While useful, especially for beginners unfamiliar with scales, we would have preferred that the piano keys that fall outside the scale play blanks, rather than duplicates from the scale, if just to help learn the scales themselves. The benefit is you can never hit a bum note. Choose your preferred scale and only those notes will sound. Instant Detroit techno-style parallel chords! This last feature is similar to chord memory in some synthesizers: user-created chords can be sounded from single notes. You can trigger pre-selected chords from the pads, assign your own by playing them on the keys first, or create what Novation calls Fixed Chords. The Launchkey controllers have the best of both words in the Chord modes. One of the benefits of triggering MIDI with pads rather than keys is the freedom of harmonic expression it can give you. Most parameters can be altered via the knobs in real-time, allowing for exceptional tweakability. Mutate is also a welcome parameter, useful for altering arpeggios on the fly. We particularly liked the Rhythm function, which inserts rests into the sequence. The arpeggiator section is surprisingly deep, with options that go beyond the typical up/down/random selections. With the 49-key model retailing for around £200, it’s an absolute steal. Our review model is lightweight yet firm, and everything about it says quality. Pitch bend and modulation wheels complete the package.īuild quality, it should be said, is superb for the price. Juilliard-trained musos might be disappointed in their action but for the vast majority of us, they’re perfectly acceptable.
The keys are full-size, for one, and nicely springy. They are priced to be affordable, yet-and this is true across the board-they do not feel cheap at all.
#Novation launchkey 49 mk2 midi tutorial series#
The Launchkey series is not a premium controller series. Lastly, we have the transport controls at the right.Īs expected, below are the 49 keys. We love the length of the throw-perfect for mixing. They’re a little on the small side but are easy to grab, and there is no wobble at all. Directly above them is a row of eight potentiometer knobs. We used them when working on a recent tutorial and found them to be firm and responsive. The pads are suitably resistant and velocity-sensitive. To the right sit two rows of 20 pads for launching clips and triggering drums. It’s easy to read and visible from any angle, though it could be a bit bigger. At the top left, we have a small LCD display. There’s also a video to take you through the whole process, should you need it.Įverything is cleanly laid out and within easy reach.
#Novation launchkey 49 mk2 midi tutorial drivers#
It takes you to a registration page where you can also download drivers and bundled software. Plug your controller into your computer via an (included) USB cable, and you’re greeted with a folder on your desktop to help you through the setup process. We were happy to see, then, that Novation had anticipated this and made the Launchkey setup process fairly pain-free.
For all it’s done for us musicians, it has also forced many of us to reach for the paracetamol. We’re going to be looking at the 49-key model. They are largely the same, save for the addition of sliders (49 and 61 only), and of course the number of keys. Combining traditional piano-type keys with clip-launching pads inspired by the Launchpad, as well as an assortment of knobs, buttons, and sliders, the current USB-powered Launchkey range is available in four model sizes: 21-, 37-, 49-, and 61-key variants. The Launchkey range, which started in 2013, has now been updated to mark three. While the MM10 is largely forgotten, it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that the company’s subsequent controllers, particularly the Launchpad series, changed the way that we make music.
That’s right, Novation started not as a synthesizer company (the Bass Station would arrive one year later) but as one that specialized in controllers. The British company Novation entered the market in 1992 with the MM10, a battery-powered controller meant to be paired with the Yamaha QY10. Novation brings almost 30 years of MIDI controller experience to bear in the Launchkey 49 Mk3-but is it enough to make it a must-buy?
0 kommentar(er)
