Back in early May, Novation announced that they would be releasing a new version of their Launch Control device.
The current version – now known as Mk 2 – came out back in 2014 and whilst it is still a very useful bit of kit, it was due a refresh from both a functionality and an aesthetic perspective.
Novation demoed the Mk 3 at their Superbooth stand a month ago and it was featured on the YouTube channels of plenty of attendees, not least as part of Sonicstate’s outstanding Superbooth 25 coverage.
Whilst it’s not the most eye-catching of new products, especially among the treasure trove in Berlin, the point of a controller such as this is the impact it can have on how you use your music set-up.
Hardware-wise, the main upgrade in Mk 3 is the presence of endless encoders, just as we saw with the upgraded Launchkey last year.
There have been a variety of approaches over the years to matching physical knob controls with those in a DAW, all with their own pros and cons. The endless encoder option makes a lot of sense as it takes away one of the variables: the position of the physical knob.
As the endless encoder doesn’t have a physical position (e.g. 0-10), it is always in the correct position relative to whatever function it is assigned to, allowing you to immediately make subtle – or not so subtle – adjustments as soon as you switch to whatever channel, instrument or FX control you’re tweaking.
It’s sure to be a very popular device and that may be in part why the expected shipping date for pre-orders on the official website keeps getting pushed back. First it was late June, then early July and – checking before writing this post – it’s now moved to mid-July.
I’ll be picking one up to sit alongside my Launchpad.