Novation Launchkey

Plug a Launchkey Mk4 into the tbd 16 and you have a keyboard, 16 velocity pads, 8 knobs and transport controls — all mapped to the Groovebox app. The controller switches into the right mode automatically and its little display shows the active track and preset.

Supported models

  • Launchkey Mini Mk4 (25-key)
  • Launchkey Mk4 — 25, 37, 49 and 61-key

Plug in, the keyboard and pads light up, you’re ready.

Keys, wheels & sustain

Play keys and the active track responds with velocity. The pitch-bend wheel, mod wheel and sustain pedal all work as normal. The Launchkey’s built-in arpeggiator runs on the controller itself, so you can drive any track on the tbd 16 with on-device arp patterns.

Hold a chord on the keys and spin the encoders — you’re playing and tweaking the sound at the same time.

16 pads — step entry

The 2×8 pad grid is the 16 steps of the current page on the active track:

  • Top row → steps 1–8
  • Bottom row → steps 9–16

Tap a pad to toggle that step on or off. Use encoder 5 (below) to move between the four step pages.

8 encoders

The encoders are set to infinite-rotation mode so they scroll without hitting ends:

Encoder What it controls
1 – 4 Knobs 1–4 of the current parameter page — same as the four hardware knobs on the tbd 16
5 Step page — scroll between pages 1–4
6 Track select — previous / next track
7 – 8 Reserved for future updates

The Plugin / Mixer / Sends / Transport mode buttons above the encoders are accepted and reserved for additional layouts in a future firmware.

Transport & navigation

Button What it does
Play Play / pause
Stop Play / pause (dedicated stop behaviour coming later)
Record Arm / toggle record
▲ / ▼ Up / down in menus and parameter pages
Track ◄ / ► Previous / next track
► (right arrow) Cycle the step page forward

Display

The tbd 16 writes the track name and preset name to the Launchkey’s small display over USB, so you can keep your eyes on the controller while performing and still know what you’re playing.

Using Launchpad + Launchkey together

Through a self-powered USB hub you can plug in both controllers at the same time:

  • Launchpad — grid duties: steps, drums, pattern launch, chromatic play.
  • Launchkey — keys, wheels, transport and four knobs.

Either one is hot-pluggable — the other keeps working.

See also