Watch: How creative can I be with the new Launchkey?
Discover what creative tools come built in with the new Novation Launchkey and how you can use them to feel inspired and enhance your music production skills.
Performing and composing with Launchkey is easier than ever, thanks to its wide range of creative tools for instant jamming and pattern creation in any key.
Scale Mode
Choose from 30 scales to eliminate wrong notes while playing. Scale Mode offers three different ways to transpose keys to fit your personal preference:
- Easy Scale Mode: Maps all the notes in your chosen scale to the white keys on your Launchkey, from C to C.
- Snap to Scale Mode: Automatically rounds any notes outside your chosen scale to the nearest correct note.
- Filter Out of Scale Mode: Filters out notes that aren’t in the chosen scale, so if you press a key that doesn’t fit the scale, that note won’t play.
Chord Map Mode
With a scale selected, enabling Chord Map mode transforms Launchkey’s pads into a sequence of eight chords within the scale.
The encoders give you access to parameters to change the chords, Adventure, Explore, Spread, and Roll . Changing the Adventure and Explore parameters gives you access to the 40 banks of eight chords. The Spread and Roll parameters change the way the chords sound.
The six performance modifier pads let you perform the chords in different ways. In Manual Arp Up and Downmodes, each press cycles through the chord's notes in ascending or descending order. Inversion Up and Down play different chord inversions with each press. Bass and Chord plays the bass note first, followed by the chord, while Left and Right separates the chord into left and right hand versions.
User Chord Mode
Launchkey’s flexibility extends to User Chord Mode, which lets you create custom progressions across the pads. This feature supports song learning, performance, and confident jamming. To assign a chord, simply press an empty pad and play the notes you want on the keyboard.
Fixed Chord Mode
Fixed Chord enables complex chord transposition. Set up a chord using the keys and play it in new places with a single key press—ideal for players of any skill level. Activate Scale Mode to transpose your chord while staying perfectly in key.
Generative Arpeggiator
Launchkey’s Generative Arpeggiator now allows effortless creation and transformation of musical sequences with the new eight-step editor via Arp Pattern mode. Turn steps on and off, and also assign accents, ratchets, and ties to your pattern creating instantly satisfying patterns.
No matter your experience level, the new Launchkey puts creative tools at your fingertips and inspires melodies, basslines, and chords for your music.
