Launchkey Mini Mk3 terrible with Reason :(

[fceramic]

I purchased this mainly for Bitwig, but since there was official support for Reason I gave it a go.
I doubt the person who made this did any QA testing as there are so many fundamental flaws.
1. Drum pads do not work! The pads are only used for selecting which Kong pad to control with the knobs. Useless.
2. If you press play again while the transport is running nothing happens! You have to use two hands to press shift + play to stop or pause playback.
3. Track selection is broken as it jumps by two tracks at a time. Whyyyyy??
4. No way to toggle click track or loop.

So if you're a Reason user stay faaaar away from this midi controller.
Did anyone have luck improving this or finding a better script?

[DaveyG]

Install; it as a generic controller and you can use MIDI learn to make it work. A PITA though.

[mimidancer]

Agree with Blue Davey, you should custom map it and save your changes to a template.

[Jac459]

Akai Mini Mk3 works very well with reason... This is the best cheap solution I guess (didn't try the arturia mini though)

[Steedus]

My MK2 version has a kind of function key which looks like a right facing arrow > depending on if this is switched on of off, Kong controls differently with the pads. I think one mode is pattern control mode, whereas the other is more your traditional pad triggering. Give it a try on yours.

[honeyBadger]

It looks like the mk3 has a drum pad mode, did you try enabling it by pressing shift plus the pad that has “Drum” above it?

[fceramic]

The Drum mode does not seem to do anything when using the remote map. The custom mode just turns the pads chromatic which is not very useful since I can't transpose them.

I really like the AKAI mini but that it doesn't have transport controls was a bit of a deal breaker. Besides the keys, I think the transport controls are the most important feature on a midi controller.

[bluedog_sd]

I've been using the MK3 for a few years because I live nomadically and yes - it totally sucks ..... but it fits in my travel bag and the price was right. I tried other Mini Midis in the stores and found nothing that was more worthwhile. That said - and - here comes the plug for my own product but I hope it's legitimately so - I wound up trying to find something to use as a controller with my Tablet that I travel with and found TouchOSC (an app that is a MIDI control surface playground to build WIFI controllers that are on your device) and I spent the last 8 months building a 100% connected template for the SSL, the transport and a couple of devices so far. TouchOSC costs $10, my template costs $10 and for me it really serves so many functions making music that I was looking for. I call it JQD Mirror - it's available at https://jqdmirror.com/ - I use it in conjunction with my Mini MK3 - you will see the MK3 in the pictures if you check it out. Given that you are buying a mini controller it's my guess that either space or travel are part of your consideration and so this really IMO bridges that gap!

[JackAroundOne]

Hi there.

Maybe the following could help a little bit since I´m using the Novation Launchkey 49 MK3. I hope it translates to the Mini aswell for you.

A workaround I found for using the Drumpads on something like Kong is to map the individual notes per pad using User Chord mode. This way I can use all 16 pads from Kong by triggering them with the 16 pads from the Launchkey-Controller.

Maybe I don´t get the second point enough because of language barrier (I´m from Germany) and if so then please excuse me. But on my Launchkey all the Play, Stop, Undo, Loop buttons work but I also downloaded the latest driver from Novation, loaded the Reason script from the homepage and loaded the latest Keyboard-Firmware via Novation Components. Maybe it is worth to check it out if something from the mentioned Downloads is missing at the latest version?

For the track selection it helped for me that I switched the order of instruments in the mixer/rack. So it will switch one by one when I press left or right.

The only thing that isn´t working for me are the faders on the mixer (its like kind of laggy or something when I try to move the Master fader for example, really weird). But I wouldn´t use them anyways tbh, so this is not that much of a problem for me. But if someone knows how to fix this I would also appreciate it just for the "perfection".

I hope that at least something could help you or some other person.

I really love the Launchkey and everything that I need is working flawlessly in Reason for me. It is really nice playable, the Drumpads are nice and the overall feel and features like arp/chords/scales are really cool and genuine imo. But it wouldn´t hurt if the Reason Script could be updated by Novation or Reason Studios for things like the faders.

Anyways, please excuse my english, have a nice day and stay healthy.