Launchpad Mini Mk3
Connect one device for a switchable performance surface, or two for a live matrix beside a command deck. This guide covers the physical controls, gestures and LEDs of the launchpad control module.
Start with the Clip Player quick start for sound wiring and clip playback. See that guide for note editing, audio capture, automation, scenes and arrangement and Song. For Ableton hardware, use the separate Push 2 guide.
Choose the recording control for the job
- CLIP RECORD — notes
- KEYS → QUEUE-REC captures played notes into the selected note clip.
- AUTO — control movement
- One device: HOLD SHIFT + lane 1–7’s top button; lane 8 uses the pad directly below SHIFT. Two devices: R → AUDIO → AUTO row. AUTO is independent of audio recording. Assignment and playback are explained in Clip Player automation.
- AUDIO RECORD — sound
- CONTROL → AUDIO selects a destination and arms mixer-channel capture. Use the Audio tab below for the device layout.
- ARRANGER RECORD — launches
- Single CONTROL → REC, or paired R’s top-left REC, captures clip launches for arrangement playback.
1 Launchpad — one device, four views
One Launchpad switches between the views below. The lone device is a four-view surface — GRID (launch clips), CLIP (edit notes; its KEYS sub-view plays, clip-records + arpeggiates), ARRANGER (reserved) and CONTROL (the performance deck) — laid over a permanent top-row nav bar with a shared SHIFT arm layer, 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 in Clip Player, 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 Clip Player’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 Clip Player Session grid, 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.
Launch versus inspect
Tap a clip to launch or stop it. HOLD GRID + tap a clip selects and opens it without changing playback. Note clips open CLIP, including those with attached audio; their recording and source controls stay in CONTROL → AUDIO. Legacy standalone audio clips open AUDIO. Empty pads create a note clip. A double-tap also opens the clip; it restores the lane’s pre-tap play/queue intent after the first launch tap. Use HOLD GRID when you want inspection with no first launch.
The selected note clip is the target for CLIP, KEYS and Swing ±. Clip Player Session explains lane, clip and queue behavior. A clip with saved audio keeps the same launch/stop gestures and has a purple loaded-state LED. Choose NOTES in AUDIO to hear note edits; they do not change the saved take. Whole-clip copy/paste carries notes, automation and attached audio together.
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.
- Counts are saved with the scene and travel with whole-scene copy/paste. See scene timing, auto-advance and manual overrides for how repeats behave.
- 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 — in Clip Player, right-click a clip pad → note probability.
- The top-right clip pad (physical x=7, y=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 in Clip Player 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). Without SHIFT these meanings are stable; SHIFT exposes the automation-arm map |
| 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. Only COPY and PASTE survive releasing SHIFT; keep SHIFT held for CLIP-DIV and LENGTH targets |
| 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). HOLD GRID + a clip = inspect without launching. 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 in Clip Player: 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/PASTE survive SHIFT release; CLIP-DIV/LENGTH require SHIFT held. 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 — implemented Mini Mk3 adapter
| 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) |