Since seeing all the viral videos and images across the world wide web I wanted to see the Novation Launchpad in its flesh, or button covered plastic jacket in this case. Luckily Soundware was the first dealer in the UK to see this in action as Focusrite representative  Steve Beeston demonstrated the colourful piece of kit for us in store.

I was very impressed with this new unit although I did have a few questions to be answered to which I was again very surprised when I heard the answers. Read on to see the Launchpad in all its colourful glory…

First impressions of this were great, it feels rock solid, sturdy on the desk with its rubber pads underneath and the one thing that surprised me the most was, as soon as you plugged it in – it worked!! I mean,  especially on the Macbook with Ableton Live already running, you plug the USB cable in and the Launchpad lights up and works there and then. No waiting for drivers or connections or buttons to flash on and off it was simply instant whilst Ableton Live was running. Of course this integration will come from another Live update in 8.0.6 which I was told would be available upon its release.

The size of the unit was attractive too, especially for those who will be taking it for live performances in their studio bags or laptop bags. When Steve pulled the unit out of it’s neoprene protective sleeve I first thought it was a small 15″ macbook. Once it was hooked up Steve mentioned it does come with a right angled USB adapter if needed so your USB cable isn’t sticking right out of the side and would be sticking up leaving space for another unit to live adjacent to it.

Obviously more buttons in comparison to the APC40 are available and larger too for those of you with fat fingers. But the buttons feel exactly the same as the APC40 – same action and same velocity sensitivity. The one thing the Launchpad’s buttons do have over the APC40 is the touch sensitive action of the volume levels which is a clever idea. Although when in mixer mode and using the buttons as volume levels it is easier to just increment the volume by pressing individual buttons rather than running your finger across them.

Yes the Launchpad does not have real faders or extra knobs but what it offers in comparison does the job well using touch sensitive buttons to control Volume, Sends, Pan, Mutes,  and Solos etc at a fraction of the cost of an APC40 at only £149.99 (at time of writing). We were told this will be in stock by the release date – the 2nd of November.

I will do a better Novation Launchpad versus the Akai APC40 review in the very near future, but for now with its extra Automap features, user mappings (so you can map it with other Midi enabled software) the ability to have a number of Launchpads hooked up together this looks to be such a steal at that price.

So pre-order yours now here to guarantee yourself owning one or more of these fabulous units.

There will also be a bundle deal at a lower cost with Ableton Live 8 as an upgrade from Ableton Live Launchpad edition that you get with the unit around it’s release date so keep an eye on that one.

Ps. Excuse the darkness of the photos, we shot these with the lights off in the store to capture the illuminated buttons better..To make up for it you maybe want to watch this promo video if you already haven’t: