Novation Launchpad

The Launchpad turns into a hands-on remote for the tbd 16. The 8×8 grid becomes your step editor, drum pads, chromatic keyboard or pattern launcher depending on what you’re doing — no mode juggling required.

Supported models

Launchpad Mini Mk1, Mk2 and Mk3
Launchpad S
Launchpad Mk2
Launchpad Pro and Pro Mk3
Launchpad X

Plug in, the grid lights up, you’re in.

What the grid shows

The Launchpad follows the tbd 16 — whichever track and screen you’re on determines what the pads do.

On the tbd 16 you’re…	The 8×8 grid shows…
Editing steps (record STEP armed)	64 steps of the active track, one pad per step
Playing a drum track, record off or live	Top two rows = 16 drum pads, rest = step grid
Playing a mono/poly synth track, record off or live	Full chromatic keyboard across the whole grid
In Pattern + Mute view (Master button)	Pattern launcher + mute cells for all 16 tracks

Switch tracks or screens on the tbd 16 and the Launchpad updates instantly.

Top row — quick controls

The row along the top of the 8×8 grid is always the transport and view strip:

Button	What it does
▲ / ▼	Page up / page down — parameter pages, menus, browser lists
◄ Trk / ► Trk	Previous / next track
Rec	Arm record (cycle through off / live / step)
Play	Play / pause
Sound	Jump to the Sound screen of the active track
Master	Toggle the Pattern + Mute view

Side column — modifiers & jumps

The column on the right of the grid holds modifiers and step-page jumps:

Button	What it does
Shift	Hold — same as the tbd 16’s `SHIFT`
Hyper	Hold — fine-tune modifier
Mute	Mute / unmute the active track
Delete	Hold to delete steps, notes or locks
Page 1 – 4	Jump straight to steps 1–16, 17–32, 33–48, 49–64

When you’re playing a synth track in keyboard mode, the bottom two side buttons become Octave − and Octave + so you can move the keyboard up or down.

Step editing

With record armed in STEP mode, the whole grid becomes the 64-step timeline of the active track:

Tap a pad to toggle that step on or off.
Hold a pad and turn a knob on the tbd 16 to record a parameter lock onto that step.
Use Page 1–4 on the side column to jump between the four 16-step pages — the current page is highlighted on both the grid and the OLED.

Drum play

On a drum track, the top two rows (pads 1–16) fire the 16 drum voices directly — same as playing the step buttons on the tbd 16, but with pad velocity. The rest of the grid keeps showing the step timeline, so you can trigger a drum and tweak its steps without leaving the screen.

Keyboard play

On a mono or poly synth track, the whole 8×8 grid is a chromatic keyboard with the usual Novation scale layout. Octave range: −2 to +4 from the side column’s Oct buttons. Held notes release automatically when you change octave.

Pattern + Mute view

Press Master on the top row to switch to the performance overlay:

Left 6 columns — pattern slots for each of the 16 tracks. Tap a cell to switch that track to another pattern.
Right 2 columns — mute toggles for all 16 tracks (8 per column).

Press Master again (or any other top-row view button) to drop back to your previous mode.

Good to know

Only one Launchpad at a time. Add a Launchkey alongside via a powered hub if you want keys too.
Two-colour models (S, Mini Mk1, Mini Mk2) show the tbd 16’s colours mapped onto red / green / amber.
The Launchpad’s velocity and pressure are passed straight through — they behave like the hardware’s own curves.