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 Getting Up and Running). Here you’ll find your included Ableton Live Lite download code (if you choose to register your Launchpad X). There are also videos covering installing, the software’s basic features, and how to get started making music with your Launchpad X in Ableton Live.
Session View is a grid that consists of clips, tracks (columns) and scenes (rows). Session mode provides an 8×8 view of your clips in Session view on Launchpad X.
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Clips are typically loops that contain MIDI notes or audio.
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Tracks represent virtual instruments or audio tracks. MIDI clips placed on instrument tracks will play back on the instrument that is assigned to that track.
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Scenes are rows of clips. Launching a scene will launch all clips in that row. This means that you can arrange clips into horizontal groups (across tracks) to form a song structure, launching scene after scene to progress through a song.
The ▲▼◄ ► buttons let you navigate the session view. The red outline in the Session View grid shows the area currently visible on Launchpad X.
Note
This outline may appear in any colour - this won’t affect its function.
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Press a pad to play the corresponding clip in Ableton. The colour will match the screen and pads.
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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.
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Only one clip may play at a time per track. Pressing an empty clip will stop the current one on that track.
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A horizontal line of clips is called a Scene. Scenes can be triggered using the (scene launch) buttons on the right-hand side of Launchpad X.
When a track is record-armed (see Mixer Mode, you may use the [O] button (Session Record) to enable overdub recording of the currently playing clip.
Pressing and hold Capture MIDI to capture any recent playing and place it into a MIDI track. If no clip was playing on the armed track, Ableton Live will place the MIDI notes into a new clip. If a clip was playing, the MIDI notes will be overdubbed onto that clip.
The bottom row of pads can provide track controls: Stop (stop clip from playing on a specific track), Solo (solo a specific track) or Mute (mute a specific track). These three functions are cycled between using the Stop Solo Mute button:
When the device is powered on, the bottom row will at first represent clips in the same way as the rest of the 8x8 grid. After cycling past Mute, the bottom row will return to showing clips. The Stop Solo Mute button will be lit white when in this state.
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Press |
Colour |
Controls |
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Default/Fourth Press |
White |
Clips |
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First press |
Red |
Stop |
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Second Press |
Blue |
Solo |
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Third press |
Yellow |
Mute |
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In Stop: Brightly lit red pads on the bottom row show clips are currently playing on that track and you can stop them. Dimly lit pads show that no clip is currently playing on that track.
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In Solo: Brightly lit blue pads on the bottom row show the track is currently soloed. Dimly lit pads show the track is not soloed.
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In Mute: Brightly lit yellow pads on the bottom row show that the track is currently unmuted (audible). Dimly lit pads show the track is muted, so you can't hear it.
Mixer Mode is a sub-mode of Session mode that allows you to control various track parameters in Ableton Live. Mixer Mode can be toggled on and off by pressing the Session button when in Session Mode. The session button:
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Lights pale green in Session mode.
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Lights orange in Mixer mode.
In Mixer mode, the Scene Launch buttons become Mixer Functions corresponding to the text on each button (listed below).
When you choose a Mixer function, it lights brightly to show it's selected. Pressing the same Mixer function again deselects it. Unselected mixer functions light dim white.
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Volume, Pan, Send A and Send B are each a set of eight faders. The faders are vertical for Volume, Send A and Send B, whereas they are horizontal for Pan (see below). Press a pad to move the fader position up and down (or left to right).
Faders are velocity sensitive. Hitting a pad on a fader harder causes the value to move more quickly, pressing a pad softer results in a slower change of value.
Faders also feature micro values. To access them, tap a single pad multiple times – each press outputs a slightly higher value. This allows for more fine-tuned control with faders. There are four micro values per pad. Once you reach the highest micro value, another press on the same pad returns to the lowest value. Fader micro values are shown by the brightness of the highest value pad of a fader, with dim being the lowest micro value and full brightness being the highest.
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Volume faders are green for all tracks.
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Pans are horizontal to present left and right naturally. The faders use the track colours.
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Send A's faders are purple for all tracks.
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Send B's faders are blue for all tracks.
The numbers in each fader above show which track the fader is related to with regard to Session View’s red outline. The left-most track becomes the top track for pans.
In Mixer mode, the bottom row of pads can provide immediate control for four performance track controls. These functions are overlaid onto the bottom row of pads when you press their Mixer functions:
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Red - Stop (stop the clip from playing on a specific track)
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Yellow - Mute (mute a specific track).
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Blue - Solo (solo a specific track).
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Red - Record Arm (arm a specific track for recording).
The pads for the currently Record Armed, Muted and Soloed tracks light brightly, the others light dimly.
When a track is record-armed, all empty clips in a column light dim red. When a clip is pressed, it flashes red to show it's queued to record (the record button also flashes in unison). The pad pulses red when the recording starts, with the record button lit bright red. If you press the record button, the clip flashes red to show it will stop recording soon. If the track is unarmed during recording, the clip immediately stops recording.
You can use momentary switching for Views within Session Mode and Mixer Mode. For example, you might be viewing your track mutes, but want to quickly visit your volume faders to turn a track up. Press and hold Volume, edit a volume fader, and release Volume to return to mute view.
Note
Faders will not continue to move when not currently viewed.