hey everyone I'm Xylo Aria and today I have the new launch key MK3 so
this is a launch key 61 they also come in the 25 37 49 and 61 as well so I just
wanted to go through with you exactly how to use this and there are some
really cool functions that they've included in the MK3 that weren't
there in the MK2 but it might be a little bit difficult to get your head
around if you're just kind of having a fiddle around but once you know the
basics of how to use it it is pretty intuitive so this has kind of been built
to work with Ableton so I will use Ableton to explain that as well it does
work with other dear w's but I think this is really perfect for Ableton so
firstly when you plug that in you just got to see the settings on your able
turn on how to set this up so if you go into preferences and then you go into
the MIDI I've got the launch keys settings like this so that's what worked
for me and yes so you can just have a look at that and set yours up the same
way yeah and now you're pretty much ready to go with that so let's just look
at what exactly is included so here there's a few kind of main control
functions then you've got your pots up the top you've got your pads down the
bottom you've got the faders here and some transport controls over here so
let's start with this section here so here you've got the screen which is
awesome so you can see what you're doing here which there was a screen in the
last one but it wasn't great so then you've got the shift button this is
where you access the functions of what each part of the keyboard is controlling
so in here you can look into what your pads pots and your faders do as well so
we'll have a look at that and then in your settings you can go into this and
actually customize parts of the keyboard so you know in here it'll tell you what
you're looking at so you can change your channels for the
you can change things like aftertouch and your brightness for the pads and
things so I'll leave you to kind of explore that but I haven't really
changed in these settings then just kept them normal with these you can scroll
across on your tracks and then with this function here this kind of acts like
kind of like a mouse in a way so if you go into your browser you can actually
roll through sounds and if you press ENTER then which is this key here it
actually enters that into a new track so that's a really cool function to have
and it stops you from kind of looking at your computer all the time
and then this is your fixed chord function so with that press down you can
actually press a number of different keys up to six and the screen will tell
you what exactly you've pressed and then every key that you press will trigger
that same chord interval that you added so that's a pretty cool function and
then you've got your RPG Aitor so in your arpeggiator when I press this
you'll see that a bunch of different settings come up so in the arpeggiator
you can control the settings using your keys down here or your pads and your
pots as well so there's lots that you can do what you control with your keys
and what can you chill with your pads are actually the same so it's just the
way that you go about doing it so in the keys you've got the type of
arpeggiator so you've got a few settings here you've got the rate few settings
there and your octaves how many octaves you want and the rhythm as well so you
need to choose something from each one of those settings so this is the same as
the pads so if I go into up you can see the first thing when I press it it says
type so it's got the same thing so up down up down
played whatever it is and then the next thing here when I click that into the
right so again you've got your rates so quarter eighth sixteenth whatever it is
and then the next thing you've got an octave so yeah so you can scroll through
these functions up here as well so if I use my keys to select these if I press
shift and I say I want something that goes up with a sixteenth note and two
octaves and then that's kind of what's set for you and then you can
actually in your pad settings latch that so when that is turned on when I play
you don't actually have to hold it down and it will keep playing you can turn
that off as well and when that's played you can use these pots to change what's
going on on the flyer so there's tempo this swing that is gate and there's
mutate and there's dv8 so mutate and deviate
will change around kind of the arpeggiation as well so that is all the
functions in your art and then you can go into scale mode so this is probably
my favorite function in the keyboard so with the scale mode you will never be
able to play ahead of scale which is really handy if you're playing live and
that's something you're worried about so what happens with that is when you press
shift and scale then the scale menu comes up so with this you can change the
kind of scale so this will tell you what you're looking at so minor major Dorian
there's a few other ones and then when you press the key so C D E whatever it
is it sets the root note of the scale so now we are at C minor so if I play my
keys
you can see that the D sharp and the e are playing the same note because it is
playing everything in a C minor so when that's on and your art is on as well yet
your arpeggiation will always be in key as well which is really handy so those
those two things there and then your plus and your - just goes up octaves so
yeah you've got that as well then you've got your pitch meet pitch wheel and the
modulation wheel I think I've got nothing to modulate there but yeah so
that's pretty much that section on the top here let's look at the pads first so
with the pads if you go into shift so well press shift you'll notice that a
few things line up here the blue things up the top control what the pots do the
green things control what the pads do and then these things control what your
faders do so if we're looking at the pads first you have a few options here
you've got session drum scale chord and user chord so the first one if I go into
session mode then these 16 pads will represent two scenes in your Ableton
session modes so as you can see in the session view I've got two things in
track four and five two clips that I can either trigger each clip separately
or I can also trigger the whole so yeah so that's how you use the session mode
but then with this bottom thing here if I had clips down the bottom you'd see
them here as well in your second scene but you can also use this as a stop solo
or mute button as well so that's really cool so say we've got this in stop mode
this you can actually stop those clips as well so if it's in solo mode then you
can solo them and then press it again your session view so that's really handy
and then if we go into the second thing you've got drums so this will act just
like a drum pad so if I go into something that has drums yet just acts
like your drum pad and you can scroll through your samples with these two
arrows so that's cool and then the next thing if you go into scale chord mode
there's a lot of different chords that they've integrated that you can play
around with so here you kind of have four pages of different chords so and
they will change according to the scale that you're in as well so the first one
is your basic triads and then you've got sevenths up here and then if
you go down one you've got nice so again in the screen it tells you what you're
looking at so you've got knives and then you've got six nights in the last page
so that's your scale chord and then if we go shift again and use a chord you
can actually program these pads into whatever chords that you want so if we
are in user chord mode we just hold something down and then press all the
keys that you want in that chord and then you can kind of get program these
how you want them up to six keys so if you want to delete that just hold this
down and press them again and it deletes it so you've got all those options an
accession at drum scale chord and user chord and then you've got four different
custom mode so if you go into Novation's components so it's either online or you
can download their standalone components with that you can program what your pads
do so you have four different pages of settings that you can use there as well
and then if we go into your pots we're going to shift so remember these are
your pots so if we go into device then this controls all the little knobs in
your device right so you can also in your device select what you're looking
at so if we hold down this device select then so I've got a grand piano and a
reverb in there so I can change between what I'm selecting so also in your
reverb you know you have a lot more settings that you can change around so
you've got three different pages here so so in the first one I'm using the first
knob it's changing something in the second page it's changing something else
the last page it's changing something else so like for example if we're
changing the wet-dry and say you don't want to you don't want that to change
when you move around in the tracks you can also lock that device so now that
device is locked so this changes the wet/dry
if I move to another track if I change this it's still changing the wet-dry in
the reverb it hasn't moved on so that's a way to kind of keep control on the
same thing and then you can press it again and that takes off your device a
lot so that's your device so the next thing is your volume so when you have
volume that's pretty self-explanatory this moves up and down all your volume
faders in the first eight tracks and and then you've got panning and you can see
that that's changing around the panning in your different tracks and then you've
got your sins as well so again you've got your Center a and B so now I'm
changing the send a and I would if you press it again it would go to send B but
that is now being controlled by the faders so I'll get into what I mean by
that but then you've got your four different pads here so again if you go
into components and change around what these pads are then that gives you four
more ways to control what your pots do so that's pretty much it up to here
so with this you've got your faders so you've got 8 faders for 8 tracks and
then you've got your master fader as well so with these if you press shift
again you have access to what they do so you've got device volume send a and send
B and one thing to note is that what this is controlling cannot also be
controlled by other pots so say this is on volume you can't also select volume
on the pots so yeah so it shows you in orange what is controlling what so again
we have device you can change around what your device is doing with these you
have the volume and then that becomes a volume fader for your different tracks
and then you've got send a and send B as well so so now it's changing send be on
track for and yeah and then again like the pots and the pads you've got four
different custom ways of how these faders are used which you can
go into components and change that around as well and then you've got his
arm select button so with this when this is off then clicking these things is
going to change which track is being selected for our me to record if you
press it again then this becomes select so this basically you can just select
between track so it's a little bit like scrolling with your tracks but you can
kind of jump around a bit more with these so that's your arm select button
and then with these these are your transport buttons and these are pretty
self-explanatory so you've got your place you've got you stop
you've got your record as well and you've got the loop on and off so all of
these were in the previous model these four are new so say you are playing
something that you really liked and you forgot to
record it if you go into capture MIDI then it actually captures the thing that
you played so that is they are the chords that I played and if you want to
quantize that then you can just press this quantize and that will snap
everything to the beat so that's really handy to have and then this has quick
access to your click so when I press that you can see the click turning on
and off and and then you've got your undo button so that just undo is the
last thing that you did so if I press it once it's undone the quantize and then
again it's undone be recording so that's pretty much all the functions covered
there so if you have any questions or you're not sure of how to use something
let me know in the comments and I can help you and yeah let me know what you
think of the keyboard as well and yeah if you liked the video please subscribe
to the channel and yeah hope you have a great day