PadCulture – The story of the Novation Launchpad light-show
In the saturated music scene, creators have to excel to shine through, Novation Launchpad light-shows were a way for some.
The Novation Launchpad was originally designed for the simple tasks of launching clips and other DAW controls within Ableton Live, I don’t think the engineers at Novation even foresaw the level of integration that the launchpad would see, into both the music and the visual elements of a live performance.
Madeon’s performance entitled “Pop Culture” was one of the early catalysts for the Launchpad light-show movement. While not displaying the next level lighting techniques of some of the videos to follow, it garnered over 46 million views on YouTube and put the Novation Launchpad on the map. It showed Novation Launchpad users around the world, the capabilities that lay hidden in the unit.
Shortly after Madeon’s iconic video we saw guys like M4SONIC, Nev, Kaskobi, Exige and R!ot start to push the boundaries of the Novation Launchpad, by remapping the LED buttons to display different patterns – creating live interactive light-shows on-the-fly. When Novation launched the MK2 range of Launchpads, the new RGB pads took things to the next level for the Novation Launchpad light-show scene.
So you want to get into creating Launchpad Light-shows?
The Novation Launchpad is a fantastic way for electronic music performers to add a visual element to a performance, it also allows you to easily create unique mappings to suit your style – both musically and visually.
Novation have put out an article outlining the basics, check it out here.
Novation just put out a short documentary on the history of the Launchpad light-show culture, it’s an incredible insight into the creative minds of Madeon, M4SONIC and the other producers who are pushing the Launchpad culture.
As a Launchpad user, I can attest to the level of dedication that these guys are putting in to create completely unique light-shows to complement their performances, it’s truly inspiring to watch.
Check out the documentary here:
