If you are reading this article I suppose you must have watched someone playing a Novation launchpad before and got you interested about it.

I remember when I first saw “K-pop culture” live mashup by TAK on Youtube it was really a mind blowing experience for me.

Later, I found out that the mashup video idea was actually inspired by “Pop culture” – Madeon which is also undoubtedly another masterpiece of all time! These videos inspired me to make a mash-up like this many years later when I got myself my first launchpad.

how to use the novation launchpad?

So.. what makes the Novation launchpad so special? How to use the Novation Launchpad?

Is it just a fancy toy for teenagers? Some said it’s very much like an instrument?

After spending a significant amount of time digging into it, I’ve learnt that it is way more versatile than I originally thought It could have done.

It can be a midi controller, light show displayer, live looping machine, or even using it as a mixer to enhance your music production workflow. Very versatile piece of gear and definitely worth the money if you know how to use it and utilise its functions.

What do you need for Novation Launchpad?

The Novation launchpad was originally designed to work with Ableton Live, which means after getting your launchpad you will still need the DAW itself in order to get the most out of it, but the good news is….. there’s a free version of this software called Ableton Lite that comes along with any of purchases of Novation product, so there won’t be any additional cost on you!

The free version of this software is powerful enough for you to do a lot of different stuff with your Novation launchpad. If you want to find out more about what the free version has to offer you could find out the latest information on the Ableton official website here.

1. Using Launchpad to Make Lightshow

The most popular way that was being used is to make a lightshow. The Novation Launchpad comes with 64 RGB pads light up to match the colour of your clips in Ableton Live and you can see at a glance what’s loaded, playing and recording. As far as I know, there are only three ways in building a launchpad light show.

Method one. Building a lightshow with midi effects in Ableton. With this method it allows you to build a launchpad cover in any version of Ableton live you have.

Essentially how it works is by first splitting your song into multiple audio samples and assign your light show effects into designated midi clips. The moment you tap on the pad, the light effect and the designated audio samples will be played simultaneously.

Although the satisfaction upon finishing a launchpad lightshow is priceless but the major drawback of this method is that it is very time consuming.

Despite the sophisticated workflow of it, the time require for practicing is significant too, that’s why we have the method two and method three come in.

Method two. Creating a launchpad cover with midi clips in Ableton Live. The best part of this method is that It doesn’t require time spending in practicing but you still have to put in all the hard work in design and assign all your lighting ideas in Ableton into different parts of the song.

When you play the song, those lighting effects will be played in order.  The drawback for this method is that you may not be able to perform with it as in everything will be played automatically.

Although there are  people who fake it by pretending to tap on the pads along with the music, which I would not encourage you to do. Majority of the audience may not be able to tell the differences, but it could be very easy to be spotted by a veteran launchpad player.

To sum up, if you just want to design a light show to post on Youtube and not planning to perform it live in the future, method two could be a good way to go. I have actually made a launchpad lightshow called “Shin Chan Remix” with this method too, might as well have a look at the video above if you want to get a better picture out of it.

Method Three. This is another great way in building a launchpad cover, It’s kind of like the mixtures of both methods that were mentioned above.

If you have the Ableton Live Suite, there is this plugin called Max For Live that comes along with it. It’s pretty much acting like a platform within Ableton Live for anyone to create their own Max midi plugins and use it within Ableton Live.

2. Using it as a live looping machine

As mentioned in the beginning of this article, many great producers like to use the launchpad to make song mash-ups.

The Novation Launchpad is very well designed to work with Ableton Live. If you are familiar or used Live before you will know that there is this unique “session” view in Live, it is basically a sampler and live looping machine.

The seamless integration between Live and Novation midi controllers which allows you to play a song mashup, or conveniently performs within the Live “session” view window.

In 2020 Apple have just updated their DAW Logic Pro X by adding a very similar live looping function like the Ableton “session” view. Although there are some slight differences, it’s close enough and does the job pretty damn well too.

3. Using It As A Midi Controller And Mixer

The Launchpad is a midi controller, although it doesn’t look like the typical keyboard controller we often see.

The layout is designed to keep your focus on the performance by conveniently changing using the mixer controls, applying effects, and switching between four key modes including Session, Device, User and Note Mode.

The Session Mode is where you do the live looping by triggering clips.

The device mode provides access to any instrument or device parameters for easy real-time control and performance.

The User mode is where you do the lightshow performance.

The Note mode allows for sequencing beats and offers the ability to play the grid as an instrument with its chromatic keyboard display. There are dedicated buttons to control track select, mute, record arm, solo, volume, sends, pan, and stop clips.

What’s next?

For beginners or someone who is on a tight budget, you could consider to start off playing with a Launchpad Mini first, but if you have a little bit more budget, I will recommend you to get a Launchpad Pro or Launchpad X instead.

If you are interested to learn more about the Novation Launchpad, be sure to check out this course below I devoted a lot of dedication to put them together, everything about the Novation Launchpad including lightshow, liveset, mashup building and more!

If that sounds like what you may be up to, click on the button above the find out the best offer I have for you, I’m looking forward to have you in this course! Cheers