LinuxMusicians

miuzik wrote: ↑Sun Mar 12, 2023 4:43 am

I'm looking for a new midi controller and I have one recommendation: Novation Launchkey MKIII series. They are robust, modern and plug and play. They have all the options in the controller (no software).

I probed the Arturia minilab mkII but you need software for change parameters like velocity sensitive (that's suck). In any case avoid all controllers with software assistance.

Thanks for the tip. Strangely enough Novation does offer a driver for Win 10 and 11 on their website (link).

Linuxmusician01 wrote: ↑Sun Mar 12, 2023 10:44 am

miuzik wrote: ↑Sun Mar 12, 2023 4:43 am

I'm looking for a new midi controller and I have one recommendation: Novation Launchkey MKIII series. They are robust, modern and plug and play. They have all the options in the controller (no software).

I probed the Arturia minilab mkII but you need software for change parameters like velocity sensitive (that's suck). In any case avoid all controllers with software assistance.

Thanks for the tip. Strangely enough Novation does offer a driver for Win 10 and 11 on their website (link).

I suppose is a Windows stuff, I don't know. Look here min 7:10. Plug and play.

EDIT:

In the Tech Specs on Novation site:

• Launchkey also works as a standard MIDI controller.

I have the Launchkey MK3 37 since a couple of days, and I can confirm that —so far— it works in Linux (with Ardour) without installing anything.

There is also a nice surprise: you can make and save a custom profile for some knobs and buttons using a MIDI-enabled browser (e.g. Chromium in Linux). I still haven't tried that, but I could update the controller's firmware via browser, without downloading or installing any extra software (that would be only for Win or Mac anyways).

I am in the process of writing a Midimap for use it with Ardour. If someone is interested I will post it here as well when it is finished.

@Piergi

There is also a nice surprise: you can make and save a custom profile for some knobs and buttons using a MIDI-enabled browser (e.g. Chromium in Linux). I still haven't tried that, but I could update the controller's firmware via browser, without downloading or installing any extra software (that would be only for Win or Mac anyways).

Thanks for that report -- what a lovely surprise.

Piergi wrote: ↑Tue Mar 28, 2023 2:49 pm

I have the Launchkey MK3 37 since a couple of days, and I can confirm that —so far— it works in Linux (with Ardour) without installing anything.

There is also a nice surprise: you can make and save a custom profile for some knobs and buttons using a MIDI-enabled browser (e.g. Chromium in Linux). I still haven't tried that, but I could update the controller's firmware via browser, without downloading or installing any extra software (that would be only for Win or Mac anyways).

I am in the process of writing a Midimap for use it with Ardour. If someone is interested I will post it here as well when it is finished.

Thanks, I've been looking for a controller like this. I may get the 49 key version.

Kirtai wrote: ↑Wed Mar 29, 2023 9:06 am

Thanks, I've been looking for a controller like this. I may get the 49 key version.

In Ardour it shows up like two devices in input: LKMK3 MIDI In (in) and LKMK3 DAW In (in), and the corresponding LKMK3 {MIDI,DAW} In (out) in output. The unit can be configured to work in "MIDI mode" and in "DAW mode". So far I managed to bind a few controls in the "MIDI mode" (a.k.a. normal mode) with a midimap that I am writing.

I have just started yesterday experimenting with the "DAW mode". It involves sending arbitrary MIDI messages from the computer to the controller. It seems to work (e.g. I can change the colour of the pads by sending MIDI messages from Ardour—I am using a plugin from Robin Gareus) but probably the whole point of the "DAW mode" is to write an interface (or a script) to control the device from your computer, so I might as well leave it alone :-)