Control areas of the Launchkey 88 – Novation User Guides

Your Launchkey has a few areas of control we'll cover in the next few sections:

Faders and fader buttons
Encoders
Pads
Transport and workflow buttons.

Encoder Modes

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.

The screen showing Encoder Mode and the selected mode.

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?.

Using the Encoder Custom Modes

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.

When you move an encoder the screens shows the CC number, MIDI Channel, and range.

Default Encoder Custom Mode name.

When you've set a custom encoder name, the screen shows the custom encoder name, MIDI Channel, and value.

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.

Launchkey encoders with the encoder buttons highlighted.

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.

Changing Encoder bank in a custom mode shows custom Controls X - X on the screen.

Pad Modes

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	Drum	Always
11	User Chord	Always
12	Arp Pattern	Always
13	Custom 1	Always
14	Custom 2	Always
15	Custom 3	Always
16	Custom 4	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.

The screen shows Pad Mode and the pad mode you've entered, e.g. DAW.

DAW Pad mode.

The Launchkey screen showing an example of a custom mode's custom name.

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.

Drum Pad mode

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.

A top-down view of the pads showing how the notes are arranged in drum mode, left to right, top row: E1 to D♯2, bottom row: C1 to B1.

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.

A diagram showing the Launchkey pad lights for Drum pad mode.

User Chord

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.

Five pads lit showing user guides assigned to them with a user playing a chord pad, lit green.

Note

Chord modes on your Launchkey 88 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.

Assigning User Chords

To assign a user chord to the pads:

Press and hold a blank pad. The screen shows a representation of the keyboard.
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.

Transposing User Chords

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.

Removing User Chords

To remove your User Chords, hold the Function button and press the chord's pad you want to remove.

When you hold the button, any pads with a chord light red and the screen shows “Delete Chord!”:

A pad diagram showing the pad colours when deleting chords in User Chord mode.

Pad Custom Modes

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.

Fader Modes

Your Launchkey's faders have five selectable modes. To change the mode, hold the Shift button and press one of the first five fader buttons below faders one to five.

An image of the Launchkey Mk4 with Shift and the first five fader buttons highlighted.

Some modes are only available while you're using a DAW. For more information, see the section relating to your DAW.

The fader buttons follow the mode you set the faders to.

Custom Mode 1 is the default selected mode, the fader modes available are:

Fader Button Number	Mode	Availability
1	Volume	DAW Mode Only
2	Custom 1	Always
3	Custom 2	Always
4	Custom 3	Always
5	Custom 4	Always

Fader Custom Modes

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 faders output custom messages you can set up in Components.

When you move a fader 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, e.g. CC 21.

Default Fader Custom Mode name.

Fader with a custom name.

Fader Buttons

The Fader Buttons follow the Fader Custom Modes. Like faders, in Custom Mode they output the messages you set up in Components.

When you press a fader button 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, e.g. CC 21.

If you've not set a parameter to a fader button, when you press it, the screen shows 'No Control':

Default Fader button Custom Mode name.

Fader button with a custom name.

Tip

The screen only displays 16 characters so make sure the custom names you give are useful.