If you have a small home studio, there aren’t many keyboards that will let you fit full-size keys into such a small space. However, one thing the Launchkey 25 Mk3 has in its favor is full-size keys. If you use Ableton, we would recommend the Launchkey 25 Mk3 as one of the best, if not the best, that you can buy.Īnyone using other DAWs will have better options, in our opinion. In the studio 4.0Īgain, how you rate the Launchkey 25 Mk3 in the studio will depend partly on which DAW you use. Some 25-key controllers have 16 assignable knobs, but fitting in more than eight is difficult when you have full-size keys. Once you are past all of that, having eight rotary knobs, 16 pads, and transport controls do give you a lot of control over your DAW/plugins. It’s just a little more time-consuming, that’s all. Of course, all of the controls are fully assignable, so you can map them any way you like for any DAW you want.
But, for other major DAWs, it provides native functionality only.
#NOVATION LAUNCHKEY 49 KEYBOARD CONTROLLER REVIEW FULL#
For Logic Pro and Reason, there is full integration and auto-mapping. The Launchkey 25 Mk3 is fully-compatible with all major DAWs however, the ease of integration varies. If you aren’t an Ableton user, all is not lost. It might not seem like much, but having even a handful of dedicated buttons and controls can improve your workflow dramatically. So, if you are a longtime Ableton user, it’s a no-brainer. The Novation Launchkey 25 Mk3 is undoubtedly best suited to Ableton users.
It also has some nice one-touch features for Ableton users, like dedicated Scene Launch and MIDI Capture buttons.
It has a small but very useful backlit LCD screen on the top left corner. On top of the new features, some previous features have been enhanced, like the arpeggiator, which is now more powerful than before. The Mutate function re-arranges your patterns, which is excellent if you are short of inspiration. Chord modes allow you to trigger chords from a single note using the keys or pads. Novation has added a few new features this time around, and the two that stand out most are Chord modes and Mutate. Launchkey 25 Mk3 / Image credit: Novation