Novation Launchcontrol XL mkiii / midi feedback from Drambo
Hey everyone. Does anyone have the new Novation launch control XL? Since they’ve replaced the knobs with endless encoders I’m wondering how good midi feedback from Drambo is back to it? Do all knob positions update reliably from Drambo back to the controller? and if it’s good I have interesting ideas of how you could use it with Drambo to make something along the lines of the neuzeit drop…
Comments
I got mine about a month ago and love it. My setup uses the Launchpad Mini MK3 for sequencing (with full feedback), and the Launchcontrol XL3 for the tracks. My typical mapping is sliders for track volume/velocity and the knobs for basic synth parameters (cutoff, resonance, release). Because LED brightness is the only indicator I don’t bother with (currently) no feedback in Drambo.
My plan is to use it as a front end for analog sequencer style apps like MIDIdreams, midistep or the MetropleXT Mozaic script. The mapping would be sliders for pitch, knobs for velocity, gate and probability, and the buttons for mute / skip.
Cool! That’s a great setup you have there. How do you find the knobs for controlling parameters quickly like, are they resistive, can you do quick sweeps of filters? I’ve had a few midi controllers where the knobs are too slow to perform with. Same question for the faders - i may go ahead with it soon! Either that or another fader bank from midi-controller-modz.com
The hardware is of excellent quality. In my opinion fully justifying the price. The knobs feel good: They seem to be optical encoders without the ratchet feeling you get with cheap mechanical ones. They are accelerated and the acceleration rate can be set in the global settings (on the device, you don't need "Components" for this). I set the acceleration on my XL3 to maximum. This means both quick filter sweeps and slow accurate adjustment is possible. The sliders are of equal quality but are not accelerated. They have the right size so you can slide multiple faders with one hand - like the throttles of an airliner.
I got myself the Decksaver plastic cover to keep the controller tidy and specially the faders dust free.
The only downside of the XL3 is not the device but that there is no configuration software for Linux and iOS. You need a Mac or Windows. It was a great idea from Novation to make their "Components" configuration software both a standalone and a web application. Sadly they don't support Linux, and I am still holding a gudge against Apple for resisting to implement WebMIDI in their crippled iOS browser.
thanks for your response it sounds like a good purchase!
I think of you install chrome browser on your iOS device it should work
This sadly won’t work. It is Apples policy that all browser apps have to use their limited Safari engine as backend. And wrappers like “Web MIDI browser” are not working well.
I can only talk about the MIDI Fighter Twister but its LED rings work great with MIDI value feedback as well.
I just got one myself…
For WebMIDI try
https://apps.apple.com/nl/app/midiweb-browser/id6757226617
I tried it a couple of days ago and the Components web app told me it wasn’t iOS compatible. But now midiwebbrower has received an update, so at least you can now change your settings on the controller on your iDevice. Thanks for the tip. Strudel can also now send midi to Drambo using that same app.