Your Novation LaunchKey thoughts

[Toki]

So I’m in the market for a new MIDI controller.

Currently have an Axiom Air Mini and Maschine MK1. The Air Mini Hyper Control is seemingly broken and only the sustain key acts as a toggle, so loop and record are unassignable. As for having pitch and mod on buttons, that’s a no go for me. Meanwhile Apple silicon has essentially bricked Maschine MK1 with no fix in sight from NI.

The LaunchKey 25 looks perfect for me. Plenty of assignable controls including transport which I like to keep hidden in Reason, 16 pads and 2 octaves. I like the look of the scales and arpeggio features too. I’d love to know if anyone gets much use out of these as I’m on the verge of buying Chord Sequencer but may hold off if these features are well implemented.

The posts I found here on compatibility with Reason are mixed, but also 3-4 years old. Has compatibility improved? I’d likely go for MK4.

It looks like a great controller, hopefully the build quality is as good as it appears in the photos too. Never owned a Novation product so no idea about their gear.

[gkillmaster]

I'm very happy with my LaunchKey Mini. Smacks of quality both in design and hardware and implementation and continual improvements.

[rorystorm]

I got a launchkey 49 about five years ago which I was very happy with at the time - good amount of controls, pretty decent keyboard and good integration with Reason. Coupla downsides - no aftertouch, and if you're finger drumming, though the pads will play sounds from Kong or Redrum etc, they won't record. So that's a bummer. Recently upgraded to an Akai MPK249 with aftertouch and you can record with the drum pads, nice arpeggiator too (though with this annoyingly I can't seem to edit its remote mapping, probably something I'm doing wrong).

[Toki]

I'm very happy with my LaunchKey Mini. Smacks of quality both in design and hardware and implementation and continual improvements.

Nice!

I got a launchkey 49 about five years ago which I was very happy with at the time - good amount of controls, pretty decent keyboard and good integration with Reason. Coupla downsides - no aftertouch, and if you're finger drumming, though the pads will play sounds from Kong or Redrum etc, they won't record. So that's a bummer. Recently upgraded to an Akai MPK249 with aftertouch and you can record with the drum pads, nice arpeggiator too (though with this annoyingly I can't seem to edit its remote mapping, probably something I'm doing wrong).

I think the new one has aftertouch. As for the drum pads issue, that sounds like a MIDI mapping problem with the controller editor. Or they screwed up the Reason script. Thanks for pointing it out though, as that would be a no sale if the pads were useless.

Be great to know if anyone with an MK3/4 has the pads working, I’m sure they must have fixed this by now. I’m down for spending time in the controller editor but if it’s gonna be fruitless I’ll look at other options.

[gkillmaster]

I should mention that I've really liked Nektar controllers as well. Seem very well thought out. And the software for them is superb.