Your Launchkey has a few areas of control we'll cover in the next few sections:
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Encoders
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Pads
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Transport and workflow buttons.
Your Launchkey's encoders have eight modes. To change modes, hold the Shift button and press a pad from 1-8.
Some modes are only available while you're using a DAW. For more information, see the section relating to your DAW.
The encoder modes available are:
|
Drum Pad Number |
Mode |
Availability |
|---|---|---|
|
1 |
Plugin |
DAW Mode Only |
|
2 |
Mixer |
DAW Mode Only |
|
3 |
Sends |
DAW Mode Only |
|
4 |
Transport |
DAW Mode Only |
|
5 |
Custom 1 |
Always |
|
6 |
Custom 2 |
Always |
|
7 |
Custom 3 |
Always |
|
8 |
Custom 4 |
Always |
The pad for the current encoder mode lights bright pink. The other available modes light dim pink. Unavailable modes, for example, if you don't have a DAW open, are unlit.
When you enter an Encoder mode, the screen temporarily shows the control name and the mode you selected.
When you select a Custom Mode, the mode title is the name you give the Custom Mode when you create it in Novation Components. For more information, visit What is Novation Components?.
Your Launchkey has four Custom Modes. Custom Modes allow you to send customised MIDI messages from the controls. You can set up the messages each control sends in Novation Components.
When you move an encoder in a Custom Mode, the screen displays the parameter name and the value. You can set the parameter name in Components but if you've not set this the screen displays the destination of the MIDI message.
|
Default Encoder Custom Mode name. |
Encoder with a custom name. |
In each Custom Mode, there are two pages of encoder controls. To access the other page, press the Bank Next or Bank Previous buttons to the right of the encoders.
The default page is page one. On page one, only the Bank Next button lights to show you can access the second page. On page two, the Bank Previous button lights to show you can access the first page.
When you change the encoder page, the screen temporarily displays which page you're on.
Your Launchkey's pads have eight modes. To change the mode, hold the Shift button and press a pad from 9-16.
Some modes are only available while you're using a DAW. For more information, see the section relating to your DAW.
Drum mode is the default selected mode, the pad modes available are:
|
Drum Pad Number |
Mode |
Availability |
|---|---|---|
|
9 |
DAW (see Common DAW Control) |
DAW Mode Only |
|
10 |
Always |
|
|
11 |
Always |
|
|
12 |
Chord Map |
Always |
|
13 |
Always |
|
|
14 |
Always |
|
|
15 |
Always |
|
|
16 |
Always |
The last pad mode you select lights bright blue. The other available modes light dim blue, unavailable modes are unlit.
When you enter a new Pad mode, the screen temporarily shows the control name and the mode you select.
|
DAW Pad mode. |
Custom Pad mode with custom name. |
When you select a Custom Mode, the mode title is the name you give the Custom Mode when you create it in Novation Components. For more information, visit Components.
When you select the Drum pad mode, the pads trigger MIDI notes. By default, the notes are arranged from C1 to D♯2 (bottom left to top right) and on MIDI channel 10.
In Drum mode, the pads light blue outside your DAW and the track colour in your DAW. The pads light when you play the pads.
In Chord Map mode, your Launchkey's pads and encoders enable you to perform chords that fit with the Scale you select. Chord map is based on a few key functions:
To access Chord Map, hold Shift and press pad 12, Chord Map.
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The leftmost eight pads, the Chord pads, allow you to play chords that fit the selected scale. Press the eight pads to trigger the chords. Although there are eight chords accessible, each chord map gives you access to 40 chord banks that fit the scale.
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The rightmost six pads, or Performance pads, let you perform the chords in different ways (e.g. arps or inversions). To use the performance pads, hold the performance pad and press the blue chord pads to play the chords with the performance effect (you might need to press the chord pad multiple times to hear the full performance effect).
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The encoders give you access to parameters to change the chords, Adventure, Explore, Spread, and Roll. Changing the Adventure and Explore parameters gives you access to the 40 banks of eight chords. The Spread and Roll parameters change the way the chords sound.
Note
Chord modes on your Launchkey Mini 25 may not be on the same MIDI channel as your keys. By Default, Chord modes send their notes out on MIDI Channel 3. To change this, go to: Settings → Press the Pad ˄ up and ˅ down buttons until you see Chords Channel → Set the channel using the pads or Encoder 1.
Chord map gives you a chord set to match the key and scale you've selected using scale mode.
When you play a chord, the screen shows the name of the chord and visual representation of the keyboard notes it's triggering.
The chord sets and the matching scales are shown in the table below:
|
Chord Set |
Scales |
|---|---|
|
Major |
Major Major Pentatonic Whole Tone |
|
Minor |
Minor Minor Pentatonic Blues Melodic Minor Hirajoshi Kumoi Hungarian Minor |
|
Dorian |
Dorian Dorian #4 |
|
Mixolydian |
Mixolydian |
|
Lydian |
Lydian Lydian Augmented Lydian Dominant |
|
Phrygian |
Phrygian In Sen Iwato Pelog-Selisir Half Whole Diminished |
|
Locrian |
Locrian Super Locrian |
|
Harmonic Minor |
Harmonic Minor Bhairav Whole Half Diminished |
|
Harmonic Major |
Harmonic Major |
|
Phrygian Dominant |
Phrygian Dominant Pelog-Tembung 8 tone spanish |
Each Chord Set is made up of 40 chord banks. If you imagine there's a table of the chord banks with a scale of Explore and Adventure, as you increase each parameter you progress across the chord banks. The higher the Adventure and Explore parameters, the more gnarly the resulting chords get.
The right-most six pads (Pads 6-8 and 14-16) enable the Chord map performance functions. To use them, you hold the performance pads then press the chord pads. When you hold the performance pad, it changes how you play the chord.
To use the performance pads, hold, or latch, a performance pad on the right, in this case Split: Left and right, and press a chord pad to play that chord with the performance element.
The performance pads change the chords in the following way. For detailed descriptions, see the relevant section.
|
Pad |
Behaviour |
|---|---|
|
6 |
Manual Arp Up - each press on the chord pads cycles through the chord's notes. |
|
7 |
Inversion Up - Plays through the chord's different inversions with each press. |
|
8 |
Split: Bass + Chord - Two presses of the chord pad play the bass note, followed by the rest of the chord's notes. |
|
14 |
Manual Arp Down - each press on the chord pads cycles through the chord's notes. |
|
15 |
Inversion Down - Plays the chord's first inversion down. |
|
16 |
Split: Left and Right - Two presses of the chord pad play what would be the left and right handed versions of the chord. |
Note
You can only use one performance pad at a time.
To latch a performance pad, so you don't have to hold it:
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Press the Scene launch button > to enable latching.
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Press the performance pad you'd like to latch.
When Latch is on, the Scene Launch button > lights white and the performance pads toggle between on and off.
Turning latch off, turns off any active performance/modifier pads.
The manual arp performance modes (there are two modes, Manual Arp Up and Manual Arp Down) change the chord pads from playing a chord to playing each note of the chord, with each press of the pad. For example, to play a three note chord (a triad) you need to press the chord pad three times to play all three notes of the chord.
Changing chord or releasing the performance pad resets the arp cycle.
In Manual Arp Up mode, the chord notes cycle from the lowest note of the chord to the highest note of the chord, then reset.
In the case of a C Major chord the notes are C, E and G; Manual Arp Up plays the notes in the order C, E, G, C, E, G, C etc.
The Inversion performance pad allows you to play through different chord inversions each time the chord pad is played. In music, a chord inversion is a different way of playing a chord where the root note (the chord's name, e.g. C) is no longer the bass, or lowest, note in the chord.
To do this, hold the inversion performance pad and each time you press the chord pad it pitches the notes in the chord up (Inversion Up) or down (Inversion Down) by an octave, starting with the lowest note. After all notes have been pitched up (four presses) the chord resets to the original chord.
The cycle resets whenever you play a new chord or release the performance pad.
With Inversion-Up held, a C major triad (C, E and G) looks like this:
|
Action |
Chord output |
|---|---|
|
Chord pad played without the performance pad |
C3, E3, G3 |
|
Inversion pad held, chord pad 1st press |
C4, E3, G3 (1st inversion) |
|
Inversion pad held, chord pad 2nd press |
C4, E4, G3 (2nd inversion) |
|
Inversion pad held, chord pad 3rd press |
C4, E4, G4, (Octave up) |
|
Inversion pad held, chord pad 4th press |
C3, E3, G3, (Original Chord, Cycle resets) |
With Inversion Down held, a C major triad (C, E and G) looks like this:
|
Action |
Chord output |
|---|---|
|
Chord pad played without the performance pad |
C3, E3, G3 |
|
Inversion pad held, chord pad 1st press |
C3, E3, G2 (2nd inversion) |
|
Inversion pad held, chord pad 2nd press |
C3, E2, G2 (1st inversion) |
|
Inversion pad held, chord pad 3rd press |
C2, E2, G2, (Octave down) |
|
Inversion pad held, chord pad 4th press |
C3, E3, G3, (Original Chord, Cycle resets) |
The Split modes emulate playing the keyboard with two hands.
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In Split: Bass + chord, the first press plays the bass note. The second press plays the rest of the chord's notes.
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In Split: Left and right, the first press plays the two lowest notes. The second press plays the rest of the chord's notes.
Like the other modes, these cycles are reset when the chord changes or if you release the performance pad.
In both modes, the first press plays straight, the 2nd press follows the roll function.
User Chord mode allows you to input your own chords.
To access User Chord hold Shift and press Drum Pad 11.
When you're in User Chord mode, if you've not added any chords yet the pads are blank. In the following example we've added chords to five pads:
To play a chord, press a blue pad. The pad lights white when you're playing a chord.
Note
Chord modes on your Launchkey Mini 25 may not be on the same MIDI channel as your keys. By Default, Chord modes send their notes out on MIDI Channel 3. To change this, go to: Settings → Press the Pad ˄ up and ˅ down buttons until you see Chords Channel → Set the channel using the pads or Encoder 1.
To assign a user chord to the pads:
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Press and hold a blank pad. The screen shows a representation of the keyboard.
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Press the notes on the keyboard you want to assign to the chord. You can either play the entire chord, or play each note independently (e.g. for chords you can't play with one hand). You can assign up to six notes– the Launchkey ignores any extra notes.
The screen shows the notes you've added to the chord and the chord name:
-
Release the pad.
The pad lights the colour of the user chord bank you're in, see Changing User Chord Banks.
In User Chord mode you can use the pad ˄ up and ˅ down buttons, to the left of the pads to transpose the entire User Chord bank.
To transpose by a single semitone, press either the pad up or pad down button. You can transpose up to 12 semitones (one octave) up or down.
To transpose by an octave (12 semitones) hold shift and press the pad up or pad down buttons. You can transpose up to three octaves, up or down.
Your Launchkey has four Custom Modes. Custom Modes allow you to send customised MIDI messages from the controls. You can set up the messages each control sends in Novation Components.
When you enable a Custom Mode, the pads output custom messages you can set up in Components.
When you press a pad in a Custom Mode, the screen displays the parameter name and the value. You can set the parameter names in Components but if you've not set this the screen displays the destination of the MIDI message, e.g. CC 21.