No parameter lock sequencing, really the focus on this one is not sequencing, although you can have a lot of fun repitching sequences with different pads. And no sequence to control mix or effects, although you can assign an LFO to control volume, ADSR sustain, etc to give variety of volume changes. In fact now I want to have two synths with Synced LFOs, 1 ramp up and 1 ramp down to blend together - again no global sequencer though - it makes more sense when you play with it than on paper. The pads don’t have the Medusa sensors, just 1 for aftertouch. I’d give it a play before passing judgment on the lack of those features though. It is really fun, I wouldn’t say it will cure depression but hope that gets better for you.
It is definitely FUN! I have been loving it since mine came Thursday. Been playing it and beta testing it and discussing it over on the polyend synth discord.
I can reply to myself now. Out of the box, the “3x3” layout already provides a 4x5 pads area that works well for finger drumming. I had a first go with a drum machine in my DAW and I felt immediately comfortable playing, with good pad responsiveness and no latency I could feel. I have also tried the different pad sensitiveness settings, and all good (kudos to whoever decided to call one of the settings “Tough as Hell” ). Maybe Quest for Groove will not find it as good as their preferred pads but for me it does the trick. With my skills (not advanced, but I have hours of practice and I have used MPC and Maschine before), I don’t think I can do more or less finger-drumming with these pads than with the Launchpad Pro MK3 ones.
I have a suggestion for a layout and I might submit a wish later:
1: Top row.
2: 4x4 down left. Your drum machine.
3: 4x8 down right.
And whenever someone comes up with a good UI to set up PERC-ussions on the Synth…
First post here, so hi all!
Im looking at the Synth as an addition to my live rig and it really ticks a lot of boxes for me. However, If I can, I would have one feature request for it… Since I am an old guy and really used to play a keyboard, it would be great to have a grid layout that resembles a chromatic keyboard. It would be either 2X8 or 2x12 with the pads not needed for the chromatic look turned off (not playing any sound.)
There is a chromatic grid, but I’m not entirely a fan of it but yes a full chromatic grid layout like the one already in it but make it for any scale and whatever notes are in that scale remain lit on the pads, and the notes not in the scale then the pads can be turned off so we know not to use those notes! That is what I am hoping for :]
Ahh so there already is a chromatic grid, thats good. But how does this show the off scale notes shown if these notes are not turned off? Yes, it would really good if it works for whatever scale you select.
Yeah there’s quite a bit of grid layouts to choose from and chromatic grid is included but right now there’s no way to know which notes are in the scale and which aren’t, because all of the pads light up. They definitely need to make this chromatic layout available in all scales and again make the notes that aren’t in the scale you chose not be lit up on the grid.
However I guess it wouldn’t be “chromatic” anymore. I just want that grid layout for all scales.
People are really talking about diatonic scales but with accidentals. Polyend could get some ideas for that from duet concertinas - those folks were doing that a long time ago!
Welcome to Backstage! You can submit your request on Draft wishes and we can discuss the details there. I am also interested in additional grid layouts.
Keyboards drawn on pads is nothing new. The Polyend Play/Play+ already has a “piano layout” that replicates the 12 piano semitones in a 8x2 grid. And many 8x8 controllers and groveboxes also offer the option to show inactive pads that correspond to notes out of the selected scale.
With a row of 12 pads it’s even easier and more intuitive for the player given that the 12 semitones of the diatonic scale fit perfectly.
(@eangman then again, if a classical keyboardis important to you, maybe you have a MIDI keyboard already, which you can plug to the synth to play notes?)
Hi all - I would like to ask about pad LED brightness. Can they be dimmed? If so how low? And if so can they be turned off? I know that would break the visual functionality of course!!!
I really struggle with light sensitive eyes and too few devices allow for a very very dim mode on LEDs or an off mode to help us less fortunate eye folk!
Very keen to add this to the Tracker. I can’t find anything in the manual about this.
Thanks for your reply and suggestion of where in the forum I should bring up feature requests.
Yes, I have several MIDI equipped keyboards that i could connect to the Synth and play it in this way and in the studio Im sure I will use that setup. However, on stage (or in the sofa) it would be easier not to have to add additional gear to achieve what I want
No option for pad/screen dimming as of yet. It’s on my wish list too. We definitely need some low/medium/high option and I’d like to see the novation launchpad pro vegas mode option too where the pads change colors after a period of inactivity.
Ah, my experience is that linear chromatic pads, and piano style arrangement on pads are not very playable and they tend to make you hold your hands at a bad angle for pads - I’ve tried various concertinas and they seemed a better configurations for pads , but I’ve not been able to get a pad device that allows one to try that out. (They may not seem easy to use but they are better with a little practice, I think. Even the calculator style of the TE EP133 is more playable in my opinion. But never mind - I don’t expect to get what I want!)
Hi everyone, not sure if this is the right place for this but here goes.
I just got my Synth today and while I do enjoy the features and synth engines sounds, I’m getting a ton of audio artifacts a lot of the time.
They mostly happen when I’m using the fx sends. It doesn’t matter if it’s on one engine or three.
Reverb seems to be the the one that glitches/crackles less but I managed to have multiple audio glitches (up to complete audio dropout, like slowly crackling away into silence) just playing with one instance of VAP limited to three voices + some reverb).
Even running some factory scenes causes these audio glitches and multiple CPU HIGH alerts.
This happens running firmware 1.0.1.
Is this something that can be/will be fixed shortly with a firmware update? Is it a problem with my particular hardware unit?
Any thoughts are welcome.
). Maybe Quest for Groove will not find it as good as their preferred pads but for me it does the trick. With my skills (not advanced, but I have hours of practice and I have used MPC and Maschine before), I don’t think I can do more or less finger-drumming with these pads than with the Launchpad Pro MK3 ones.
