Launchpad Mode 2.... Mind BLOWN
Posted: Wed May 08, 2019 11:08 pm
Hey Mixcrafters (is that the term we use?)
I am brand new to the Mixcraft gang (just got MC 8 Pro) and I have been poking and prodding around the settings, forums and manual.
One thing that I came across, which is not documented anywhere I can find, is how incredible the Launchpad Mode 2 is.
When you first connect the LP with Mode 2 selected in the Control Surfaces, you are given a modified performance mode page.
This page has the top row of 8 lit up for triggering sets, and you navigate the blue box with the arrow buttons at the top. The best part? The round buttons on the right are dedicated mute buttons for the corresponding lane. Honestly, I think this is a better set up than the standard performance mode template.
Now the really cool part are the other pages, which you can switch to with the session and user 1 button.
One press of user1 should take you to a piano layout page. The up and down arrows control the octave and the left and right arrows select the root note. The green round buttons on the side select the velocity that will be sent (from 15-127 in increments of 16). It's about to get exciting...
Since the standard piano layout is based on the major scale, changing root note will let you play major scales on the "white" keys. So if your song is in A major, press the right arrow until A is the first note on the left of the white keys (it's 10 presses), and now the white keys are playing the A major scale! Who needs music theory?
Well you certainly won't after you press user1 again. Now you are taken to a weird page that will only have 1 or 2 buttons lit up. It took me a bit a fiddling to figure out what is going on with this page, but once it clicked, that is when my mind was blown.
This page is a scale mode, with access to all the scales listed in the piano roll. Here is how it works...
There are 2 lights that move along the top rows of the LP. The Red light is controlled by the left and right arrows (one semi-tone at a time) and selects the root note with C being the 1st button in the top row and ending with B ad the 4th button in the second row. The Yellow light selects the scale and can be cycled through with the user1 button. The scales are the same 8 scales you can select in the piano roll, in the same order they are listed. So once you have your key and scale selected the entire Launchpad will be set up to play only the notes in the key and and scale, from left to right, with each row representing 1 octave. You can change the octaves just like the piano mode using the up and down arrows. As with the piano mode the green round buttons select velocity.
If you want to get back to the piano layout keep pressing user1, as it is the page after the last scale. Keep in mind, if you changed the root note in the scale mode, it also changes the root note for the piano layout. To get back to the performance mode, from the scale mode or piano mode, press session
I realize after typing this all up that my first post is a huge wall of text... some of it probably incomprehensible, but I searched high and low to see if this was documented somewhere and could not find it. Maybe my excited keyboard spam will help someone else discover how great the Launchpad Mode 2 is.
I am brand new to the Mixcraft gang (just got MC 8 Pro) and I have been poking and prodding around the settings, forums and manual.
One thing that I came across, which is not documented anywhere I can find, is how incredible the Launchpad Mode 2 is.
When you first connect the LP with Mode 2 selected in the Control Surfaces, you are given a modified performance mode page.
This page has the top row of 8 lit up for triggering sets, and you navigate the blue box with the arrow buttons at the top. The best part? The round buttons on the right are dedicated mute buttons for the corresponding lane. Honestly, I think this is a better set up than the standard performance mode template.
Now the really cool part are the other pages, which you can switch to with the session and user 1 button.
One press of user1 should take you to a piano layout page. The up and down arrows control the octave and the left and right arrows select the root note. The green round buttons on the side select the velocity that will be sent (from 15-127 in increments of 16). It's about to get exciting...
Since the standard piano layout is based on the major scale, changing root note will let you play major scales on the "white" keys. So if your song is in A major, press the right arrow until A is the first note on the left of the white keys (it's 10 presses), and now the white keys are playing the A major scale! Who needs music theory?
Well you certainly won't after you press user1 again. Now you are taken to a weird page that will only have 1 or 2 buttons lit up. It took me a bit a fiddling to figure out what is going on with this page, but once it clicked, that is when my mind was blown.
This page is a scale mode, with access to all the scales listed in the piano roll. Here is how it works...
There are 2 lights that move along the top rows of the LP. The Red light is controlled by the left and right arrows (one semi-tone at a time) and selects the root note with C being the 1st button in the top row and ending with B ad the 4th button in the second row. The Yellow light selects the scale and can be cycled through with the user1 button. The scales are the same 8 scales you can select in the piano roll, in the same order they are listed. So once you have your key and scale selected the entire Launchpad will be set up to play only the notes in the key and and scale, from left to right, with each row representing 1 octave. You can change the octaves just like the piano mode using the up and down arrows. As with the piano mode the green round buttons select velocity.
If you want to get back to the piano layout keep pressing user1, as it is the page after the last scale. Keep in mind, if you changed the root note in the scale mode, it also changes the root note for the piano layout. To get back to the performance mode, from the scale mode or piano mode, press session
I realize after typing this all up that my first post is a huge wall of text... some of it probably incomprehensible, but I searched high and low to see if this was documented somewhere and could not find it. Maybe my excited keyboard spam will help someone else discover how great the Launchpad Mode 2 is.