Modes are the core of the Launchpad Pro [MK3] 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.
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.
Additionally, Projects gives you access to your saved sequencer projects. The Projects page is treated as a sub-mode of Sequencer.
There are 8 Custom modes available on Launchpad Pro [MK3]. Custom Modes allow you to control your hardware and software via MIDI (see 8. Custom Modes for more information). When the Custom button is pressed you will enter the last Custom Mode used (Custom Mode 1 by default). Access each of the 8 Custom Modes by pressing the Track Select buttons after the Custom button is pressed. The Custom Mode lit in pale green is selected, while available ones will be lit dim white. Using Novation Components, you are able to edit these eight modes and customise them to your needs (see Custom Modes).
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.
When Shift is held, available functions will be lit gold, while unavailable functions will be unlit. Toggle functions that are accessed with Shift (Record Quantise, Continue and Click) will be lit red when disabled, or green when enabled.
Available functions vary by mode. For example, Save is only available to press when in Sequencer Mode.
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. Here you’ll find your included Ableton Live Lite download code (if you choose to register your Launchpad Pro [MK3]), alongside videos covering installing, the software’s basic features, and how to get started making music with your Launchpad Pro [MK3] in Ableton Live.
Session view is a grid that consists of clips, tracks (columns) and scenes (rows).
Session mode provides an 8x8 view of your clips in Session view on Launchpad Pro [MK3].
Clips are typically loops that contain MIDI notes or audio.
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.
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 session view. The outline in the Session View grid shows the area currently visible on Launchpad Pro [MK3].
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Press a pad to play the corresponding clip in Ableton. The colour will match between 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 Pro [MK3].
When a track is record armed, you may use the Session Record button [O] to enable overdub recording of the currently playing clip.
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. 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.
Press the Play button to play the currently active clips while they are stopped. Press Play during playback and playback will stop.
Hold Session to access Session to display a zoomed-out version of the Session view grid, with each pad representing an 8×8 block of clips. Pressing a pad navigates to that 8×8 block, providing a fast way to navigate large Live sets. Alternatively, you can use the arrow buttons to navigate the Session Overview.
The currently viewed 8×8 block will be lit light brown, while other blocks are blue. If a clip is playing in a block that is not being viewed, the block will pulse green.
Beyond launching and stopping clips, Launchpad Pro [MK3] provides additional clip functionality that’s great for production in Live.
To select a clip without Launching it, hold shift and press the clip. This also works for empty clip slots. Notice in Live that the selected clip and track will change, and it will become the focused clip. This is useful for choosing a location to print clips to from the sequencer.
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.
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. This is useful when you want to create a new clip that is a variation on a previous one.
Double may be used to double a clip’s length. For example, a 2-bar clip becomes 4 bars.
If in Note Mode, pressing Double will instantly double the currently selected clip. This is useful if you want to create a variation of a loop and overdub it.
Hold quantise and press a clip on the 8x8 grid to quantise its contents. The MIDI notes in the clip will be snapped to the grid to the closest 16th note interval.
With Record Quantise enabled, any recorded MIDI will be automatically quantised to the grid.
Hold shift to see if Record Quantise is enabled or disabled. If the Quantise button is lit red, record quantise is disabled. If it is lit green, Record Quantise is enabled. With shift held, press Quantise to enabled or disable Record Quantise.
To change the quantisation setting in Live, navigate to the top bar and press Edit, then Record Quantisation, then select from the available options.
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.
You can define how many bars to record when Fixed Length is enabled. To do this, hold Fixed Length and the Track Select buttons pulse blue. Each Track Select button represents one bar – press a track select button set how many bars Fixed Length is, 1 to 8 bars. Recording stops automatically once you reach the set number of bars, and the recorded clip loops.
The left-hand image shows fixed length is set to 1 bar, while the right-hand image shows that it is set to 4 bars.
Launchpad Pro [MK3]’s Track Controls allow you to control various track parameters in Ableton Live. The Track Controls are the bottom row of Launchpad Pro [MK3], beneath the Track Select buttons.
Track Select Buttons and Track Controls on Launchpad Pro [MK3]
The Track controls work in conjunction with the eight Track Select buttons and the 8x8 area.
Overlay the Track Select buttons with Record Arm track toggles. When pressed, the clip in the corresponding track is record armed.
Overlay the Track Select buttons with Mute track toggles. When pressed, the clip in the corresponding track is muted.
Overlay the Track Select buttons with Solo track toggles. When pressed, the clip in the corresponding track is soloed.
Control the volume levels of the tracks within the currently selected 8x8 area in Session view. Volume faders are vertical.
Control the stereo panning of the tracks within the currently selected 8x8 area in Session view. Pans will show horizontally - the top pan represents the leftmost track, and the bottom represents the rightmost.
Control the send level of the tracks within the currently selected 8x8 area in Session view to Send A. Send faders are vertical.
Overlay the row of pads above the mixer function with device select (first to eighth in the track’s chain). Once a device in the chain is selected, control the value of the 8 macro parameters controls within the currently selected 8x8 area in Session view. Macro parameters faders are vertical.
Overlay the Track Select buttons with Stop Clip triggers. When pressed, the clip in the corresponding track will stop playing at the end of the phrase.
Volume, Pan, Sends and Device are each sets of eight 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.
When you record arm a track, all empty clips in a column light dim red. When you press a clip, it flashes red to show it's queued to record (the record button also flashes in unison). The pad pulses red once recording begins, with the record button lit bright red. When you press the record button again, the clip flashes red to show it will stop recording. If the track is un-armed during recording, the clip immediately stops recording.
Launchpad Pro [MK3] offers several shortcuts to aid production within Ableton Live.
Hold Shift and press Record Arm to Undo your last action. Press it again to undo the action before that, and so forth.
Views within Session Mode can be switched between momentarily, which is great for live performance.
For example, you may currently be viewing your track mutes, but you 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.
Use Launchpad Pro [MK3]’s Note Mode to play drums and melodic instruments expressively with the velocity and pressure sensitive 8×8 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 [MK3]’s playing surface to suit you.
In any layout, use ▲▼ to increase or decrease the octave, and use ◄ ► to transpose the grid by a semitone up or down.
Note Mode reacts dynamically to the currently armed instrument in Ableton Live. When a track with a Drum Rack is armed in Live, Note Mode automatically switches to Drum layout, and vice versa for any other instrument.
In Ableton Live, load an instrument into a MIDI track by selecting an instrument from the browser and double-clicking it (or alternatively, drag it to a track). If you cannot hear anything, ensure the track is record armed and monitoring is set to auto.
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1. Monitor is set to Auto. 2. Red arm buttons hows track is record armed. |
Ensure that tracks in Ableton Live are set up correctly for a smooth experience.
Chromatic Mode is the default layout of Note mode. Press pads in the 8x8 grid to trigger notes. While Chromatic Mode allows all notes to be played, a visual indication for which notes are in scale is provided.
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. Additionally, the sixth column of pads will play the same notes as the first column on the row above, further mimicking a guitar layout.
The layout of chromatic mode can be altered in Note Mode settings, accessed by holding Shift and pressing Note. See 6.4 Note Mode Settings for details.
In Scale Mode, Launchpad Pro [MK3] only displays notes in the current scale. This allows you to play freely without ever going out of key.
As with Chromatic Mode, Blue pads represent notes in the currently selected scale, while purple pads represent the root of the scale. Here, blank pads show that no note exists at their location, as pads are outside the playable range. This out of range behaviour also applies to Chromatic Mode.
You can change the layout of chromatic mode in Note Mode settings, accessed by holding Note. See 6.4 Note Mode Settings for details.
Note Mode in Scale Mode with Sequential overlap selected
Note Mode settings allows 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.
To enter Note Mode settings, hold Shift and press Note or Chord. Note and Chord pulse green in Note Mode settings. These settings are shared between Note and Chord – they share the same scale, root note and MIDI channel.
Overlap allows you to alter the layout of both Chromatic Mode and Scale Mode. See Overlap for a detailed explanation.
The Chromatic/Scale toggle will switch between Chromatic Mode (lit dim red) and Scale Mode (lit bright green) upon being pressed.
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 the scale. Press a pad in the Scale Viewer to change the root note of 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 MIDI channel that Note Mode transmits on may be selected between 1 and 16. This is useful when you want to send notes to a specific track when you have multiple tracks record armed.
Overlap determines the relationship between notes on different rows. An overlap of five means the leftmost pad on a row plays the same note as the sixth pad across on the row below (see Overlap - 5 finger).
Each overlap level represents how many fingers are needed to play a scale (excluding sequential layout). For example, with the four finger overlay you are able to play a scale going vertically up the grid with only four fingers (see Overlap - four finger)
The sequential overlay behaves differently from the 2, 3, 4 and 5 finger overlays. In Chromatic Mode, notes are laid out linearly and are unique to each pad. In Scale Mode, only octaves of the root are overlaid. Sequential layout in Scale Mode is similar to the layout on the Novation Circuit range, and offers a great way to play scales over a range of octaves easily (see Overlap – sequential).
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 Record arm and recording).
The view is divided into four 4x4 areas, each of which represents the areas of the Drum rack, shown below.
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The visible area of the Drum rack may be scrolled through in sets of 16 slots using the ▲▼ buttons, or in sets of 4 slots using the ◄ ► buttons. The bottom left 4x4 area will always correspond with the currently visible slots in the Ableton Drum rack.
If there is a sample loaded in the areas 2, 3 or 4 in the diagram above, it will be visible as a brightly lit yellow pad, exactly as seen in area 1.
When a drum pad is pressed, the pad will turn blue to indicate that it is selected. The sample present in this slot may then be edited from within the Ableton Drum Rack.
When any other instrument is on the currently armed track, the grid will revert to Scale Mode or Chromatic Mode.
In Ableton Live, load an instrument into a MIDI track by selecting an instrument 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.
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.
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. As you progress vertically up the grid, the root note will rise, but the notes of the triads will remain within the currently viewed octave of the scale. This ensures a natural sounding voicing of the chords within the octave.
The left-hand column of the Note Area represents the currently selected scale (scales may be selected in the Note Mode Settings which are shared between Note and Chord Mode). Playing from the bottom left pad to the top left pad will play through the notes of the scale (if the scale has fewer than 7-notes, the octave will be reached on the 6th or 7th pad).
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.
Chords may be saved to the chord bank, represented by the 14 white pads on the right-hand side of the grid. To assign to a chord slot, hold an empty chord slot in the bank and press notes in the Note Area or triads. Alternatively, you may hold notes first, then assign them to a slot.
To play a chord that is saved to the Chord Bank, press the corresponding pad in the bank. Chord bank slots that contain a saved chord are lit bright white, while unassigned slots are lit dim white.
The Chord Bank Lock control on the bottom right pad allows you to lock the Chord Bank. When it is locked, you may play chords in the bank while still playing notes in the Note Area without assigning to the bank. This way you are able to play melodies on top of saved chords, while playing those chords with a single finger.
Custom Modes turn Launchpad Pro [MK3]’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).
Alternatively, download the standalone version of Components from your Account page on the Novation site.
Custom modes are fully compatible between Launchpad Mini [MK3], Launchpad X and Launchpad Pro [MK3].
Eight custom modes are available by default on the device.
To access custom modes, press the Custom button. The Track Select buttons will be lit white, with the currently selected Custom Mode lit pale green. Press the Track Select buttons to select between Custom Modes.
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Custom 1 provides 8 unipolar vertical faders set to CCs 7 through to 14. These can be MIDI mapped in your DAW.
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Custom 2 provides 8 bipolar horizontal faders set to CCs 15 through to 22. These can be MIDI mapped in your DAW.
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Custom 3 is a Drum Rack layout that matches Note Mode’s Drum Rack layout. This is a static layout – it is not representative of the current Ableton Drum Rack.
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Custom 4 is a chromatic layout that is representative of a traditional keyboard with black and white notes.
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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
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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. This is a legacy layout that matches User 2 from previous Launchpads.
The Master Channel for a Custom Mode may be set by holding shift and pressing Custom.
The bottom two rows of pads will present the Master MIDI channel for the selected Custom Mode from Channel 1-16. Each Custom Mode may have its own independent Master Channel.
Select different Custom Modes using the Track Select buttons. The currently selected Custom Mode will be lit green, as will its selected Master Channel. The Master Channel of unselected Custom Modes will be shown as dim red.
To set up a Custom Mode, open Novation Components and connect your Launchpad Pro [MK3].
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. Triggers will always send a specified CC value or program change message.
Full rows and columns of pads may also act as faders. Faders can be assigned CC values and may be unipolar or bipolar. Faders may also be positioned horizontally or vertically.
Pads within a Custom Mode may be assigned an “on” and “off” colour for when pads within the 8x8 grid are pressed/toggled. (e.g. when a note is being played or a temporary CC change is toggled). There may only be one “on” colour per Custom Mode, but each pad may have a unique “off” colour.
Custom Modes may have any combination of notes, CCs, program changes and faders – you can set up your own personalised control surface for your studio.
For more hands-on information on how to create your own Custom Modes, visit components for an interactive tutorial.
By default, Custom 7 & 8 have all pads unlit. MIDI Note messages sent to Launchpad Pro [MK3] will light pads according to note number and velocity. The note sent will determine which pad lights up, and the note’s velocity determines 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.
For detailed information on lighting pads and using Launchpad Pro [MK3] as a control surface for software, see the Programmers Reference Guide which can be downloaded at customer.novationmusic.com/ support/downloads.