ShortScale.org

There's one going locally for 30 quid that I'm thinking of picking up. Any reason I shouldn't

Or, there's a Novation Launchkey25 for 40. Looking around ebay I might try to snag a Launchkey49 for for less than 50, because although I don't really know what I want, other than something to dick about in Logic and Reason with, that looks more like what I think I want.

To dickabout I'd definitely say get something like the launchkey and some good free vsts like those from Tal.

Just got a good deal on an Novation Impulse 49 with a gig bag. It's my Christmas present so I won't get it for another while, but looking forward to it.

Nice present to look forward to. What you planning to do with it?

Dick about, mostly! That and fucking around.

I borrowed a usb mini controller from school recently and had great fun playing that through Logic, building up loops and playing my guitar through amplitube at the same time. Logic doesn't seem to be the best thing for this sort of live playing though, so I might learn something else instead (I was hoping there was a way to force Logic to do what I wanted).

I love using ableton for that sort of thing and it comes with some great synths, effects and tools including amp sims

Interested to know how you get on. I bought a 66 key controller, but it is too big for my desk so i’m going to chop it in for a 49.

It arrived today and because it's going to get packed away until Christmas, I've spent the evening making sure it all works (it does).

So far, I've mostly used it with Logic. It works well and the automap software is easy to use. It's really satisfying to have everything work much as you would expect. Something that hasn't worked immediately the way I would have wanted is drum kits etc that can usually be controlled by a keyboard aren't mapped automatically to the pads. I'm fairly certain this is something easily changed. This was the same in Reason with ReDrum. Ableton worked perfectly, but it's sort of designed with Ableton in mind.

The action the keyboard is good! or at least I like it. This is always something I find weird on keyboards, because I spent long enough playing classical piano and fussing over action on pianos that most keyboards feel not like the real thing. This really doesn't feel like a good piano, but has a nice weight without being stiff and the keys spring back very quickly, much quicker than you would get on a hammer action piano. This makes it nice and fast for me.

Roll on Christmas!

Sounds great Paul. Roll on the next month

Curiously, a former pupil (currently studying for his GCSE) approached me in the carpark on the way into school this morning and asked if he could leave something in the instrument store, even though it wasn't really an instrument. I told him that he could, of course and what was it? He said it was a Launchpad. I mentioned the Impulse, we got to chatting and I told him how shit I was with Ableton. He offered to come up at lunchtime and teach me it (how cool is that? What a guy!). So I took a lesson on Ableton off a thirteen year old on the Launchpad.

Launchpad was a cool bit of kit, but me being me, I spent ages practising scales on its weird interface.

I also suggested that the instrument store wasn't the best place for it the Launchpad to be left, it would be much better left on my desk where I could keep an eye on it (I knew I had two free blocks that I could have a sneaky play during).

Having something like the launchpad makes ableton more interactive. I’ve an apc40 but always wanted to be able to afford a push.

Which version of ableton you using?