ABLETON LIVE CONTROLLER NOVATION DRIVERS
This is a major plus: I have a distrust of third-party drivers, and don't need the hassle of checking and upgrading drivers right up until support for my machine or OS is dropped. It doesn't need any drivers and, sure enough, it appeared in the MIDI setup screen on my Mac Pro, which doesn't have the Launchpad 1 drivers installed. Unlike its predecessor, the Launchpad S is a class-compliant MIDI device. The Launchpad S is compatible with Novation's Automap controller mapping system, although I didn't test this.
ABLETON LIVE CONTROLLER NOVATION MANUALS
The online registration process is fiddly and irritating - more so than it needs to be, I feel, to protect the bundled applications from casual piracy - but once done, you get Ableton Live Launchpad Edition (which seems to be a rebadged Ableton Live 8 Lite), Loopmasters Content loops, additional manuals and Windows drivers. There's no bundled CD or DVD (which, to be fair, would be wasted on many users without DVD drives) instead, all the 'bundled' software and documentation has to be downloaded. Opening the box, you find the Launchpad S itself, a Getting Started guide, a registration card, some software template stickers and the characteristic right-angled USB cable. The Launchpad S doesn't feature RGB LEDs or any other obvious functional additions over the original, but it's small, cheap and, in the short term, possibly more easily obtainable than the Push. The Launchpad S is the same price as the older model, but also, Novation say, faster and equipped with brighter LEDs, which addresses two of the major drawbacks of what from here on in I'll call the 'Launchpad 1'. Novation were pretty quick off the starting block with the original Launchpad ( reviewed in the December 2009 SOS), but a lot has happened in the intervening years, and the company clearly thought it was time for an update, in the form of the Launchpad S. From the original Monome to devices from Livid Instruments, Akai, Keith McMillen and, of course Ableton's new controller, the Push (reviewed in the March 2013 issue of SOS). I'm starting to lose track of the number of grid-based DAW controllers I've reviewed over the last few years.
The new Launchpad is brighter, faster and more powerful than the original, but costs the same.
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