With its compact design and many of the features found on its bigger singing, the Launchpad Pro, it ticks all of the creative performance boxes but is also practical and flexible, not to mention fantastic value.įor Ableton Live control, nothing still beats Ableton's own Push 2, which has simply been designed with nothing more than Live in mind so its control focus with that software is second to none and it has become the perfect hardware extension of it. Novation's Launchpad X is one of our top MIDI pad controller buys. Our handy price widgets also display the latest and best prices at our trusted retailers. We've listed the controllers in price order to make it easier for you to find the right one for your budget. While they include some MIDI control, their focus is more as hardware DAWs for complete song production.

We have decided not to include any music production workstations such as NI's Maschine+, Roland's Verselab MV-1 and Akai MPC Live II. So don't think of a pad controller as just for tapping out beats or triggering notes, as many have been designed to be so integral with today's gear that they are almost an extension of it, instruments in their own right, enabling you to compose and record melodies, chords and basslines, or sequence entire songs together to trigger both your music software and other hardware – great news for players and non-players alike.

Pad controllers are available in all sorts of shapes and sizes to suit just about every production and performance task, from small-form pad-based sequencers, equally as home controlling a Eurorack setup as they are virtual instruments, through NI's Maschine range of controllers with dedicated software, right up to Ableton's Push 2, a pad controller specifically for controlling the company's Live DAW.

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