Launchpad Mini Mk3 — clip launcher
Novation Launchpad Mini Mk3 drives the clip player over browser-native Web MIDI (no helper app). It works with one unit or two — pick a tab; each is a complete, self-contained guide for that mode.
Two kinds of recording
- CLIP RECORD
- Recording into a clip. Notes: KEYS → QUEUE-REC. Knob / control moves: per-clip automation, Deluge-style — right-click a module's card → Assign to automation lane (1–8; the whole module joins the lane and its card gets a border in the lane's colour), launch a clip in that lane, then arm the lane (the card's per-lane ◉ next to its RATE control, or on a single-unit Launchpad HOLD SHIFT + that lane's top-row button; lane 8 = HOLD SHIFT + the pad directly below SHFT — the two-unit rig has no hardware arm yet, arm from the card) and just move the module's controls: every touch — screen, MIDI, Electra — records into that clip's own automation, punching in at the clip's next loop start, then overdubbing every loop. CV is never recorded: automation records your hands, a CV cable stays live modulation.
- ARRANGER RECORD
- The red ● that records your clip launches onto the song timeline (experimental). Arm it from the card's ●, the single-mode Control-Mode REC pad, or the pair deck's top-left REC button (CC 91). It never records notes or knob moves.
1 Launchpad — one device, four views
One Launchpad does everything. The lone device is a four-view surface — GRID (launch clips), CLIP (edit notes; its KEYS sub-view plays, clip-records + arpeggiates), ARRANGER (TBD) and CONTROL (the performance deck) — laid over a permanent top-row nav bar that never changes meaning, with a one-hand SHIFT layer. New to the device? Start with the Walkthrough tab. Setup + the shared top-row / SHIFT foundation sit in the two collapsible panels just below the tabs.
GRID Mode — launch clips
- Every channel's clip states glow in that channel's own colour (the colour you picked on the card, else its default hue) — dim = loaded, solid full brightness = playing, flashing = queued-launch. Only queued-stop flashes RED on every channel, so a pending stop always reads. The pad matches the card's swatch for the same channel.
- Tap a loaded clip (dim) to launch it — it flashes (queued) until the next quantize boundary, then turns solid (playing). Tap the playing clip to queue a stop (flashes red until the boundary).
- Columns are channels, rows are slots — the same orientation as the ClipplayerCard, so the pad you see lit is the clip you see on screen.
- Row / scene launch (right column): a grid row is one clip per channel — an Ableton-style scene / song section. Scene button N fires that row's slot across every channel that has a clip and stops the channels that don't. It flashes green while any channel in that row is queued. The column is a scrolling window over up to 64 scenes (slide it with Grid + shift SCR▲ / SCR▼; an empty scene is dark and its launch is a no-op).
- Empty pads glow dim red while ARRANGER RECORD is armed.
Single-tap launches · double-tap edits
A single tap launches immediately (never delayed). A double-tap of the same pad (~¼ s) instead selects that clip and opens it in CLIP mode — and it reverts the channel to whatever play/queue state it was in before the first tap, so editing never changes whether a clip plays. Double-tap an empty pad to create a fresh clip and edit it. The selected clip is what the CLIP and KEYS buttons act on, and its channel is the one Swing ± nudges.
GRID + shift — the function palette (home of copy/paste)
That shift-state top row is the automation ARM MAP — see the arm layer in pictures ↑ (in the shared foundation above).
- COPY (green): arm, then tap a loaded clip → snapshot that CLIP to the clipboard, OR tap a ROW / scene-launch button → snapshot the WHOLE SCENE (all 8 channels at that slot). For a scene target, release SHIFT first so the column shows the ROW ▶ buttons again — while shift is held, that column is still this function palette (clip-pad targets work under either shift state). The clipboard is typed: a clip buffer pulses turquoise, a scene buffer pulses amber. Re-tap COPY while loaded to clear it. (Copy is a snapshot — edit after copying? re-copy.)
- PASTE (green; only arms when the clipboard holds something): arm, then tap a clip pad to drop a clip buffer there, or a ROW / scene-launch button (again with SHIFT released) to full-REPLACE that whole scene from a scene buffer. The paste is type-gated — clip→clip and scene→scene apply; clip→scene and scene→clip are no-ops (nothing is written). A scene paste is a single undo step. Copy/paste carries each clip's recorded automation with it (the envelope belongs to the clip): the destination's old automation is replaced — or cleared when the source clip had none. This Grid palette is the ONLY copy/paste on the Launchpad — clips and scenes, right here; the note editor deliberately has none. (PASTE-REV, the time-reversed clip paste, is a pair-deck hold — see 2 Launchpads; it pastes the automation time-reversed to match.)
- CLIP-DIV (blue): the per-clip divider. Arm, then tap a clip repeatedly to cycle its own clock division (1/8 · 1/4 · 1/2 · 1 · 2x · 4x). While you cycle, the target clip pad itself pulses in time with the chosen division. It writes once when you disarm, applied at the clip's next loop start. A clip's own div overrides its channel's CONTROL-mode RATE.
- SWING+ / SWING− (blue): direct ±2 % nudges (one per press) to the selected channel's swing — odd steps slide late for a shuffle. The buttons ramp purple while you raise and blue while you lower, and both flash green on the nudge that returns swing to dead-centre (straight).
- LENGTH (yellow): arm, tap a loaded clip → its length page opens (a full-device takeover, detailed below; EXIT returns to Grid).
- SCR▲ / SCR▼ (amber): slide the scene-launch window UP (toward scene 1) / DOWN (up to 64 scenes; DOWN lazily reveals one empty scene past your deepest clip; each button dims at its scroll limit). Direct — no arming.
Scene repeats — HOLD GRID + HOLD a scene button
Scenes loop forever by default (repeats = infinite). To make a scene play N times and then auto-launch the next scene down (skipping empty rows; the last content scene keeps looping), set its repeat count with a 3-button, two-hands gesture: HOLD the GRID button (permanent top row) + HOLD one of the 8 scene-launch buttons. The scene press under GRID-hold selects only — it never launches.
- While both buttons are held, tap pad k (1-indexed row-major: upper-left = 1, second in the top row = 2, …) to set k repeats (1–63); pad 64 (bottom-right) sets it back to INFINITE. The bar updates live as you tap, and always shows pads 1..N lit for count N.
- Scroll-aware: the held scene button is position-relative through the scene window — with the column scrolled (SCR▲/▼), button i edits scene offset + i, the same scene it would launch.
- After N passes of the scene's longest clip (its length × rate/div, frozen at launch — mid-count edits never move the scheduled boundaries), the next content scene down launches through the normal quantized launch path — arranger-record captures it, LEDs update, peers stay in sync.
- Manual always wins: launching any scene mid-count re-anchors the count fresh (re-launching the SAME scene resets it to zero); launching an individual clip outside the scene cancels the countdown until the next scene launch. Muting lanes never voids or alters the count; stopping every scene lane cancels it.
- The count is saved with the patch and shows on the card as a small ×N flair beside the scene's row (live p/N while counting; infinite shows nothing).
- Counts travel with the scene: a whole-scene COPY/PASTE carries the repeat count along with the clips and their automation — a full-replace paste sets the target scene's count from the copied one (and clears it when the copied scene had none).
- No collision with the automation arm: that gesture is SHIFT + a top-row button — this one is a GRID hold without shift.
Clip-default probability — SHIFT + a clip pad
Every note has a firing probability, always: until you set a note's own, it uses the clip's probability. Give a WHOLE clip a default firing probability — the chance every note that has no probability of its own rolls each time it plays. HOLD SHIFT and press a clip pad (one that already holds a clip, with no function armed) → the 8×8 becomes a 40-level ORANGE bar over the top 5 rows (the orange echoes the clip-default note colour). Tap pad k = k × 2.5%; pad 40 = 100% (every note fires). The page auto-returns to the grid on that tap; a dark-row tap cancels.
- Precedence: once a note has its OWN probability it uses THAT value in all cases; a note that has none follows the clip default; with neither it always fires. So the default colours only the notes with no probability of their own (they turn orange in the editor); notes using their own probability stay purple (white at effective 100%).
- It gates playback, and a note pins over it: a clip default of 0% silences every note that follows it — but a note set to 100% fires 100% (white) and thereby sits ABOVE a lower clip default, and a note set to 50% fires 50% even under a 100% clip. A note's own probability is used as-is, including exactly 100% (no delete, no special-casing). Setting the clip default to 100% clears the clip default (every note then fires unless it has its own lower value; old clips stay byte-identical).
- Under shift an armed copy / paste / clip-div / length still consumes the clip-pad tap (unchanged); a no-shift tap still launches. Empty pads don't open the page (there's no clip to carry a default). Single-unit only — on the card, right-click a clip pad → note probability.
- The bottom-right clip pad (7,7) is claimed by the lane-8 arm from every view, so a SHIFT-tap there arms lane 8 rather than opening that clip's default-probability page. Set that clip's default from the card instead: right-click the clip pad → note probability.
LENGTH-EDIT — set an exact clip length
Length = (endBlock−1)×16 + endStep, up to 128. Each clip's length is independent — polymeter is the point — and all playing clips re-align to step 1 when the transport starts (or on a RESET).
Clip-state colours (in the channel's own colour)
Reference
| permanent top row (every view) | CC 91 = transport (red stopped / green playing) · 92 = GRID · 93 = CLIP · 94 = ARRANGER · 95 = CONTROL (purple; bright = active) · 96 = UNDO · 97 = REDO (orange) · 98 = SHIFT (yellow: dim off / bright held). This row NEVER changes meaning per view |
| SHIFT (CC 98) | MOMENTARY HOLD — effective only while physically held down (bright yellow); a short tap does nothing (there is no latch). HOLD shift + tap a right-column / top-row function to use its shift meaning. Grid compound functions arm on the held tap and stay sticky for their target, so nothing needs a permanent second hand |
| AUTOMATION ARM (HOLD SHIFT + top row) | while SHIFT is HELD, the top row becomes the PER-LANE ARM MAP: press column 1–7 to toggle that lane’s automation record (red pulse = armed · dim red = available); lane 8 = the pad DIRECTLY BELOW SHFT (topmost 8×8 row, rightmost column), lit in the arm map. Works from EVERY view; the press is consumed (no transport/view/undo/launch side-effect). An armed lane’s button red-flashes over its normal colour all the time |
| UNDO / REDO (CC 96 / 97) | launchpad-scoped: undoes only THIS launchpad’s persistent clip edits (div / swing / length / paste / content / scale) — never a collaborator’s edit, never a transient launch. Lit orange when the stack has something; dim otherwise. Under SHIFT these presses are the lane 6/7 arm toggles instead |
| GRID — the clip matrix | column = channel / lane (1–8 left→right), row = clip slot (top row = slot 1). Single-tap = launch / stop (queued to the boundary). DOUBLE-TAP a clip = select it + open CLIP on it (empty pad = create a clip). No-shift right column = ROW / scene launch — a SCROLLING window of position-relative buttons over up to 64 scenes (slid by Grid+shift SCR▲/SCR▼) |
| CLIP-DEFAULT PROBABILITY — SHIFT + a clip pad | SHIFT + press a clip PAD (with NO armed function) → the 8×8 becomes a 40-level ORANGE bar (top 5 rows; each pad = 2.5%) for that clip’s DEFAULT firing probability. Tap pad k = k×2.5%, pad 40 = 100% (clears the clip default); the page auto-returns on the tap, a bottom-3-row tap cancels. The default is used by EVERY note with no probability of its own (a note’s own prob is used as-is, incl 100% which pins above the default). Opens only on a pad holding a clip; single-unit only. An armed copy/paste/div/len still consumes the tap; a no-shift tap still launches. Also on the card: right-click a clip pad → “note probability” |
| GRID + shift right column | top→bottom: COPY · PASTE · CLIP-DIV · SWING+ · SWING− · LENGTH · SCROLL▲ · SCROLL▼ (amber). Copy / Paste / Clip-Div / Length are TAP-TO-ARM (tap → arm → tap a target). Copy + a ROW/scene press grabs the WHOLE SCENE (all 8 lanes) — release SHIFT first so the column shows the ROW ▶ buttons (clip-pad targets work under either shift state); Paste is type-gated (clip→clip + scene→scene apply, the cross-type pastes are no-ops). Swing ± are direct ±2 % nudges on the SELECTED channel. SCROLL ▲▼ slide the scene window (up to 64 scenes; each dims at its limit) |
| SCENE REPEATS — HOLD GRID + HOLD a scene button | the 8×8 becomes the orange REPEAT-COUNT view for that scene (no shift — SHIFT+top-row stays the arm map). Tap pad k (row-major from the upper-left) = k repeats (1–63) · pad 64 = INFINITE (default). Pads 1..N stay lit for count N; all 64 lit = infinite. The held button is POSITION-RELATIVE through the scene scroll (button i edits scene offset+i); the press never launches. Release either button = back to the grid. After N passes of the scene’s longest clip (frozen at launch) the next content scene down auto-launches via the normal quantized path |
Hardware protocol (confirmed against the device)
| 8×8 pads (programmer mode) | note = row*10 + col · 11 = bottom-left · 88 = top-right |
| top row buttons | CC 91 · 92 · 93 · 94 · 95 · 96 · 97 · 98 (left → right) |
| right scene column (top→bottom) | CC 89 · 79 · 69 · 59 · 49 · 39 · 29 · 19 |
| per-LED full RGB | F0 00 20 29 02 0D 03 03 <pad> <R> <G> <B> F7 (0–127) |