DAW control with the Launchkey 88

Encoder 1 controls Scrub, or Playback Position. The encoder moves the playhead left and right through your arrangement in beats.

The screen shows the current playhead position.

In Transport Encoder mode, Encoder 2 increases and decreases the Zoom level.

Moving the Zoom encoder clockwise Zooms in, anti-clockwise Zooms out.

The screen temporarily shows the last Zoom change:

Encoders 4 and 5 control the Loop Start and Loop End points in your DAW.

When you change the Loop points, the screen temporarily shows the Loop point you've changed, and its position in Bars and Beats.

The Marker select encoder moves your DAW's playhead between markers you've set up in your DAW.

Moving the encoder clockwise or anti-clockwise moves your playhead to the next or previous marker.

When you move markers, the screen temporarily shows the name of the marker you've moved to.

If you've not set up any markers in your project yet, the Marker Select encoder doesn't do anything and when you move it the screen shows 'No Markers':

The way you add markers varies by DAW. To find out how to add markers in your DAW, read the user guide for your specific DAW.

In Select mode, press a fader button to select that track in your DAW. This allows you to play the track and/or have deeper control over the track's plugins in plugin encoder mode.

In Select Mode, the buttons light up as the tracks' colours.

When you select a track, the screen shows the track's name.

In Arm mode, the buttons toggle the record arm state of their respective tracks.

In Arm mode, the buttons light red– dim red if the track isn't armed and bright red if the track is record armed.

When you change the record arm state, the screen shows the track name you changed.

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.

The highlighted track in Live is the currently selected track. Any Track related controls, e.g. your Launchkey's encoders, affect the selected track. To change the selected track, press one of the Track <> buttons. When you move track:

The focus ring only moves when you move the track past the eighth track in the current selection.

To bank in sets of eight tracks, hold Shift and press the Track <> buttons. The focus ring moves to include that track, either at the start or end of the focus area, depending on the direction you're banking.

To move the focus ring up and down to select new clips in the same tracks, use the Pad ˄ up and ˅ down buttons.

The Plugin encoder mode gives you control over eight parameters at a time in the currently selected device or instrument.

The encoders initially control the top eight parameters, but you can use the encoder bank buttons to access more pages of controls for each device. As you move through screen shows the device name and the title for the bank of controls.

Transport mode brings controls of your DAW's arrangement view onto your encoders, giving you hands-on control of your project's navigation.

The screen shows short names for the following controls, explained in the table below and following sections:

Marker Select

The Marker select encoder moves your DAW's playhead between markers you've set up in your DAW.

Moving the encoder clockwise or anti-clockwise moves your playhead to the next or previous marker.

When you move markers, the screen temporarily shows the name of the marker you've moved to.

If you've not set up any markers in your project yet, the Marker Select encoder doesn't do anything and when you move it the screen shows 'No Markers':

The way you add markers varies by DAW. To find out how to add markers in your DAW, read the user guide for your specific DAW.

In the Clip pad mode your Launchkey gives you controls for live performing your set, bringing Ableton's session mode to life. You have access to clip launching, stopping, and track Mutes and Solos.

Ableton Live Clip Pad Mode

In Clip launching mode, the pads represent the 2×8 focus ring in Live's Session view. Each pad controls a clip in Session view.

Pads light a few ways depending on their state:

• Unlit pads show the clip slot is empty.

• Available clips light the same colour as their clip in Live.

• Pads flash green to show you've cued that clip, and pulse green when a clip is playing.

• Pads flash red to show you've cued that clip for recording, and pulse red while you're recording.

To launch an entire Scene (a row of clips), press the Scene launch > button to the right of the top row. The Scene launch button lights the same colour as the scene in Live, if you have set up Scene colours.

Changing the bottom pad row

You can change what the bottom row of pads controls using the function button. Each press of the function button cycles through the following controls:

• Clip Launcher (the default mode as described above).

• Stop mode. 

• Mute mode. 

• Solo mode. 

Ableton Live Pad Mode: Stop

Stop mode changes the function of the bottom row, so pressing a pad stops the currently playing clip on that track.

In Stop mode, the pads light red; they light bright red when the track has a clip playing and dim red for tracks that don't have a playing clip. In Stop mode, the Function button lights red.

Ableton Live Pad Mode: Mute

Mute mode changes the function of the bottom pad row so they show each track's Mute status. Press a pad to mutes, or unmute, a track.

In Mute mode, the pads light orange; they light dim orange when the track is active and bright orange for muted tracks. In Mute mode, the Function button lights orange.

Ableton Live Pad Mode: Solo

Solo mode changes the function of the bottom row, so pressing a pad changes the Solo state of that track.

In Solo mode, the pads light blue; they light bright blue when the track is Soloed and dim blue that aren't Soloed. In Solo mode, the Function button lights blue.

Your Launchkey 88 gives you hardware control of Ableton Live's clip sequencers. You can create drum patterns and sequence notes inside clips using the Launchkey's pads and modify your sequences using the encoders.

To access the Sequencer mode, hold Shift and press drum pad 9, DAW, so the screen shows Pad Mode Sequencer 2/2.

When you enter Sequencer mode, what the pads show changes depending on what you have selected in Live:

Launchkey's Ableton Sequencer layout and navigation

The Launchkey's 16 Pads each represent a 16th step sequencer, allowing you to see a bar of a clip at any point.

Steps with active notes light in the track colour for the clip. Empty steps remain unlit. When the clip is playing the play position is represented by a white pad.

Pad layout with arrows showing the direction of the sequencer

You can create and edit more than a bar of a clip using the Down buttons to the left of the pads to create the extra steps. You can move between steps 1-16, 17-32, and more, using the Up and Down buttons.

You can also hold Function and press the Down button to duplicate the current clip and create a clip double the length with identical bars. After you've done this you can tweak each bar for variation.

Adjusting Note Sequencer note settings

You can use the Launchkey's sequencer to adjust each step's settings. 

To do this, press and hold a note in the Sequence, the screen shows the Note Edit settings you can access from encoders 1-4.

Encoder	Note Setting	Explanation
1	Velocity	Changes the velocity of the note. You can hold multiple pads to adjust the velocity for multiple notes simultaneously.
2	Length	Changes the length of the note in steps up until the next instance of that note.
3	Fine (Length)	Changes the length of the note in tenths of a step (0.1 steps) up until the next instance of that note.
4	Nudge	Moves the note backward up to -20% or forward up to +70% (as long as the note is not at the start/end of the clip).

What your Launchkey's record button does varies depending on the view you have open in Live.

In Plugin DAW mode, your Launchkey's encoders control Logic Pro's Smart controls for the currently selected plugin or instrument.

When you move an encoder, your screen shows you the name of the track, the parameter, and the value.

If the plugin/instrument has more Smart Controls, you can use the Page buttons to move pages.

Tip

You can access Logic Pro's Smart Controls in the top left corner of Logic or using the shortcut 'B' on your Mac's keyboard.

Logic Pro's Mixer encoder mode has three pages, the first two are the common DAW Mixer modes, Volume and Pan (see Mixer Encoder Mode). Logic has an extra page for Logic's EQ plugin.

To access the EQ mixer mode, use the encoder bank down button. If you don't have an EQ plugin on that track, moving to Mixer EQ mode adds one to the track you're on.

When you enter Mixer EQ mode the screen temporarily shows Mixer EQ, when you move the encoders in Mixer EQ mode, the screen shows the track name, EQ parameter and the value (either frequency in Hz or gain in dB).

Entering Logic's Mixer EQ encoder mode.

Controlling the High Mid-EQ band's frequency with encoder 5.

When you're in EQ Mixer mode, the encoders map to the following EQ controls:

In Logic Pro, DAW pad mode is split into two sub-modes:

To change the sub-mode, press the function button.

When you change sub-mode, the screen temporarily shows the Pad Function:

Mixer Mode gives you control of Select, Record Arm, Solo, and Mute using the pads.

On page one the top pad row controls which track is selected and the pads light the track colour. The bottom row controls the record arm state, bright red shows the track is record armed, and dim red shows a track is not record armed.

On page two, the top pad row controls track Solos and the bottom pad row controls track Mutes.

To change between Select/Arm and Solo/Mute, press the Pad ˄ up and ˅ down Navigation buttons.

The Launchkey's pads in Logic's Select/Arm mode.

The Launchkey's pads in Logic's Solo/Mute mode.

Select/Arm is the default pad mode.

You can use < Track and Track > to move by a single track.

Live Loops mode gives your Launchkey control over individual Loops and the scene buttons to trigger a column of loops.

The top row of pads controls your Loops.

The bottom row of pads controls the Scenes.

Loop Pads

The top row of pads represent the Loops of the selected track. The colours on the pads match the Loop colours.

The Logic Live Loops session with Track 1 selected.

The pads showing the Loop colours.

Tip

To change colours in Logic Pro, go to View > Show Colors > Select a Loop > Click a colour to change the Loop colour.

To play a Loop, press a pad. While a loop is playing, the pad pulses green.

To stop a Loop, press the playing Loop's pad.

If you press another pad on the same row, this cues the next Loop. The next loop starts according to how you've set your “Quantize Start” option in the top right of the Live Loops window.

To record a Loop, press an empty Loop slot (a non-lit pad). While the Loop is recording, the pad flashes red, press it again to stop the Loop recording and start the Loop playing.

Scene Pads

Pressing a bottom row Pad triggers a Scene. In Logic Pro Live Loops, a Scene is a column of Loops, i.e. a Loop from each track.

Logic Pro Live Loops Scene buttons at the bottom of the page. The orange bar shows which scenes correspond to the eight pads.

The Launchkey 88's bottom pad row trigger Logic Live Loops scenes.

Note

Triggering a Scene doesn't trigger recording in empty Loop slots.

Any playing Loop's pad pulses green to show it's active. As you navigate (see Navigating in Logic Pro Live Loops Mode) through tracks, you'll see which Loops are playing as part of the playing Scene.

In Plugin mode, your Launchkey encoders map to Cubase's eight Quick Controls.

You can see the Quick Controls assignments in the MIDI Remote section of Cubase.

When you move an encoder, the screen shows the Quick Control's name and value.

Cubase's Mixer encoder mode has three pages, the first two are the common DAW Mixer modes, Volume and Pan. (see Mixer Encoder Mode). Cubase has an extra page for controlling the EQ section of Cubase's channel strip.

To control Cubase's EQ, use the encoder Bank buttons to go to the Mixer EQ page.

When your encoders are in Mixer EQ Mode, the encoders map to the following:

In DAW pad mode, there are two pages of pads.

To move between pages use the ˄ up and ˅ down buttons to the left of the pads.

When you change page, the screen temporarily shows you which settings the pads are controlling:

On the Select Arm page, the top row controls track select and the pads light in the track colours.

The bottom row controls the Recording Arm setting for the track. Pads light bright red to show a track is armed, and dim red to show it's unarmed.

Cubase with track 1 selected and the record arm states visible.

The Launchkey 88 pads reflecting the track select and record arm states on the pads.

On page 2 the top row controls Mixer Solo. The pads light bright pink to show a track is soloed and dim pink to show an un-soloed track.

The bottom pad row controls Mute. The pads light yellow, bright yellow to show muted tracks and dim yellow to show unmuted tracks.

Cubase with the Mixer Mute and Solo states visible at the top of the MixConsole tracks.

The Launchkey 88 pads reflecting the mixer Mute and Solo states on the pads.

In Plugin Mode, you can use the Launchkey’s encoders to control eight parameters in the plugin you have in focus. Most native FL Studio plugins support Launchkey’s encoder mode.

In Mixer encoder mode, your Launchkey has the control over the FL Studio Channel Rack, Mixer, and EQ. There are five pages of control, you can use the encoder bank buttons to move between the controls:

The encoders control the Mixer Volume in the Channel Rack.

The encoders control the mixer pan in the Channel Rack.

The encoders control the volume in the mixer section.

The encoders control the mixer pan in the mixer section.

When you're controlling FL Studio's EQ the encoders map to the following Equalizer controls:

Hold Shift and press the Plugin pad to select Remote Controls Mode.

You can control three different types of remote controls in Bitwig Studio:

Holding Shift and pressing the Plugin pad cycles between them.

If there is more than one page, press the up or down buttons to the right of encoders to switch between pages.

Hold Shift and press the Mixer pad to select Mixer Mode.

The encoders control either Volume or Panning of the currently selected track bank.

Press the up or down buttons to the right of the encoders to switch between Volume and Panning. Alternatively, hold Shift and press the Mixer pad to toggle between the two options.

Hold Shift and press Sends to select Sends Mode.

The encoders control the effect sends of the currently selected bank of eight tracks.

If there is more than one page, press the up or down buttons to the right of encoders to switch between pages.

Hold Shift and press the Transport pad to select Transport Mode.

The encoders control various transport functions:

Sequencer Mode lets you create and edit clips that live in the Clip Launcher of Bitwig Studio. We recommended you activate the option Select tracks when… Selecting clips in the Clip Launcher, in Dashboard > Settings > Behaviour.

You should now be able to control the mixer.