button accesses the MIDI settings. Press Receive Clock (Rx) to toggle this behaviour on and off. When disabled, incoming clock messages will be ignored. The default setting is On. Press Transmit Clock (Tx) to toggle this behaviour on and off. When disabled, Launchpad Pro will not transmit clock messages. The default setting is On. Use Out2/Thru select to choose the behaviour of this MIDI port. Out 2 will duplicate the output of Out 1.
10.6 Fader Settings The fifth Track Select button accesses the fader (FAD) settings. Here you may enable or disable velocity sensitivity for faders independently of global velocity sensitivity. 10.6.A. Fader Settings view Enable or Disable Velocity for Faders by pressing the pad. The pad will be lit bright green when fader velocity is enabled, and dim red when it is disabled.
10.7 Live and Programmer Mode In Live Mode, all functions described elsewhere in this manual are available, such as Session Mode, Note Mode, Chord Mode, Custom Modes & the Sequencer. Live Mode is the default state of Launchpad Pro. Programmer Mode is an alternate state that may be used to control Launchpad Pro’s surface externally via MIDI messages. In Programmer Mode, Launchpad Pro loses access to all other modes and functionality.
10.8 Bootloader Menu Launchpad Pro’s bootloader menu allows you to change LED brightness, LED feedback, mass storage device availability, and device ID. To enter the bootloader menu, hold Setup when plugging in Launchpad Pro. 10.8.A Bootloader menu view The LED brightness level slider has 8 levels, from minimum to maximum brightness. The brightly lit white pad indicates which level is currently selected. Certain USB host devices may not provide sufficient power to fully boot Launchpad Pro.
MSD Mode is enabled by default. This is why Launchpad Pro appears as a mass storage device when plugged in to your computer. Inside the LAUNCHPAD folder is a link to our Easy Start Tool, which will help to get you set up with your Launchpad Mini (see 2. Getting Up and Running). A. Appendix A.1 Default MIDI mappings A.1.
A.1.2 Custom 2: 8x8 Grid, 8 Horizontal Bipolar Faders, CC numbers below A.1.
A.1.4 Custom 4: 8x8 grid, Momentary Note On messages (note numbers below) A.1.
A.1.6 Custom 6: 8x8 grid, Momentary Note On messages (note numbers below) A.1.
A.1.8 Custom 8: 8x8 grid, Momentary Note On messages (note numbers below) A.1.9 Programmer Mode: Includes buttons and pads (full 9x9 grid), logo LED may be addressed, Momentary Note On messages (note numbers below) For more detailed information regarding the MIDI implementation of Launchpad Pro, please see the programmer’s reference guide at www.novationmusic.com.
A.2 Overlap Layouts A.2.
A.2.
A.2.
