Launchpad95 : Improved Novation Launchpad remote scripts

Installation

First, download the installation archive :
- live 9.2.+ : Launchpad95.zip (all launchpads but PRO)
- live 8.4 : have a look at the documentation for Launchpad85
- for Launchpad PRO see Launchpad Pro95
Unzip the zip file and copy the folder Launchpad95 into the Ableton Live's "MIDI Remote Scripts" folder. (where is that folder ? look at faq 3.

After the folder has been copied, plug-in your Launchpad in the computer and start Ableton Live. Open up the preferences panel and go to "MIDI Sync" panel. Select Launchpad95 as your control surface and select the launchpad Midi Port midi ports like so :

User Manual

Four modes are added on top of the existing modes. These are Drum Step Sequencer mode to edit midi clips, a medodic step sequencer, and Device Controller mode to edit any parameter of any instrument, effect or device on any track of your arrangement, and finally an Instrument Mode providing a tighter integration with Live.

Note the manual is also available in french as a PDF, thanks to François Lehérissier.

Instrument Controller Mode

Instrument Mode replaces classic User Mode 1. To activate Instrument Controller Mode, press User Mode 1 button (mode button remains amber). Press User Mode 1 button once again, button turns green, activating the Device Controller. Once more the button will turn red, activating the plain old User Mode 1 in case you need it.

The top up/down navigation buttons allow to navigate scenes, while the left/right button allow to navigate tracks. The scene buttons allow you to control the currently selected track and clip, arm, solo, record, play, stop etc (see below).

The matrix of buttons act as a midi keyboard proposing a drum rack layout, and a melodic mode. Melodic mode enable you to select root note, type of mode (major, minor etc), and the octave you play in.

Most of the scene buttons have alternate functions when you hold them long (0.5 sec) :
- undo : a long press will perform a redo !
- stop : a long press will DELETE currently selected clip. No worries this is undoable !
- solo : a long press on solo will enable/disable the selected track.
- arm : holding arm for more than 0.5 seconds will toggle live's metronome. A very long press (2 sec) will alternate between auto arm of track and manual track arming. Colour of the button will reflect the selected mode. This is really useful if you have more than one controller/person interacting with Live.

scale edition mode

To enter scale edition mode press the 1st scene button from Instrument mode.
Top red buttons provide mode selection (drumrack, chromatic, diatonic).
2nd and 3rd amber rows provide root note selection.
4th red row allows you to select the octave.
Bottom green rows allow to select the mode.

You can select the orientation (vertical or horizontal of the layout).
The 2nd top left button selects the interval among 3rd, 4th and 6th for the diatonic layout. 4th is the default mode, also on the push. 3rd is very practical to play chords vertically.
the 3rd top left button (amber) let you fix the first (bottom left) note to scale root or live it an a C.

quick scale modes

if quick scale is activated (last button on the right on the 2nd row in scale edit mode), the two first rows of the launchpad allow you to quickly change the scale.

this shows the two first rows of the launchpad. the last button of the first row changes between root note selection and mode selection.

root note

in this mode you can select the root note of your scale. you can also quickly alternate between minor and major by pressing the button again

quick scale modes: modus

in this mode you can select the mode of your scale.

Drum Step Sequencer Mode

To activate the Drum Step Sequencer, select a midi clip in the clip view. Then press User Mode 2 button once, activating the step sequencer (in normal mode). Press user mode 2 button once more opens the Melodic step sequencer

this sequencer has two sub modes detailed below. combined and multinotes. (note there is a second step sequencer, melodic step sequencer detailed further down).

A playback/metronome indicator is scrolling thru the grid in amber to indicate the playing position of the clip as the clip is playing. This is just an overlay, it does not affect the functionality of the buttons.

Here are the colour codes used :
- Normal notes are shown in Green, intensity depending on their velocity.
- Muted notes are displayed in red.
- Notes being currently played are flashing in red.
- Notes being played and being outside of the currently displaying midi clip block will also flash in red.

Some other information is displayed, using orange colour :
- Note markers help to better visualise what row correspond to which note:
     - root note of the selected are marked with three orange left buttons lit up.
     - other notes of the scale are marked with one orange button lit on the left-most row.
- while scrolling left and right along the clip, a vertical bar will display you where you are in the clip

A summary of functions assigned to the buttons is shown in the table below. hover your mouse above a button to get detailed descriptions.

StepSeq by default works in combined mode. pressing the 4th scene button toggles between combined mode and multi note mode. Multinote mode works in similarly to the the previous step in launchpad85, while combined mode offers mode close to the way Push StepSeq behaves.

Combined Mode

The bottom left area let you select the note currently being edited on the top note editor.

The bottom right area allows you the select the currently clip part currently being displayed (single button press) and edited (double press or one button after the other).

Some buttons have combined function :

• Lock (2nd scene button):
  • press long to switch between clip lock and play clip on locked track mode
  • yellow : track lock mode. step sequencer is locked to current track and will follow playing clip on this track
  • red : step sequencer is locked to current clip.
• quantize (3rd scene button):
  • press long duplicate clip in a new clip
• Mute (last scene button):
  • hold mute button and click on a note to mute it
  • hold mute button and press on a note in the bottom left quadrant to mute it
  • hold mute button and select a loop range in the loop selector to delete it
• velocity (7th scene button):
  • hold velocity button and click on a note to change its velocity
  • hold velocity button and click on a note to change in the note selector to ear a preview of the sound
  • hold velocity button and select a loop range in the loop selector to extend the original clip content to the newly selected length
• velocity (7th scene button) and mute
  • hold velocity button and mute button at the same time and select a loop range in the loop selector in order to mute this time selection

Multinote Mode

To activate this mode, press the 4th scene button while in Combined Mode (pressing the same button again will take you back to Combined Mode).

This mode uses the grid as a 8*8 matrix. one midi note per row. It follows the scale mode selected. Note that the left and right arrows are used to navigate left and right in the clip.

Melodic StepSequencer

To activate this mode, press user mode 2 button until it turns green.

This mode behave more how a hardware stepsequencer works. it uses the grid as a 7*8 matrix to edit note pitch, velocity, length and octave. one function per page. of course notes pitches follow the selected scale !

The last row of the matrix acts as a page selector and work in the similar fashion to the combined step stequencer loop selector.

double press on the last scene button toggles between monophonic and polyphonic modes.

Device Controller Mode

Navigation

Navigation among tracks and devices is done using the top left navigation buttons.

Editing parameters

You can edit eight parameters of the selected device on the selected track at once. One parameter per column. You can navigate banks of parameters using scene buttons 2 and 3. depending on the type of parameter edited launchpad will display then in different ways.

On/Off parameters

using the color code red. only one button will be used to change the parameter

Parameter with list of values

for the parameters that have a list of values, the colour code it amber, for example a Synth wave form selector (square, sine, triangle). If the parameter has less that 8 values, they will be directly acessible one by one. if more values are available, you can scroll thru the values. the closer the button to the center the more precise. the closer the top or bottom of the launchpad, the greater the value change will be at each press.

Parameter continuous values

for the parameters that have a continuous value, like Volume, Panning, etc, the colour code is green. by default Launchpad displays the parameter like a volume slider on the mixer mode. if you activate the precision slider mode (by pressing scene 4 button), the sliders will then work in the similar way to the case of parameter with list of values.

Locking to devices

You can save up to 4 devices using the 4 bottom scene button. if not device is saved, the button will be pink. To save a device, first select the desired device, then press one of the 4 last scene buttons for more than half a second. the button turn red ! your device is saved. You can recall it at any time by a short press on the scene button. To unsave a device, apply a long press again on the button.

Device+	Device-	Track-	Track+	Session mode	user 1 device	cycle thru StepSequencers and User Moder 2 user 2 step	mixer mode
								On/Off
								Bank+
								Bank-
								Precision
								Lock1
								Lock2
								Lock3
								Lock4

Session Mode

User1 Mode

User2 Mode

Mixer Mode

Source

• https://github.com/hdavid/Launchpad95/

F.A.Q.

1. Which Launchpad flavours are supported

Launchpad, Launchpad S, Mini, Mini MK2 and MK2 (RGB) are supported
Basically all Launchpad but the pro are supported by this script.
Launchpad Pro is supported by Launchpad Pro95

2. Which Ableton live versions are supported

Launchpad 95 works with Live 9.2+, 32 bit or 64 bit, Mac or Windows, suite or intro or standard. Basically with every combination you may think of as long at it is live 9.2 or greater.
Of course Ableton from time to time change their Python Live without notification and therefore Launchpad95 might stop working. but i am trying to keep up and the changes.
if Launchpad95 stopped worked after an update, make sure to download the last version from my site.

3. Where should I put the script ?

On pc/windows 7 : inside "C:\ProgramData\Ableton\Live 9 Suite\Resources\MIDI Remote Scripts"
On a mac right-click the Live application you use (there might more than one installed!) and select "view package content", then browse to "App-Resources/MIDI Remote Scripts".

Inside this "MIDI Remote Scripts" folder, you should have a folder called "Launchpad95". inside this folder you should have a bunch of .py files, and a for each of them a .pyc file. (.pyc files are compiled version of the .py that live compiles as you start it.)

Sometimes a picture is worth 1000 words. Take a look at these screenshots.
- On a mac it look like this.
- on a pc like that

4. It does not work, I installed everything, but the launchpad does not light up when I select Launchpad95 in the dropdown in the preferences. what is wrong ?

It is hard to guess what you did wrong. You must have installed not the right way somehow. Try to install it from scratch again, download from this site, extract install, restart live. Among the list of things you can try to do :

• - check the you installed at the right place. (check question #3 !)
• - Pay attention to the folder name AND its full path. (again see screenshots in above in question #3)
• - how many versions of live do you have installed ?
• - are you running live 9.2 or greater ? for live 8 please use launchpad85. For live 9.0, upgrade to live 9.2+.

5. It does not work, I installed everything, but Launchpad95 does not appears the dropdown in the preferences. what is wrong ?

See question 4.

6. Note Feedback is not working in Instrument Controller

Make sure you activated the launchapd midi in/out as "track" in Live midi preferences.

7. good work ! I wish to donate ! is there a way to donate somehow ?

Sure ! Your donations allowed me to pay for the Launchpad Pro that is now supported ! thank you for this.
paypal to my account hdavid@mail.com.

Contact

feel free to contact me for any suggestions and bug reports.

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