

- #CONNECTING LIGHTS TO LIGHTKEY PRO#
- #CONNECTING LIGHTS TO LIGHTKEY SOFTWARE#
- #CONNECTING LIGHTS TO LIGHTKEY FREE#
Once you’ve gone through the steps above, you can start to tweak and customise your light show by opening up your clip and adjusting the individual MIDI notes recorded. Replay the clip to see the basics of your first light show.Record arm the MIDI channel and record a sequence by playing a pattern on the pad.In Live’s Session View, create a new one-bar MIDI clip by double-clicking on an empty slot.(If you are using a Launchpad S, Classic or Mini, you’ll need to choose Ch 5.) Set ‘MIDI To’ to Launchpad’s ‘Live Port’.Make sure Launchpad is connected to your computer and your version of Ableton Live is up to date.Here’s a step-by-step guide to setting up LED feedback and creating the backbone of a light show: Right, now that you’ve got your head around the concepts at play, it’s time to get started. (Scroll to the bottom of this page to find links for Novation’s Programmers Reference Guides.) Light Show Basics Launchpad S, Mini and Classic have tri-colour LEDs, so you’re limited to varying intensities of yellow, red and green with these devices.
#CONNECTING LIGHTS TO LIGHTKEY PRO#
One limitation of the MIDI protocol is that there are only 128 levels of velocity (0–127), and therefore there are only 128 colours to choose from on the Launchpad Pro and MkII. You’ll be programming MIDI channels, notes and velocities, because the LED feedback is sent on a specific MIDI channel, each LED on the Launchpad responds to a MIDI note on that channel, and its colour is determined by the velocity of that note.

#CONNECTING LIGHTS TO LIGHTKEY SOFTWARE#
You’ll need to get to know about MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface), which is a control protocol designed in the ’80s to allow synths and sequencers to talk to each other, but which is the main method of communication between your software and your Launchpad.

It’s this feedback that’s at the heart of a light show. Launchpad has bi-directional communication with Ableton Live, meaning the pad can trigger actions in the software, but also receive LED feedback. If you’re starting from scratch with your own original material, you can build the light show element into your tracks from the start, to bring an additional level of spectacle to your live shows. You might have ambitions to remix existing material, combining the button pushes of the clip-launching process involved in the remix with painstakingly programmed displays of LED animation associated with clips in Ableton Live. So, for the remainder of this piece, we’ll assume you’re using Ableton Live and nothing else (except your Launchpad).Ī screenshot from a pre-programmed light show.
#CONNECTING LIGHTS TO LIGHTKEY FREE#
The most straightforward way is to use Ableton Live - a free version of which comes with every Launchpad. The geekiest users design custom scripts and Max patches, and that requires some expert coding background. Thirdly, we acknowledge that there are many ways to make light shows on a Launchpad. What we’re saying is that, by making a light show, you’re kind of hacking Launchpad’s LED-feedback capabilities and basically turning an illuminated pad controller into an eight-pixel-square screen! But don’t worry, you won’t damage your Launchpad. Secondly, Launchpad’s primary purpose is not as a light show machine - it was designed as a versatile music-making controller for Ableton Live and other DAWs. Performances like this, this and this, are painstakingly programmed and rehearsed, then delicately filmed and edited. The first thing to say is that light shows take time, patience and dedication. Now, you need to build your first light show video. So you’re on your way to becoming a Launchpad sensation: you’ve practiced with Launchpad Arcade, perfected your pad drumming with Melodics, and got your hands on a Launchpad of your very own.
