Setting Up Atlas with the Novation Launchpad

To use Atlas with a Launchpad you need to be using Ableton Live. Depending on what Launchpad model you have, you may run into issues if you try to use another host.

1. Plug your Novation Launchpad into your computer and open Ableton Live. Make sure the Launchpad has connected to Live properly and can trigger clips in session view.

2. Load Atlas to a MIDI channel.

3. Make sure the Ableton channel with Atlas loaded has been armed for receiving MIDI from the launchpad. This will most likely have been activated by default when you loaded Atlas onto a new channel anyway.

4. In Atlas, set the layout to Launchpad. This changes the layout to an 8×8 grid that matches User 1 Mode on the Launchpad. User 1 mode starts on the bottom left pad at midi note C1, and increases incrementally in rows of 4 up the left side of the Launchpad, and then continues again up the right side. This has been designed so the Launchpad matches Ableton Live’s Drum Rack.

5. Press New Kit in Atlas to generate a kit of samples. We recommend you have New Kit set to Default so that the sample types that are chosen for the slots will line up with the MIDI clips we provide in Atlas.

6. Set the Launchpad to User 1 mode.

7. Hit some pads on the Launchpad. This should trigger the samples in Atlas, and the pads on the hardware should match up with the 8×8 kit in Atlas.

8. Load a MIDI clip from Atlas onto the same channel in Ableton. These are found in the Midi clips tab at the top of Atlas. You might need to move Atlas a little bit off screen to reveal the channel.

9. Play the clip in Ableton. This will start the Ableton project and will begin triggering samples in Atlas. Provided you had New Kit set to Default, the MIDI notes in our clips should line up nicely with the samples Atlas has chosen and you should now be hearing a rad drum loop.

10. Play along! Trigger other samples to add to the beat, and wow your friends with your finger-drumming prowess.

• Map the New Kit button to a spare scene button on the launchpad for instant kit swapping. Do this by going into Settings in Atlas and setting New Kit to B6. When the Launchpad is in User 1 mode, the scene buttons output MIDI notes top-bottom: E6-B6, so if you press the bottom scene button, this will send out ‘B6’ to Atlas, which will then be interpreted to trigger New Kit.
• Use Session view on the Launchpad to play different MIDI clips into Atlas. This means that using the same Kit/samples, you can change the genre, complexity, energy etc. of the beat you are creating on the fly.
• Map the Ableton Clip Session record button to another spare scene button on the Launchpad. This means you can record beats without touching your laptop. You can do this by clicking MIDI in the top right of Ableton, then clicking the Session Record button (the open circle, to the left of the loop section in the transport bar), then pressing a scene button on the Launchpad to map to. Now when you press the button on the Launchpad, you can record and add notes to an existing clip/pattern as it’s playing.
• Set Ableton Record Quantization to Sixteenth-Note Quantization, found in the Edit menu. This means when you record your finger-drumming into a MIDI clip, Ableton will tidy it up for you when it loops around.
• Set up multiple channels of MIDI routing into the Atlas channel to split the recording and playback of clips running into Atlas. You can create additional channels in Ableton and have their MIDI routing to the initial Atlas channel. Set their MIDI routing to the Atlas channel, and the MIDI channel from Track In to 1-Atlas. This means you can record different parts to a beat on different channels, and use the Session view on the Launchpad to trigger them

Watch the video below as we run through the process of setting up Atlas and our Launchpad, and have a bit of a jam at the end.