Combine the best of multiple audio or MIDI passes into your perfect take with Live's new comping feature. Three Custom Modes – use Components to customise mappings and control anything MIDI easily from Launchpad Mini. Ableton Live Lite - quickly organise and arrange your sounds and start making tracks with this staple electronic-music-making software.

MIDI Polyphonic Expression: allows MPE-capable devices to control multiple parameters of every note in real time for more expressive instrumental performances. Racks now offer between 1 and 16 Macros, and you can randomize their states with the push of a button. Connect Live to any MIDI controller – even MPE-compatible hardware, which lets you add bends, slides and pressure to individual notes in a chord, make subtle expression variations and create evolving sonic textures with your hands. Since the Launchkey Mini is pretty much a pre-shrunk version of the 25-key Launchkey, I can point you at Paul Nagle's review of the full-sized version in last October's issue of SOS. Being a rookie myself i can assure you that this is the right choice for anyone wanting to get started.When InControl is activated, most of the Launchkey Mini becomes a DAW control surface, although the keyboard itself remains, well, a keyboard. Ableton Live Lite – quickly organise and arrange your sounds and start making tracks with this staple electronic-music-making software. This is a more basic much smaller version of its bigger brothers with less features and the pads aren’t pressure sensitive, but I only wanted it for launching clips and a bit of finger drumming anyway. The latest edition offers all the functionality of the original Launchpad in a smaller and more portable controller that is ideal for compact setups. The Launchpad Mini MKIII comes with three custom performance modes which adds even more scope and creative potential to your live performances.

Session View lets you sketch ideas fast: play, mix and match MIDI and audio loops of different lengths and tempos without ever stopping the music. You can also connect it to your iPad via a Camera Connection Kit to control all sorts of iOS music apps, like Novation's free Launchpad App. You can design your own unique combinations of instruments and effects, and use up to 16 Macro knobs to control any number of parameters. Two rows of eight knobs each is a fairly generous provision on a device this size, especially since they are big, chunky and feel pretty solid. The clip control pads jump left or right across tracks in banks of eight, so, for example, moving from track 8 to track 9 remaps the pads from the first bank to the second.Another thing worth mentioning, not directly related to this device, is the lack of fixed length audio clips support (only "launchpad" that supports it is Push 2), so don't expect seamless live instrument looping with this device right out of the box as fixed length clips are not supported. Klevgrand R0Verb and DAW Cassette – High-quality reverb and tape deck emulation plug-ins, to add some space or take your sound back to the golden age of cassette tapes. All the pads are backlit with multicoloured LEDs that show you which clips are loaded, playing and recording.

update that allows you to trigger cells within Logic Pro's workflow, which can contain either loops, one-shoots, MIDI patterns, automation and much more. The pads are non-moving and pressure-sensitive, which allows them to send note velocity, but not pressure data or aftertouch. Thanks to its sleek new low-profile design, this MIDI controller is perfect and ready to go in any situation. Andertons Music Company acts as a credit broker and not a lender and only offers credit products from Secure Trust Bank PLC trading as V12 Retail Finance.

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Get Started Easily – use our online Easy Start tool to get all the software you want, and step-by-step video guides to get you set up with Live and making music in minutes. RGB pads – RGB pads give you a perfect reflection of your Ableton Live session, making it easier than ever to see your clips. The Mini units use micro-USB connectors, which are smaller and potentially more fragile than their full-sized counterparts, but I didn't encounter any issues with them. The two rows of eight pads send notes with hard-wired pitches on MIDI channel 10 (the General MIDI standard); if you want to transpose these, perhaps to access different sets of drum sounds, you'll have to do it in software. Additionally, the USB-C connector means connectivity speeds are fast and latency is lower than ever.It is built to work straight out of the box with Ableton Live, which is arguably one of the leading pieces of electronic-music making software. Start making music today with the Launchpad Mini, hands-on controls, tonnes of sounds in the box plus a step-by-step interactive platform to help get you set up.