Launchpad, anyone play? how hard to learn ?

Not really, it can be used that way, kind of, but really it's a midi controller.

If you look at the Ableton live software, there is a clip view where you can add clips, like musical phrases and sounds. This allows you to control and play the clips one by one or all at once.

It's really not as simple as it looks. There's lots of preparatory work to be done with Ableton first.
 
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how hard is the setting it up, getting all the sounds you want and the software ?

Software is easy for the basics and can go as deep as you want. I think the pads come with Abelton Lite for free, the full versions aren't that cheap (£300 and £500 appx).
 
You can buy sample cd's which have thousands of loops, sounds and phrases on. These can easily be loaded into a clip. Also, you can buy a mega cheap controller keyboard just to play some phrases in yourself from the soft synths.

You see the buttons on the right that look like little play symbols. Pressing them will play all the clips to the left of the button. So it's a good way to organise a song into segments so it can be remixed easy on the fly. Jolly good fun tbh.
 
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is there a big difference with Abelton Lite and the full version ?

There is but it's mostly down to the amount of sounds and instruments that are available to you which can be sourced elsewhere.

You can try the full version for 30 days free I think?
 
I have experience with things like these. They are great, if you are musical to begin with. You need to understand sampling and how to pull a tune together. They aren't a magic bullet.
Personally I find composing with a normal midi controller keyboard easier because I can quickly bash out a tune and then sort it out in the sequencer later. These sorts of things are fantastic once you have various loops set up and arpeggiators so you can quickly trigger them when playing live.
 
If you're serious about it then get an Akai APC40 as it does much more. There's also a apps for iOS that work quite well too.
 
not sure how "serious" i am about it, just thought it would be a fun instrument to learn but it seems more comlicated than i first thought

how do they decide what sounds to put where? personal preference ? seems sometimes they are stretching all over when they would just put the sounds next to each other
 
The user sets it all up, whether it's a sample or just a note, it gets assigned to a key on the launchpad/Controller unit.
 
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