Seven minute video from ADSR Tutorials
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As a new Elektron owner (Model:Samples, still love it) and a new owner of the 61SL MKIII, I have to mention… the MKIII is a really, really dope controller, not only as a hardware sequencer. It is really customizable and I love the whole 8 Parts / 8 Tracks thing. In addition to that, the Sessions… and the ability to instantly recall any Session, or save (and rename later, in Components)… tremendous. First, let me talk about the bad stuff.
I’ve complained about the stuff that could be drastically improved, via firmware updates… (on Reddit, Gearslutz, etc)… namely, the lights/brightness of the pattern buttons/pads, knowing what’s active, what isn’t, and what slot has a pattern on it already… lots of work needed, here.
Another area that needs work is… we need more PAGES for the parameters… 16 buttons is great. 32, yes. 48, yes. 64 (to match the Sessions total number), yes. Encoders. Only 2 banks of 8? 16 encoders total? Again, I think 64 would be ideal (8 total pages). And faders… we can’t only have 8.
HUI mode… WAY too outdated. Reaper users like myself-- we need Mackie Control mode, and something infinitely more customizable. HUI is not that protocol. I cannot believe they adopted that for Reaper and other DAWS, but Ableton gets all the love, by having insane full functionality, thanks to the Python scripting. Hello, how about showing Reaper the same love?
I hate how holding shift plus the mode enables the mode. It should just be the button WITHOUT shift. Shift should be used for the mode’s options.
Transport buttons should be fully assignable via MIDI CC… so we don’t have to be inside “InControl” mode to use it. I mapped a few of the 16 buttons (above the faders) to my Reaper transport, and other common Reaper functions, thanks to Reaper’s action list. Sucks that the Transport is most useful only in Sequencer mode, as InControl mode sucks… the << and >> buttons do nothing with HUI, and neither does Loop On/Off. Ridiculous oversight.
There are other things that I feel could be drastically, drastically improved…
But on the bright side— Sessions, Templates. I love how the Templates can be set up on any MIDI channel (and output, whether hardware or USB/computer) with a shift+Templates assignment. And setting the colors. Really dope.
In a sense, the use of multiple Templates (for the same DAW, on the same midi channel) can act as different “pages” of parameters. Say I have “Reaper1”. My 8 faders are track volumes for the first 8 tracks of my project… 16 encoders can be assigned to say, pan or virtual instrument tweaking (ADSR, cutoff, reso, LFO), and the 16 buttons (a few of which can be transport, and other common Reaper functions). Then, I’d have a second Template called “Reaper2” which expands the faders to control track volumes of tracks 9-16, encoders could be pan for tracks 9-16 (and/or additional parameter tweaking), then keeping the buttons assigned to transport identical in this template (for muscle-memory) and maybe assign the other buttons to other functions. It’s a workaround, but it can be used… and then, 6 other Parts / Tracks, to host 6 other templates (say, for any synth plugin, or whatever).
It’s a lot of assigning in the Components software, and Reaper Actions, but… you get a lot of bang for the buck if you put the time in, with the assigning and configuring. And I use console tape for labeling under and above the buttons… easy to see what’s assigned to what.
In general, I’m very happy with it. I did a lot of research about it all… the more research I did, the more I realized “whoa, this thing is nuts.” Infinitely better investment than a KK S49 or S61 MK2 in my opinion, because Maschine Studio and Maschine MK3 already have those screens and browsing capability, for any .nks-enabled plugin. I think most of us just use the mouse to find our sounds, anyway (though I still love me S49 MK1… price can’t be beat for having the leds above the keys, and the other Komplete Kontrol functionality, for a fraction of the cost of the MK2.
If Novation put out a 49 MINI-key version of this (like Loopop suggested), they’d really have another winner on their hands. And of course, an 88-key weighted board.
Let me know if you guys had any additional questions about it! I really do love it.
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“Thanks. Unfortunately I send it back. Very surprisingly, it doesn’t handle MIDI feedback from ableton. So when I load a liveset, the values displayed on the SL are not correct. Deal breaker for me.”
It works for me with Ableton-- especially in InControl mode, as long as the Preferences are set to SL MKIII as the Control Surface (SL MKIII MIDI 2 for Input and Output), and for Input/Output settings at the bottom— enable Track / Remote and Sync for both Input and Output. Works great!
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Did you send this list to Novation? They are really responsive and thankfull for constructive Feedback. I had a list of things for improvement about the Novation Peak, and it took a while, but with the latest OS Update they implemented everything i suggested. Just open a support ticket and register your SL.
If i had more space i would Love to have the SL61 too.
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I did. Someone responded and said all this stuff was either already implemented (it isn’t) or “we’ll think about it!” - he didn’t seem helpful at all. At all. I wonder if I should write them once a week, and see if different people can respond or be more helpful.
I registered my SL MKIII… I guess the support ticket is open… such a weird (and badly-designed) website… but, that’s encouraging! The 61 is worth making more space for!
OK? That surprises me. I had a much more positive Response.
I’m glad that you had a good response. It seems the guy assigned to my support ticket just was blowing me off more so than listening… I just added more info to my support ticket and linked them directly to my Reddit post–
Tom from Focusrite responded there, which is great. I just wish I could be heard more. Maybe I should do a detailed YouTube video about it. “To all at Novation / Focusrite / SL MKIII” etc.
Oooh, I dig that Digitone Keys. I think you should get yourself a riser for your desk, or make one… and put the SL where the Digitone Keys is, and put the DK on the side or under the desk on a low keyboard stand. 
Lol. The whole desk is already on 107cm Level…If i make it even Higher…
I think i must at one Point Exchange the whole deskplate with one thats 200cm x 80 cm instead of 200cm x 60cm. Than a SL might fit.
It works only with “InControl”. Which I don’t want to use.
Try it, move the mapped parameters with the mouse, it doesn’t change the “virtual” knob value.
Would additions be possible to improve the interface from the SLM3 by making changes on the Reaper side? I realize you might not want to get into the coding side of things yourself, but somebody more comfortable coding could.
I don’t use Reaper (yet) so i haven’t dug deeply in to ReaScript myself, but it’s one of the things about Reaper that got my attention when i’ve looked at other DAWs.
Max under Live does expand out a controller’s ability nicely for those using Live. Maybe Reascript could too?
Good bunch of ideas for things Novation can do for the SLM3 – one of the things i considered before i bought was Novations good record of long term product support.
Interestingly, I tried the DrivenByMoss 4 Reaper script… for the SL MKIII (based on Bitwig)… it is AWESOME. Way better than the crappy HUI mode. Huge, huge, huge improvement for Reaper users. Totally worth installing if you own an SL MKIII and love Reaper.
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I made a Tempest template for this just now. If anyone wants it, just PM me.
I wasnt expecting this board to open up so many possibilities, even when you run a small rig. But Novation’s really on to something here
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I didn’t know you also had an SL-MkIII–I must have missed that in the other discussion. These templates are pretty great because they’re so easy to throw together. It’s due to this recently purchased Novation that I can’t get away from the computer, at least as a sound module, because this keyboard with Arturia V Collection saves me so much space and money with no sacrifice in sound quality that I can detect. I was mulling over getting at least one quality polysynth module to fill that missing category in my setup (e.g. that reface CP we talked about), but there’s just no reason to do that now.
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Can you guys live with the fact that a midi cc sent from the DAW doesn’t set the according ‘knob’ value ?
I sent my unit back for this reason.
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Yep. At least, so far.
You didn’t miss it 
I just got it. I’m still looking for a great keybed and hadn’t even considered Novation before. Essentially, I was after the same kind of action that the Prophet 6 can give, but haven’t one so far. A few comes close, though.
Then I tried this. Absolutely lovely set. So I’m testing it out now and see what it can bring to a small rig besides the keyboard action.
Sequencer’s what’s surprising me the most. So good and yet so lacking in some areas. The Circuit’s way ahead. I’m hoping (but not assuming) the cooler Circuit features (micro timing, sustains over patterns, song mode) will find its way here.
But the fact that it already does polyrythms, different time signatures per track, p-locks (of sorts) and recorded automation (so lovely with the Tempest’s beat fx) makes it very funky as it is for now.
In my case, I wanted a keyboard with at least basic sequencing, but with full-sized keys so that I’m willing to play it, not just use it for data entry, like my Keystep. (As I mentioned, that would be my issue with reFace. ) The SL-MkIII is the only choice that I could find, and in my case it has no shortcomings at all. I’m not a fan of synth keybeds–I want a specific brand of real piano–but this one is fine. I do prefer my Nord Electro’s waterfall keyboard, but I might end up preferring my Novation/Arturia V combo to my Nord Electro. I work in two locations, so having them both doesn’t waste resources.
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