Novation LED in LMMS How to:
About: Novation LED keypad (drumpad) in LMMS.: How can you make the Novation LED drum pads of the Novation Launchkey25 MKII light up and change the colors via LMMS? From LMMS ( the best free music software (google translation) or dutch original: De beste muziek componeren met gratis LMMS studio) To create your own light show in the rhythm of your own composition. (this tutorial includes : Does LMMS support MIDI. And. How do I get my MIDI keyboard to work in Lmms?)
I work under Windows 10. For a large collection of peripherals that are famous enough, Microsoft is working with these manufacturers. So you never have to make the effort to find and install the latest drivers. This also happens with the midi controllers from Novation. If there are new drivers, they will automatically appear on your computer when Windows updates. The first time you connect the Novation Launchkey to your computer, Windows will check if there is a driver on your laptop or PC, and if not, it will be automatically removed from the internet.
free software bundle
At the Novation, you get the light version of Ableton-Live for free. The two brands have a partnership. This is good for the INControl functions of the launchkey. You can then easily navigate between different sequences of your music composition in a live performance. Those are all nice bells and whistles, but I want to use a decent music program such as LMMS.
LMMS midi support.
Novation LED in LMMS How: How do I get my MIDI keyboard to work in Lmms?
LMMS is not specially made for the launch key, but a midi controller is a midi controller 🙂
The LED lights in the drum pads are therefore also controlled via midi commands. But which one? You can search yourself drowsy on the internet, but you won’t get much wiser there. So I started testing in LMMS myself until I found the answer.
If you are working with a midi controller (or a normal midi keyboard) for the first time, you must first set that in LMMS because that is standard on midi-dummy (fake midi, just to not get errors if there is no midi)
You get there via ‘edit’ and then ‘settings’. Then click on the synthesizer symbol. And then you can choose the midi interface. For windows, this is the WinMM MIDI port driver that turns your USB port into a midi port.
Set the Novation midi port 2 to control the LEDs.
If you play music on the Launchekey midi board, it will come in through port 1 at LMMS. To work in the other direction, we use port (or channel) 2. You can also control an external synthesizer with the midi music that you make in a track. But here we will use that to control the LEDs. (Launchkey is just a keyboard in the shape of a piano, but has no sounds on board.)
Now first choose any midi instrument in LMMS. 1) click on the symbol of the instrument. And then that appears. You can also right-click there to change the name) 2) Then click on the piano symbol in that instrument window. You can do all midi settings there. We do not need the midi input in this case. But with another instrument that you want to play via your keyboard, you set that to channel 1.
How to set midi interface output to Novation LED lights in LMMS.
Novation LED in LMMS How – MIDI: You then also click on the piano symbol and there you choose the midi-in interface. That is normally the upper of the two choices that you get. (Can sometimes have a different name, for me it calls Launchkey MK2 25) But now back to our LEDs. 3) For that choose midi-output (click on the piano symbol just next to it. For the midi-out interface. Usually the second one. For me it calls MidiOUT-2 (can also call LaunchkeyIN2, weird name, but the IN stands for INControl here)
Also for controlling external synthesizer with LMMS
Novation LED in LMMS How: Sometimes there is a third option, that is the GM synth of windows (General midi synthesizer.) GM = to ensure that if you make a song on synthesizer 1 of brand A, you can also play it on another synth of brand B. A piano is a piano and a violin is a violin. (The quality can of course be different.) But all that aside.
Also make sure you set CHANNEL to 2. And then click OK and we can start.
Control of the Novation LED and how to set the colors.
Novation LED in LMMS How – Colors LED drumpad: Now just draw notes in the piano editor. The lower and left LED is the note C-3. They are not in a logical order, in my humble opinion. But just click on the piano keys in the C3 to C4 range and you will see which LEDs light up. You determine the color via the note speed (volume per note) You can set this at the bottom of the screen.
Result LED control in LMMS on the Novation Launchkey:
Novation LED in LMMS How – Disco time: The result then looks like this. You can create multiple tracks with different LED light effects on your Novation . For example, a different effect with a drop or transition. You cut and paste it in the same way as regular music clips.
Novation LED in LMMS How: PLEASE NOTE: the volume of these fake instruments is at zero! Or you might just happen to create something fun 🙂 (might work if you use a percussion instrument)
LMMS live performance
Novation LED in LMMS How – Live performance: In this way you can also use LMMS to give a LIVE performance.
LMMS live performance setup:
- LAPTOP with LMMS (and HDMI to big-screen or projector)
- Novation-Launchkey (or other midi-device)
- Good music P/A
- OBS-studio (mixing video sources)
If you connect your loptop via HDMI to a second screen. Then you can run LMMS on your laptop and simultaneously watch your video clips on the second screen. On the launche-25 there are 8 rotary knobs of which you can determine what they do! And these settings are made (in advance) from LMMS. And these are stored in your LMMS project files. So per song. Each piece of music can therefore be given a different configuration.
Novation LED in LMMS How: OBS-studio : Thanks to this software you can, for example, also aim a web cam at your keybord and use it in your LIVE LMMS preformance. And project them on the big screen. 😎
End ‘Novation LED in LMMS how to’ – other suggestions:
See also : How to split your midi keyboard for more instruments in LMMS
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