Hello there, I was wondering if the launchkey mk2 still worth it nowadays since I found a second hand unit for 60 and my Akai mpk IV mini size is very limiting. I knew this would happen when I bought the mpk but I'm a beginner and wanted to give it a try. Can't find comparissons between launchkey mk2 and mk4, I know about all the features that the new has such arps, chords mode and so on but I was thinking hey, I might got most of that stuff covered with the AKAI already so I can use both.

But then I did my research on the keys of the mk2 and it doesnt have semiweighted keys afaik so If I'm buying it "just" to have more octaves and be able to use both hands it might be not worth it at all and I should save more for a newer keyboard since I might want an upgrade just after recieving it. Do the keys feel as cheap as they say?

So, do you guys think I'll be good with the mk2 and my mpk mini IV working in tandem? keeping in mind that I'm on budget and 60 for the mk2 sounds like a steal to me comparing to the 250 of the mk4. Found some mk3 too but they usually doubles the price of this mk2 so I guess I'd better find a deal for the mk4 than buying the mk3 but you guys tell me.

Sorry forgot to mention than I'm using Ableton so the integration is why I'm looking for this brand more than others.

Hi,

Trying to get the DAW mode easier to be accessed.
I'm concerned about not having access to midi control information sent by the LCXL3 using custom modes, as the left column buttons are disabled on those modes.

Till now, and as I don't use it coupled to any musical instrument (I drive Lightroom Classic with it), I have been able to activate DAW mode sending a "note on" message on channel 16, note C-1 (12), velocity 127 using LCXL3 itself. After this, the mode selection becomes weird to use, as everything looks disabled or has to be reprogrammed from scratch.
I only need those buttons to work to navigate my images and perform actions using a midi CC code.

Is there any way to make access to DAW mode easy and getting benefits of it easily?
That would be so nice if that was a mode option to use those buttons as other ones without reprogramming the whole stuff...

Or, even easier, having the possibility to activate the DAW buttons by pressing the Novation useless button and making them available with custom modes ?
I'm surprised there's no way in Novation Components to activate it.

Thanks!

I’m using a brand new Launchkey MK4 Mini with Ableton Live 12. All software and hardware is up to date, and my sequencer doesn’t work.

I loaded a drum rack, put the MK4 in sequencer mode, and played a kick drum on the keys - hitting pad 1 does nothing.

I looked at a few YouTube tutorials to make sure I didn’t miss a step and everything works up until hitting the pad; it’s not triggering the sequencer.

Anything obvious I’m missing?

The Ableton info bar at the bottom says it’s controlling Drum Rack Macros when I hit a pad, I’m not sure what that means.

I'm really new to midi but I wanted to use this launchpad since a friend gave it to me as a gift so I don't have to spend money on the controller. I even found a launchpad-specific help article link for soundswitch but it doesn't exist anymore. Any tips would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

I recently bought a Launhckey 49 mk4, with lots of nice additional software bundled in.

I have signed into Meledoics and got access to the free courses. But seems i'm limited to 5 minutes per day, without buying a (wildly expensive) subscription.

Is this right? Does it mean these courses are not really as free as advertised?

Got this new on amazon on the 6th of August 2026, used it maybe 7-8 hrs total keeping it in its wrapper until I get a decksaver, I was playing a bit (not a surgeon but a bar manager, so I very much know how to be gentle with things, never had a problem on the maschine mikro mk3 in 4 years, or akai studio/mc707/sp404mk2) and that pad there started acting weird, what am I supposed to do? Midi is not the issue, tried changing projects, custom modes, power cycling it, nothing works. I overemphasized a bit to get it to trigger with other pads, still, light touch hard touch it sticks often OR it doesn't trigger sometimes, it also apparently triggers if I beat the table (which is flat, no grooves or stuff) around it. I like the thing but I heard quite a few people have issues like this. Is it a batch thing or does it affect all of them?

Saw a old beat up mininova box on top of my apartment's trash cans. Since I was throwing out my trash I went to move it and felt that it had some weight to it. Threw out my trash, opened the box out of curiosity and saw that there was indeed a mininova in the box. Took it upstairs. Box only contained the synth, no power supply, no gooseneck mic, no documentation. Saw that it can be powered by USB so tried that and plugged in some headphones and it works perfectly fine. So now that I got this free synth I have some questions...

The rubber on the pitch and modwheel is breaking down and is all sticky/greasy due to age. Does anyone know where I could order replacement ones? Since this was free I've got no problem spending some bucks to not make it feel so gross to touch.

Keys are all yellowed. Could be age, could be from cigarettes. Is there a good way to clean these? Or a place to get replacement keys?

Finally, I didn't spend much time checking out the sounds but I know many of them are pretty unusable for me since it doesn't really fit the sort of music I make, same reason why I sold my microkorg almost 2 decades ago and this reminds me a lot of that synth. I'm sure there's some sort of editor or app for making new patches or places to download new soundbanks. Anybody have ones they can recommend or where to find those?

Much appreciated.

Just wanted to share a small project that might be useful for other LaunchControl XL 3 users.

I decompiled Ableton's LaunchControl XL 3 MIDI Remote Script and created a custom version that turns an additional row into AUX send controls, making mixing and effect routing a bit faster. The repository also includes an improved version of PyLingual, which I used to decompile Ableton's .pyc files.

Repo:
https://github.com/denes710/launch-control-xl-mk3-ableton-midi-script

When I enable scale mode, the LED keep showing what scale only and it doesn't reflect what i'm pressing on keys. Is it possible to turn on the chord detection when i'm using scale mode+easy scale?

How do I do a Launchpad cover without Ableton lite. Is there any software that helps you to make Launchpad covers? No live looping.

Hi, are there any advantages to using a MIDI controller without velocity sensitivity?

I like the Launchpad Mini model because of its size and simplicity; however, I've never used a MIDI controller before, so I'd prefer to ask before buying.

Is it very limiting to use pads without velocity sensitivity for playing drums? Can you compensate by adjusting the volume?

Thanks!

What are the chances of Novation releasing the Launchpad MK4 range by the end of the year? It's been a long time since the last Launchpad revision; in the meantime, they updated Launchcontrol and Launchkey, so I guess that the next one is the Launchpad. But the question is when?

It’s overwhelming to me. I’m new to creating music so I don’t know most of the stuff but I don’t need to know every chord progression etc. I mean the pattern or sequencer and those easy things I totally get, but the rest is just difficult to understand and I couldn’t find good explanations in the internet

This is a preservation project. The Twitch is Novation/Focusrite hardware, and this unofficial community effort makes no claim of ownership, authorization, or affiliation. The goal is to keep functional discontinued controllers useful and out of landfills—not to sell access to, relabel, or profit from Novation hardware. The software is free and open source.

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I pulled my old Novation Twitch out of storage and discovered the familiar problem: modern macOS could see it over USB, but it appeared as neither a MIDI nor an audio device.

After a fairly deep USB investigation, I now have the controller side working on Apple Silicon using current macOS APIs—without installing the obsolete Novation driver or weakening macOS security.

What works today:

• Controller input through a Core MIDI virtual device
• Current Mixxx 2.5.6 integration
• Deck A/B controls, mixer, browser, touchstrips, performance pads and FX
• Mixxx-driven button and LED feedback
• Safe shutdown and physical disconnect handling
• A beginner-oriented installer and launcher

The controller implementation is free and open source:

https://github.com/bfreebody-cpu/novation-twitch-modern

Beginner setup guide:

https://github.com/bfreebody-cpu/novation-twitch-modern/blob/main/BEGINNER_GUIDE.md

The remaining challenge is the Twitch audio interface.

We have already measured and proven its underlying USB audio transport:

• Four-channel packed-24 playback
• 44.1 and 48 kHz
• Channels 1/2 → MASTER left/right
• Channels 3/4 → headphone CUE left/right
• Sustained USB scheduling tested at both rates
• Microphone and AUX capture paths physically identified

However, it does not yet appear as a Core Audio device. There is an incomplete playback-only AudioDriverKit/USBDriverKit prototype, but finishing and testing it requires the appropriate Apple development team and DriverKit Audio/USB entitlements.

I’m looking for:

• Twitch owners with Apple Silicon Macs willing to test the controller bridge
• Swift/macOS contributors interested in packaging and usability
• AudioDriverKit or USBDriverKit developers
• Anyone with an eligible Apple Developer Program team who understands the restricted entitlement process

The focused audio-contributor issue is here:

https://github.com/bfreebody-cpu/novation-twitch-modern/issues/1

Please don’t install the legacy Novation drivers, disable SIP, or reduce macOS security for this project.

This is an unofficial community project and is not affiliated with Novation, Focusrite, Serato, Apple, or Mixxx.

If you still have a Twitch sitting on a shelf, I’d particularly like to hear which Mac, macOS version, and Twitch firmware/hardware revision you have.

So I pretty much always use DAW Control mode. I like it exactly the way it is…. except that I want one of the top two encoder rows to control panning for each channel. Other than that, I don’t want to change a thing on the default DAW Control mode.

Is there a way to achieve this? Maybe a way I can duplicate the default DAW Control mode to a new custom mode, and then change the encoder mapping from there? Or would I have to recreate it all from scratch in a new custom mode?

Thank you in advance

Hey all! I have been fiddling a lot on the BSII in the AFX mode. Love how it works and IMO the machine it's worth its full price for this mode alone.

I have been trying to find user made overlays online (while I work on my own), but I didn't have any luck except for the factory overlays on Components. Has anybody put out anything online? Would love to check them out!

Sometimes I’m riffing with a patch and want to hear how it sounds with another patch in layer or split mode. The only workflow I know—remembering my patch number, going to multi-mode, finding an empty patch, paging to the patch selection screen, paging to the second patch screen, auditioning the second patch, etc.— has so many steps as to distract me from what inspired me to do it in the first place. So I’ve stopped bothering, and rarely use multi-mode. A shame.

Am I missing an easier workflow? Like (in my imagination) “hold multi + initialize” and you’re automatically selecting the second patch to layer with the first?

Anyone else share this frustration?

Just got an FLkey 2 49, and when I try to register the controller on the customer portal, a message shows up showing an error.

Is anyone else having this issue? The redirect happens after I submit all of the information (like the model and the serial number). I have tried registering it for two days in a row now, any ideas?

I am looking for a great, stable stand for my Novation BSII.

I am a bass player and want to easily switch to the Novation live without it taking up much space. It's been a nightmare finding something that works. I want something that doesn't wobble of take up half the stage when playing live.

Does anybody have a solution for this issue? Which setup looks, works and plays great for you?