Novation Launch Control XL Controller for Ableton Live Reviews

Bast value in midi controllers! I'm a Logic Pro user and wish that HUI were better documented and more stable, but that's not a problem with the Launch Control. I hope Novation eventually develops a firmware upgrade that will work as seamlessly with Apple as it does with Ableton.

I got a Korg NanoKontrol2 a while back, mainly for controlling Spitfire plugins. It's okay but I wish I had bought this instead. This has everything you could possibly need plus much longer faders than the Korg.

I've been torturing my device for years. Gigs on beachs, humidity, tropical weather, got beer spilled over it, ashes everything. Absolute stress test the sh*t out of it and it works just like day 1. It's so easy to modify and customize for standalone sets, you don't even need a software to change it. I had issues once because I wasn't using Chrome and Novation helped me directly over the phone. I send this mf to a usb to midi kenton box to control my Octatrack or I use it via USB to my MPC live 2. I haven't tested how it works with other DAWs so do your research but with Ableton and standalone sets. It's worth every penny. Love it love it love it.

I bought this to help with automating dynamics, expression and vibrato for my Spitfire BBCSO plugins in Pro Tools for virtual orchestration. I hate the mod wheel and I like to edit expression and dynamics in tandem and the faders have a good amount of throw and a good feel for this purpose.

In that regard, it probably has 5 more faders and a bunch more knobs and buttons than I need for this application, but since the device editor is user friendly and gives a lot of options, I'm sure I'll gradually come up with some uses for the buttons and knobs along the way, it's not like the footprint of the device is hogging up that much desktop space.

In a way, I'm glad it doesn't have "plug n' play" functionality with PT like it does with Ableton. Since PT uses HUI for controlling PT faders it's nice to know I'm not accidentally automating some volume faders over yonder in this huge orchestration session... I can always enable it in HUI devices if I'm doing a printed-down audio mix.

This is the most solid piece of Novation gear I own...it's built like a tank. The sliders are very firm so I rarely accidentally bump them. It very programable, almost every button, slider, and knob can be configured in Novation's control software. I like to use this along side the Launchpad Pro to control different things.

i use this as way to control ableton with clyphx pro.... i have a user bank set up that triggers and action and the buttons control different clip and things such bpm up or down, tap tempo, my encoders control all the sends and returns.... faders are set up to control certain tracks and switching layout on session view tracks to fold tracks and have only certain tracks show at the moving of the fader. and that is just on my user bank 1,,,, i have 7 more to set up.

:-)

First let me say that I obtained this unit primarily to use with my iPad Pro as a MIDI Controller for customizing the many sounds of the many apps that are available. With all the controls and the Midi Learn function on most apps they are a perfect fit. When Midi Learn isn't available the Launch Control is fully programmable utilizing the downloaded editor from the Novation website. With the abundance of controls it makes it a perfect fit with any of the AudioKit apps and a host of others. Plus it does interface with Ableton being instantly recognized and usable. Watch any of the many of the tutorials available on Vimeo for more information. iOS. Ableton, Ampify, and Launch Control are the perfect fit.

There are surprisingly not many control surface mixers out there to choose from with this many knobs. I use filters on most of my instruments so having two full rows for extra effects right off the bat is quite nice. The action of the knobs and faders is moderately stiff, which I prefer above loose action. There is an easy to use customizer software that allows you to choose color schemes, assign CC values and MIDI Channels to each control element, and then store up to 8 user settings right on the device to recall on the spot. This thing works every time I plug it in and it works very well with Ableton Live.

It just freakin' works. And/or, it can work the way you want to. We just got this and literally plugged it in moments before a rehearsal, and it just worked already. No drivers, no updating the firmware, no registering stuff, no bugs, no hoops to jump through, no unexpected hiccups, no tricky settings to figure out how to navigate, no learning curve whatsoever, it just instantly worked exactly as you would expect. AND it was insanely simple and quick to re-program a couple of the knobs for our own purposes to use in a different way than the default functionality. I really wish all music products were this bomb-proof, simple, and flexible and just plain EASY to work with. Then we could all be PLAYING music instead of having to worry about trying to get stuff to work. 150 stars out of 5.

I bought this for an unusual reason. I wanted something as a knob controller for my Moog Model D plugin. With some googling I figured out how to connect it to Logic, mapped the knobs I needed, et voila, I could turn the knobs on my screen with my hands. In combination with my two keyboards I can map out an entire moog. So you probably won't buy it for this purpose, but you can. The world is your oyster.

I wanted a midi controller that would give me more knobs & sliders for VST instrument control and also allow for DAW control. LCXL works great for both. I can control tracks in Reaper using HUI. 8 tracks at any one time [volume, pan, mute, solo, rec arm]... left/right arrows on LCXL moves 8 tracks backwards forwards on your mixer. After setting up HUI in Reaper that becomes the default startup [factory] mode. 8 fully programmable user modes are available by pressing [user] + button [1-8]. 24 encoders, 8 sliders, 24 buttons for each user patch... very nice. Switch back and forth between user and factory and user modes on the fly no problem. Appears to be built very solidly.

User mode patch programming allows setting LED colors for encoders but NOT buttons [HUI mode lights up and uses all the buttons]. You CAN set the LED colors for buttons in user mode via SYSEX and the colors will stick through a session and mode switches [it remembers what patch you changed color on and restores it when you switch back and forth]... but they don't save with a patch and don't respond to button state... without sending some SYSEX you get buttons with no LEDs in user mode. Programming utility is easy to use but it's a little time consuming as you need to set each control individually. Default patches for factory and user all use same controller numbers and notes... with user 1-8 routed to midi channel 1-8 and factory 1-8 routed to midi channel 9-16.

It's really a nice piece of gear and overall I'm very happy with it.

I use this when recording music to my Sound Devices MixPre 10ii. Works great! Takes a second to get used to the faders and pots, but it's a nice little device. To get the SD to recognize moves like pan and faders, you often have to do a bit sweeping maneuver to get it to wake up and then set your dial quick. Kind of odd, but so far that seems to be how it works. Not a big deal in most situations.

Great product for the price! Again Novation has done a great job with a product that is affordable and well built. I purchased this to use for a midi controller with my lighting software and so far it is stellar. My only complaint is not enough knobs and sliders to use for a lighting controller, but oh well.

Works exactly how you would expect and can be easily reprogrammed. I would say it's a great product for it's price however it isn't built to last. A year and a few months into owning it I discovered there was an issue with the midi CC messages being cent by the track focus and track control buttons. I researched it online and it turned out to be a really common problem that a lot of users were experiencing. This broke the units core functionality for me and when I tried to contact novation for repairs they wanted me to pay for a hardware fault that was clearly a production flaw.

TL:DR

Great product until it the buttons stop working and they expect you to shoulder the repair costs.

First jsut wanted to say this is a really cool controller with legit feature sets. different colored led buttons and with really in depth options to program and customize it. The build from the outside is fantastic. solid plastic housing screwed together and the knobs are bolted on as well making this one of the strongest & lightest midi controllers out there...

However it was too good to be true. After using it weekly for a year it finally failed me. The buttons send out multiple midi midi notes on press. Also sometimes the faders send continuous CC of different values even though I'm not touching them. There are multiple YouTube videos documenting this behavior as well as numerous comments from users experiencing the same issue with 0 follow thru from Novation.

How many more controllers need to end up in the landfill because they are poorly designed? Protect the squirrels. One Love.

Don't buy this unit, and further more, I would seriously question the quality of Novation products as well.
Here is why. I purchased this back in 2016. I didn't use it much back then. But in 2021 I needed to use this device for articulation switching for my DAW. Several buttons on this device are sending the WRONG MIDI information to my DAW. I've googled this to see if other have the same problems like me. They do! I reached out to Novation and told them the problem with the bad MIDI data being sent when you press some of the button on the device. They eventually got back to me and asked me to test this using a MIDI monitor. I did just that. I found out that "Some" of the button send the wrong MIDI CC and Note information to the MIDI monitor. I also made sure that I updated this device with the latest Firmware available from Novation.

I've sent back a 8 Page test document with graphic details on the problems with this device. I haven't heard back from Novation yet.

What I can't understand is how can a company such as Novation keep selling this to people out there, when this problem STILL EXISTS! Seriously, save your time and money. Don't buy this! Again, this really baffles my mind that they would actually allow this unit to be sold this way? Absolutely ridiculous!

"take over mode" function in Ableton is useless with LCXL so 8 user bank is also useless. Knobs and faders are jump into current position if you change the bank. So if you assign different parameters with same knob and different bank, it won't work like your imaging.

So disappoint. Plz don't buy it until they solving it.