What is a launchpad used for?

[Krazes]

Well.. from what I see they have cool colours and syncs with the songs...

[thelordofwarr]

I just thought this was about rockets 

 

 

(this gives a good explanation in my opinion: 

also I quickly found a little youtube video:

)

 

[Docretier]

1 minute ago, thelordofwarr said:

I just thought this was about rockets 

What is it about then

 

[thelordofwarr]

As far as I found out a remixing audio interface thingy that you can program sounds to and then press buttons that randomly light up

[Crunchy Dragon]

8 minutes ago, thelordofwarr said:

As far as I found out a remixing audio interface thingy that you can program sounds to and then press buttons that randomly light up

They don't technically "randomly" light up, but more or less that's what they're for.

 

@Krazes: a launchpad is normally used to play sounds that have been programmed to the buttons on it by musicians and/or DJs. Pretty handy for some things, but they have their pros and cons. The main reason I've seen against getting one is that you have to program all the sounds it has to play manually and you have to do this every time you want to change something.

 

Some bands make use of them fairly often such as Linkin Park. A lot of DJs and remix artists will use them extensively as well.

[Krazes]

Not really useful for me then.. wanted to buy it cos the colours look kewl and satisfying

[aeroencychris]

4 minutes ago, thelordofwarr said:

As far as I found out a remixing audio interface thingy that you can program sounds to and then press buttons that randomly light up

Sorta  Most Launchpads (excluding the fancy features of the Pro) have two main modes: session mode and user 1 mode.

 

User 1 is the simplest; when enabled, the Launchpad quite literally just becomes a MIDI device like any keyboard or controller you might plug into a DAW (digital audio workstation). Those MIDI signals can then be interpreted by your program and mapped to instruments or drum racks (or in the case of popular videos, individual samples). Additionally, the Launchpad can take in MIDI signals from the DAW and display them as lights on the Launchpad.

 

Session mode is more likely to be used in a live performance setting and aligns more to what a typical DJ might do. The columns of the Launchpad represent individual channels which correspond to specific instruments or sounds. The rows represent clips for each channel (think loops like an individual drum beat or melody) which can be activated. Only one clip can be active at one time per channel. Some clips can be one-time sounds while others can constantly loop until replaced by a new clip. Additionally, while user 1 mode takes in input at any time, session mode is always played in-time to the given BPM and will not activate until the next beat. A good example of this mode is this performance.

 

Overall I'd say Launchpads get a bad rap with all of the videos of lightshows online, but overall they're a super useful tool during production or in genuine live performances. Novation's YouTube page has some really nice tutorials and demos showing what it can really do. 

[aeroencychris]

7 minutes ago, Crunchy Dragon said:

They don't technically "randomly" light up, but more or less that's what they're for.

 

@Krazes: a launchpad is normally used to play sounds that have been programmed to the buttons on it by musicians and/or DJs. Pretty handy for some things, but they have their pros and cons. The main reason I've seen against getting one is that you have to program all the sounds it has to play manually and you have to do this every time you want to change something.

 

Some bands make use of them fairly often such as Linkin Park. A lot of DJs and remix artists will use them extensively as well.

Not entirely sure what you mean by programming it manually. In the case of lightshow videos and all, yes, you have to slice the song yourself and map each sample to a button which is a pain in the ass. However, if you're just using it as a piano for example, you can just drag the instrument and set its button range and you're good to go. It's been really convenient for me during production for just dragging instruments on and playing right away.