Controlling Novation Launchkey mini leds

Tomer Baruch's icon

Hello all,
Have anyone managed to control the leds on the Novation Launchkey mini from within max msp? It must be possible since they are meant to be controlled from abletone live. I tried to follow the Launchcontrol manual and there they say that you have to send a note on value to the same note/channel that they pad is set on. I tried mailed novation and they could only offer me very limited help - ie none. I tried sending all possible midi messages to the keyboard and absolutely nothing happend.
Help would be greatly appreciated.

Best,
Tomer

John Loftus's icon

Hi Tomer,

I am sorry that we were unable to provide a solution to your problem on this occasion.
Your request is fairly advanced, it is great to see that you are trying to push the boundaries of this device.

Unfortunately, there is not currently a 'developers guide' available for the Launchkey Mini which is why our support was minimal.

I am unable to offer any guidance in terms of how to achieve this specifically within Max MSP, but I would suggest that you use a program such as http://www.midiox.com/ or http://www.snoize.com/MIDIMonitor/ to find the values generated by the parameters that you wish to control.

Good luck with this project, let us know how you get on.

Kind regards,

John Loftus // Novation Technical Support.

David Butler's icon

I think it's quite poor that as a representative of the manufacturer, your response is to advise the customer to try and reverse-engineer your own protocol...

daddymax's icon

i dont have a Launchkey, but i played around with the midi on the launchpad extensively. If this device is similar to the launchpad, the advice you got is correct - the midi key/CC that a button/knob sends OUT, is the same message that will light up the interface when sent back IN. The key relates to which knob, and the velocity relates to how high you set the value (and LED brightness).

i dont actually use/know ableton well, but if you have a copy of max or m4l (or the programs mentioned by John above) you can definitely get this working with only a little perseverance.

Tomer Baruch's icon

Ok, so eventually someone at Novation gave me a hand!
I think my main problem was that I didn't know I was supposed to set InControl to On, otherwise it doesn't work.
There is also a message that sets it on from the computer then all the rest is nice and easy.
Here is a simple code that shows how to do it for all those who are interested:

LaunchkeyMiniControl.maxpat
Max Patch
Yue Qiao's icon

Thanks a lot for the patch above!

Joe X Med O''s icon

hey, thanks for the patch....
in my case I got a Launchkeyy25 MK3, and got the pads colors, also I had to use [midiformat] to be able to set InControl on or off, but then use the list directly to [midiout] to change the colors, weird, here's the patch:

Max Patch
Copy patch and select New From Clipboard in Max.

Joe X Med O''s icon

update, got the 4 pads located at the left and right of the main 16 pads in the center to change color, or at least to lit up, here's the updated patch:

Max Patch
Copy patch and select New From Clipboard in Max.

Source Audio's icon

144 is status byte for midi note on, midi channel 1
159 same but midi channel 16

what midi channel is your device set to ?
if 16, then simple message 159 12 127
or 159 12 0 to midiout will toggle that InControl
in case midi note 12 on channel 16 with that velocty does so.
No need for that complicated bunch of stuff.

You need to know correct midi messages for stuff that you
need to control and send them
on right midi channel.


Joe X Med O''s icon

ok thanks,
I still don't know much about MIDI protocol, so it was hard for me to understand...

Source Audio's icon

If you need any assistance, just post the questions here, no problem.
Here is extract from old max 4 documantation, dealing with midi messages
it was so simple to read...

Midi.pdf
application/pdf 88.63 KB