Yeah you can do all that, it really is a little beast. The keys bottom out kind of strangely when you play hard enough to register full velocity, I wish I had one with full size keys that felt good!
Is there a better manual than the User Guide linked on their site? It’s more like a Quick Start guide and geared towards setting up with a DAW. I’m not seeing anything on modes or even basic operation. (Or that sweet MIDI chart linked earlier by @Pcbforbrains)
Question for users/fans of the launchkey mini mk3:
Does this keyboard send PC (Program Change) midi messages in standalone mode ? (And if so, how ?)
Lending weight to NO;
- Neither ‘Program Change’, or ‘PC’ appears in the manual.
- Elsewhere I’ve seen people state a preference for an MPK in order to get PC midi.
- No apparent support for PC in the components website.
Lending weight to YES;
- ‘Program Change’ appears on the front panel
- Promotional materials say “take Launchkey Mini anywhere, send arps and program changes to your hardware synths”
Alright, I get it (I think) … loopop’s video says it does do PC midi, so I can only suppose it must be the ‘+/-’ pads combined with shift. Too ‘obvious’ to get a mention in the manual [sigh].
Even Novation support couldn’t answer the question of wether you can do program change in standalone mode (they told me I had to wait, it was a requested feature for the components app).
But I bought one, and can confirm it works, shift with ‘+’ and ‘-’ … just about the only feature of the UI that doesn’t get feedback on the pads. (I’d settle for a binary or hex representation of the PC 
)
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Yea, the manual is missing a lot. That midi chart must be from elsewhere (perhaps the manual from the launchkey with full size keys, not the mini). There are no round buttons or ‘in control’ buttons on my mini.
Having bought one though, I can see that the table is pretty close, and and I will do an update to that chart (particularly if there’s interest).
hey there. i just got one of these small ones. it is a nice mini keyboard and the pads are really fine. some drawbacks in there, though. would be great if Novation enables more custom slots for using it as standalone, this way you could program different configs on the components app and then place into these slots, now we can use only one custom slot at a time, so every time you want to apply some changes you need to connect the unit to the computer, open the app, send the config, and start again… 
also great would be to have the chance to set the tempo in a more accurate way, when using the app and the midi out to control other machines, you never know in which tempo are you playing, since the unit does not have midi in, hence we cannot set the tempo properly. a roundabout may be to use the pads, i.e. pad 1 = 40bpm, pad 2 = 50bpm, pad 3= 60… pad 8= 120bpm…pad 16= 220bpm etc, etc… this way at least we can have a guide when controlling ext gear.
maybe it is to ask too much for a cheap keyboard but… i am sure Novation can do it 
Well, there appears to be a feature request in (for a firmware update) to allow the pads to do a program changes, so maybe a firmware update that allows multiple ‘custom’ modes isn’t to far fetched. OTOH, I’m sure novation would like you to buy the next model up so 
yeah, you’re right. they may update with a new firmware or they may simply force the users to buy the new model
Firmware update 1.1 now available, includes ‘strum’ mode, latching for some features (inc. transpose) and more configuration options.
https://components.novationmusic.com/launchkey-mini-mk3/firmware
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Seems to memorise midi channel across power-down now.
Still waiting for individual midi channel per pad / pot - and option for midi cc and toggle on the pads.
Don’t want to triple the weight for a Launchkey 25 mk3 - and going to a Beatstep I loose the keys
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Does anyone know, can the ARP (+mutate/diviate) be locked to a certain scale?
I’m pretty sure it can’t … I don’t remember reading anything about scales in the manual (never mind how they relate to mutate/deviate), and nothing about scales on the front panel.
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That’s unfortunate…
I really want something like the DN ARP for midi without buying an OT…
The regular-sized Launchkey (not the mini) has scale mode, and also the ability to set knobs/pads to different channels (rather than all the same channel). The arp still isn’t as fully-featured as the DN’s.
An Arpie ? … I think it does what you want with scales (but I don’t own one so 
)
FWIW I experimented with the arpeggiator a bit today to try and figure out the intervals. I played an ‘arpeggio’ of one note and gradually turned up the ‘mutate’ dial. It progressively added fifths, then fourths, and then at 3/4 way up other intervals started to come in, notably dominant 7ths and major and minor thirds.
For those not familiar, any slight adjustment to ‘mutate’ effectively throws the dice again, and comes up with an entirely new pattern, which is then locked until you touch the dial again.
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Tried out one of these today since the small footprint was perfect for my rather small desk and I’d heard good things about the arp function.
Took it back for a refund a few hours later because the clock sync with Reason was so bad it was completely unusable, unlike the BS2 whose arps sync just fine.
Trying to understand this. So far as I know the LKmini does not ‘sync’, it just sends its own clock, so to run it in sync with reason, reason would need to take the incoming clock from the keyboard.