Novation's Launchpad Mini In a week of many releases for Novation, the company's final product announcement is the Launchpad Mini, a smaller version of their 64-button Launchpad S performance controller.
Like its larger sibling, the Launchpad Mini can be bus powered from an iPad for use with Novation's Launchpad app, and fully integrates with Ableton Live and FL Studio 11.
Marketed as the 'Launchpad for the iPad generation', it has 37% less surface area than the Launchpad S, but it still retains the same 8x8 grid of tri-colour launch pads as its bigger brother.
Launchpad Mini can be paired with any of the other 'Launch' family of products, such as the Launchkey Mini or the LaunchControl for a greater degree of control over your DAW.
Apart from being smaller, the Launchkey Mini is also noticeably cleaner looking, replacing the printed function icons with more simplistic alphanumeric row and column references. This is perhaps in recognition of the wide number of applications that the low-cost Launchpad is now used for. Function stickers are also included for Ableton Live and FL Studio users so you can label controls that are specific to your chosen software.
Like the other releases this week, the Launchpad Mini ships with a suite of software including Ableton Live Lite, Novation V-Station and Bass Station soft-synths and a Loopmasters sample pack.
The dinky device should be available by October 2013 and will retail for $100.
