Clubbing9 Blog

Digital DJ mixing continues to move forward as more creative DJ equipment and live performance tools enter the mix. The Novation Launchpad controller, codeveloped by Novation and Ableton, looks like an interesting entry into the growing range of MIDI controllers geared towards digital DJ mixes and live sets. At RM600++, it’s well below the cost of other MIDI controllers, although obviously it also lacks much of the functionality of more advanced DJ equipment.

Essentially, the Ableton Launchpad is made up of a grid of 64 buttons which can be mapped by DJs to individual clips in Ableton Live. There are also eight “scene-launch” buttons which can be used to trigger different scenes while mixing a live set. The buttons receive input from the DJ mix software (i.e., Ableton Live) as well as sending it so the DJ can see tracks that are loaded, playing, and being recorded. One of the most interesting aspects is that DJs can switch to a “Mixer Mode,” where the rows and columns of the Launchpad can be set to act as sliders or faders allowing the Launchpad to control volume, pan, effects, etc (you can see how this works in the demo video from Ableton below). Also, up to 6 Launchpads can be combined and input into the same machine for even more control over the DJ mix or live performance.

Although it’s intended as a dedicated controller for Ableton’s Live music performance and DJ mix software (the controller will ship with a special new ‘Launchpad edition’ of Ableton’s Live software 8), the Launchpad can control almost any other DJ mix or audio program using Novation’s ‘Automap’ control software. Overall, the Launchpad looks to be an interesting product, and there’s no doubt Ableton will be selling a lot of them. In some ways, it’s almost a simplified, mass market version of JazzMutant’s more full-functioned (and far more expensive) Lemur, which was used by Daft Punk on their last tour. It’s definitely great to see companies experimenting with new tools for mixing, and seeing product designers step up to the challenge after seeing so much innovation in the DJ software space.