Novation Launchpad

I came across this device being used by a photographer: Launch | Novation

It is designed for music applications, as as such communicates via MIDI commands. His was set up to trigger macros using Keyboard Maestro, as well as to control Adobe Lightroom use a free/open source app called MIDI2LR that receives MIDI commands and translates them into Lightroom controls using an LR plugin.

It looked somewhat interesting as an alternative to a StreamDeck.

Pro:
— It looks to be cheaper for a larger set of buttons that can be programmed.
— The mini version looks like, being flat and small, it gives a greater degree of portability with a large button set compared with a StreamDeck
— It might be fun to play with and to try to get working for whatever purpose

Con:
— The buttons are LED lit (it looks like the current models can do a decent part of RGB display), but are not graphical in the sense of putting custom icons or images on them, so as a result you pretty much have to remember what each button does rather than customizing button appearances on the StreamDeck to make it clear what button does what
— It seems there is better support for using the StreamDeck on a Mac, eg in Keyboard Maestro, although my (limited) exploration thus far suggests that there are two different KM plugins for this purpose and it is not clear to me exactly how one gets up and running (although I suppose there is no more experimentation here than there would be with the Launch product).

Anyone know more about this thing?

Yes, it’s a common matrix controller for electronic musicians. I own one of the very first generation ones and composed a few tracks on the go using it in my travelling setup (that model was quite portable). On my regular setup, I use one the main contenders which is the Push 2 by Ableton. I don’t know that precise model you’ve linked but I’m quite familiar with how they work. What would you like to know?

If you have an ipad lying around: this does the same for around 30,-

http://www.metasystem.io/metagrid/

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