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 1.0 Introduction.........................................................................................................................5 1.1 Key Features..............................................................................................................................5 1.2 Box Contents.............................................................................................................................6 1.3 Getting Started..........................................................
3.4 Custom Modes.......................................................................................................................29 3.4.1 Pads...................................................................................................................................30 3.4.2 Pots...................................................................................................................................30 3.4.3 Faders (49 and 61 key models only)..............................................
1.0 Introduction Launchkey [MK3] is Novation’s intuitive and fully integrated MIDI keyboard controller for making tracks in Ableton Live, designed to give you everything you need to create and play your music. Made for creators of all abilities, Launchkey gives you inspirational tools to expand your musical vocabulary. Launchkey gives you unrivalled access to Ableton Live’s functions, including Capture MIDI, track arm, quantise, click and loop controls.
1.2 Box Contents • Launchkey 25, 37, 49 or 61 • USB Type-A to B cable (1.5 meters) • Safety Instructions 1.3 Getting Started The ‘Easy Start Tool’ provides a step-by-step guide to setting up your Launchkey. This simple online tool will guide you through the process of registering the device and accessing the software bundle. When connecting Launchkey to your computer, it will appear as a Mass Storage Device (MSD), just like a USB drive. Open the drive and then open ‘Click Here to Get Started.url’.
1.4 Support For additional information and support visit the Novation Help Centre. 1.5 Model Specific Features There are 25, 37, 49 and 61 key versions of Launchkey. The differences between the devices are outlined below and model specific features are noted throughout this guide. Model Launchkey 25 Launchkey 37 Launchkey 49 Launchkey 61 25 37 49 61 Faders - - 9 9 Fader/ Track Buttons - - 9 9 Arm/ Select Button - - Velocity Sensitive keys 1.
1 2 3 4 5 6 8 1 LCD Display Shows the device status, parameter values, and lets you navigate through menus. 2 Shift Button Enables access to secondary Shift functions which are shown in grey text on the hardware. 3 Settings Button Opens the settings menu on the screen. (A reference table of Settings options can be found in section 3.7) 4 ▲▼ Buttons Navigates up and down through rows of pads. Used for clips and drum racks in Live, chords, and more.
15 13 16 14 17 18 13 Pots Controls various parameters using 8 available modes: Device, Volume, Pan, Sends and four Custom Modes. The first five pots also control Arp parameters as secondary functions. 14 Pads Triggers clips and play drum racks in Ableton Live using Session and Drum Modes. Send custom MIDI messages using four available Custom Modes. Trigger chords in Scale Chord and User Chord Modes. 15 Device Select Selects the device you want to control in Ableton Live using the pads.
22 23 24 25 26 22 Capture Midi Capture any recently played MIDI notes in your DAW (supported by Ableton Live and Logic). 23 Quantise Triggers the quantise function in Ableton Live and Logic, to snap notes to the grid. 24 Click Toggles Logic and Live’s metronome on and off. 25 Undo Triggers Logic and Live’s undo function. 26 Play, Record, Stop, Loop Controls the playback in your DAW. 1.7 Getting Connected 1.7.
2.0 Working with Ableton Live Your Launchkey is designed to work seamlessly with Ableton Live, offering deep integration through powerful production and performance controls right out of the box. In addition, you can modify your Launchkey to suit your needs with Custom Modes. Launchkey’s functionality with Ableton Live is detailed below. 2.0.1 Installation If you already own Ableton Live 10 then all you need to do is open the program and plug in your Launchkey.
Windows: Options > Preferences > Link/MIDI Mac: Live > Preferences > Link/MIDI In the Link/MIDI tab you’ll need to copy the settings shown above. First, select your Launchkey MK3 from the Control Surface menu. Then, under Input select “Launchkey MK3 [...] (LKMK3 DAW OUT)” or Launchkey MK3 MIDI IN2 (Windows) for output select “Launchkey MK3 [...] (LKMK3 DAW IN)”. Finally, match the Track, Sync and Remote settings.
2.1 Session Mode Session mode is designed to control Ableton Live’s Session View. To access Session mode on your Launchkey hold Shift and press the “Session” pad (bottom left pad). The Session pad should brighten like this: Session View is a grid that consists of clips, tracks and scenes (shown below).
Launchkey’s Session mode provides an 8x2 grid of the clips in your Session View. Example of Launchkey’s pads in Session mode: Clips are typically loops that contain MIDI Tracks represent virtual instruments or audio notes or audio. tracks. MIDI clips placed on instrument tracks will play back on the instrument that is assigned to that track. Scenes are rows of clips. Launching a scene will launch all clips in that row.
Any changes you make to clip position or colour within Ableton Live will be represented in the Session mode of Launchkey. Unlit pads indicate empty clip slots. You can navigate around Session View by pressing the ▲▼and the track ◄ ► buttons. More specifically, you can move the currently selected grid of clips (inside Ableton Live’s coloured rectangle) up or down. The ▲ button moves the grid of clips up one row. The ▼ button moves the grid of clips down one row.
2.1.2 Launching Scenes Pressing the Scene Launch button (>) launches scenes in Ableton Live. This means that all of the clips in the top row of the pad grid will start together. 2.1.3 Stop, Solo, Mute While in Session mode, it is possible to switch the functionality of the bottom 8 pads so that they no longer launch clips. This is done with the Stop, Solo, Mute button.
Mute (Yellow) – Pressing pads will Mute the corresponding tracks. The pads will dimly glow for muted tracks, leaving pads for unmuted tracks at their original brightness and colour. Clips (Multi) – the fourth press (after toggling through Stop, Solo and Mute) changes the function of bottom pads back to the default Session mode, where the bottom row of pads will again represent clips. 2.1.4 Record Pressing this button triggers Session Record while in Session Mode.
2.1.9 Arm/ Select (61 & 49 Key Models Only) The “Arm/ Select” button (highlighted in red below) is used to set the functionality of the 8 “Fader Buttons’” (highlighted below in blue) to either arm tracks, enabling recording; or to select a track. While set to Arm the buttons light up red when a track is armed for recording and dim red when not. Unlit buttons show that no track is associated with the fader. When set to Select the colour of the buttons will match the tracks in Live.
When using Ableton’s Drum Racks, Drum mode will – apart from triggering sounds – select the associated Drum Rack pad within a Drum Rack. This means that on release, the last played Drum Rack pad lights up white and Ableton Live shows the selected Drum Rack pad on the screen. 2.3 Using Ableton Live’s Mixer The 8 Pots and 8 Faders (49 & 61 key models only) provide hands on control over Ableton Live’s mixer. This allows you to control the Volume, Pan, Send A and Send B levels of the tracks in your project.
2.3.1.3 Sends Mode - This Mode allows you to control Track Sends values using the pots. To select this mode, hold the Shift button and press the Sends pad. On the first press the pots will be assigned to Send A, on the second press they will be assigned to Send B. Note: a mode cannot be assigned to both the pots and the faders at the same time.
If the Track contains an Effect or Instrument Rack then the assigned faders or pots will sync to the first rack’s 8 Macro Controls. The image below shows an Instrument Rack preset called ‘Percussion 1’. In this example your Launchkey’s 8 pots control a variety of important parameters including sample volumes, stretch and start times as well as the Dry/Wet values of Delay and Reverb effects.
The▲▼ arrow buttons can be used to navigate through the devices. The ▲ button going left and ▼ button moving to the right. The pads allow you to choose which page of controls the area is controlling. The screen displays which device is selected and the parameter being controlled. 2.4.2 Device Lock The “Device Lock” button keeps the currently selected device and control bank locked to the controls even if you change the selected track. The button is lit when this feature is active.
2.5 Transport Functions The MIDI Buttons shown below provide key functionality for performing and recording with Ableton Live. 2.5.1 Play - Pressing this button will initiate playback of the track. 2.5.2 Stop - Pressing this button will stop playback of the track. 2.5.3 Record - Pressing this button triggers Session Record while in Session Mode. This will allow you to record what you’re playing to new clips as well as overdub existing clips. 2.5.
3.0 Standalone Features 3.1 Grid The Grid is made up of the 2x8 velocity sensitive pads. The standalone functions of the pads when Launchkey are detailed below. 3.1.1 Drum Mode Hold Shift and press the Drum Mode pad (second from bottom left) to enter Drum Mode. Whilst in this mode the velocity sensitive pads output MIDI notes from C1 to D#2 and will be lit blue. 3.2 Chord Modes 3.2.1 Scale Chord Mode Scale Chord Mode provides you with banks of predefined chords.
The first and last pad of each row light up more brightly than the middle pads to indicate root chord position. To navigate between pages of chords use the ▲▼ navigation buttons. On the first page the top row of pads are lit blue and contain triads, the bottom row of pads contains 7ths and is lit a darker blue. Pressing the ▼ button will reveal a row of 9ths, with the pads lit up in purple, below this are 6/9ths and the pads will light up in pink.
To assign a chord to a pad simply press and hold the pad and press the notes that you want to assign from the keyboard. Up to 6 notes can be assigned to each pad and can be input with individual pushes of the keys, meaning you do not need to hold down all the notes at once so long as the pad is being held. When a chord is assigned the pad will light up blue. When the pad is pressed it will play the chord and light up green. If no chord is assigned the pad will not be lit.
The ▲▼ buttons can be used to transpose the chord bank in semitones between -12 and +12, any changes will be displayed on the screen. 3.2.3 Fixed Chord Fixed Chord lets you play a chord shape and then transpose it by pressing other keys. To set a chord press and hold the Fixed Chord button. Then, while still holding the button, press and release the keys that you wish to be part of your chord. The chord is now stored.
Press and hold the Fixed Chord button, then press and release C, then E, and finally G (a C Major chord). The unit stores this as the ‘fixed chord’. Release the Fixed Chord button. Major chords will now sound on whatever key you press. For example, you can now press F to hear an F Major chord (shown below), or Ab to hear an Ab Major chord, etc. 3.3 Scale Mode Scale mode allows you to set the entire keyboard to only play notes in a scale that you select.
To change the scale you will need to access the scale settings, do this by holding the Shift button and pressing the Scale button. The Scale button will be flashing at this point to indicate that you are in scale settings. To change the root note simply press the corresponding key (note all the black keys will be represented as sharps #).
To access Components, visit components.novationmusic.com using a WebMIDI-enabled browser (we recommend Google Chrome or Opera). Alternatively, download the standalone version of Components from your Novation Account page. 3.4.1 Pads Launchkey has 4 pad Custom Modes. To access these Custom Modes just hold Shift and then press any of the four Pad Mode Custom buttons. Pads can be configured to send MIDI notes, Program Changes messages and CC messages using Components.
3.5.1 Arpeggiator Rotary Pots When you hold the Shift button the rotary pots can transform your arpeggios. Tempo – This knob speeds up or slows down your arpeggio relative to the Arp Rate. When Launchkey is used as a standalone controller, this knob ranges from 60 BPM to 187 BPM. However, when synced with Ableton Live, this knob will have no effect. Swing – This knob sets the amount that every other note is delayed, resulting in a swung rhythm.
Up – Here notes are played in ascending order (i.e. rising in pitch). If notes are added, the number of notes in the sequence will grow but remain in ascending order. For example, you may start by holding down a first note - E3 - then quickly add two more notes - C3 and G3. The resulting arpeggio will be C3, E3 and G3. Down – This Mode is similar to Up Mode, but notes play in descending order (e.g. G3, E3, C3). Up/Down – This arpeggio Mode starts by playing notes in ascending order.
below 1/4, 1/8, 1/16, or 1/32. Additionally, you can toggle triplet rhythms on/off for each of the above musical values by pressing the key below ‘Triplet’. This turns your arpeggio notes into quarter, eighth, sixteenth and thirtysecond note triplets. 3.5.4 Arp Octaves These 4 keys specify across how many octaves your arpeggio will repeat. To change, press and hold the Arp button, and then press the key below 1, 2, 3 or 4. Choosing an octave higher than 1 will repeat the arpeggio at higher octaves.
3.5.6 Latch Latch lets you use the Arpeggiator without holding down keys. Any notes you press and release concurrently will form a new arpeggio pattern which the arpeggiator ‘latches’ onto. The arpeggiator then continues to play as if you never released the keys. When you press a new key, the previous arpeggio erases and a new one forms. To turn on Latch, press and hold the Shift button, and then press the Arp button. 3.5.
3.6 Octave Buttons Pressing the Octave buttons will increment and decrement the keyboard octave by 1. The available octaves range from C-2 to C8. Shift pressing the Octave buttons will transpose the keyboard by up or down by 1 semitone. To reset the keyboard octave to 0 press the Octave +/- buttons at the same time. To reset the keyboard transposition to 0 Shift press the Octave +/- buttons at the same time. 3.7 Settings Pressing the Settings button brings up the settings menu on the screen.
3.8 Pot Pickup Pot Pickup can be turned on from the settings menu. When Pot Pickup is turned on your Launchkey will save the states of the various pages for the Pots and Faders. The control will only output MIDI when the control has been moved to the position of the saved state. This is to prevent any sudden jumps in the control value. When the control is being moved and not picked up the screen will display the saved value until it has been moved to the pick up point. 3.9 Navigation Mode - ([...
4.0 Working with Other DAWs Launchkey can act as a general-purpose MIDI controller for Logic, Reason as well as a range of other DAWs using HUI (human user interface). In addition to the Note On/Note Off messages sent from the keys, each of the pots, faders and pads transmit a MIDI message that can be customised using Novation Components. This allows you to configure your device to use these messages as you wish. 4.1 Logic Your Launchkey can serve as a controller for many tasks in Apple Logic Pro X.
If this does not happen you will need to manually choose your Launchkey as a ‘Control Surface’ via the following path: Logic Pro X > Control Surfaces > Setup. Once in the Setup window, choose ‘Install’ from the ‘New’ menu. This, in turn, will open the ‘Install’ window. Scroll to the Novation Launchkey and click ‘Add’. 4.1.2 Session Mode Session mode is accessed by pressing the Session Mode pad while holding the Shift key as shown below. This mode allows you to enable record or mute and solo Logic tracks.
Pressing a red pad will arm that track for recording and it will glow a brighter red. When a track is muted the corresponding pad will become brighter. Record/ Solo mode - As above, the top row of pads toggles the record arm on the relevant track, the bottom row of pads will be lit blue and toggles the track solo. When soloed the pad will become a brighter blue. The two modes above are toggled by pressing the Stop/Solo/Mute button.
Volume Mode - Links the pots to the volume control of a project’s tracks, including send tracks (buses). When any pot is moved, the changed parameter and its current value is displayed on the screen. Pan Mode - Links pots to control the pans for the relevant tracks, including send (buses). When any pot is moved, the changed parameter and its current value is displayed on the screen. Sends Mode - Links the pots to control the sends.
4.1.4 Arm/ Select (61 & 49 Key Models Only) The ‘Arm/ Select’ button is used to set the functionality of the 8 ‘Track Buttons’ to either arm tracks, enabling recording; or to select a track. While set to Arm the buttons light up red when a track is armed for recording and dim red when not. Unlit buttons show that no track is associated with the fader. When set to Select the buttons will be lit white, with selected tracks being bright and unselected tracks dim. Pushing a fader button will select that track.
4.2 Reason Your Launchkey can serve as a controller for many tasks in Propellerhead Reason. The behaviour described in the Standalone Features section remains the same in Reason. In addition, you can modify your Launchkey to suit your needs with Custom Modes. There is also some functionality of the Launchkey that is dedicated to Reason, this is detailed below. 4.2.
4.2.2 Transport Control • Quantise - Toggles quantise On/Off, quantising incoming MIDI • Click - toggles the metronome click • Undo - pressing this will trigger the undo function • Play & Stop - pressing these buttons will initiate playback of the track • Record - pressing this will trigger the record function • Loop - toggles the transport loop (“cycle mode”) 4.2.3 Rotary Knobs With a Reason instrument selected, the Launchkey’s 8 knobs automatically control useful parameters.
4.3 Working with HUI (Pro Tools, Cubase, Studio One etc.) ‘HUI’ (Human User Interface Protocol) allows the Launchkey to act like a Mackie HUI device and therefore work with DAWs that provide HUI support. DAWs that support HUI include Steinberg Cubase, Avid Pro Tools, PreSonus Studio One among others. The behaviour described in the Standalone Features sections remains applicable for HUI-supported DAWs. The following pages will describe the functionality when Launchkey acts as a control surface via HUI. 4.3.
4.3.5 Faders and Fader Buttons (49 & 61 Key Models Only) The faders always control track volumes for the selected bank of tracks. The Arm/Select button toggles between arming tracks (default) and selecting tracks. When in select mode the Fader buttons are lit dim white and in arm mode red. When a track is selected and active the Fader button will be lit brightly. 4.3.6 Transport Buttons The transport buttons listed below will function as described when used with HUI.
5.0 Custom Modes and Components Custom modes allow you to create unique MIDI templates for each control area. These templates can be created, and sent to the Launchkey from Novation Components.