Novation Launchpad Mini Review

My launchpad arrived a few days ago. It is an excellent controller that puts a lot of fun into using Ableton Live. I’m mainly into external gear as I don’t enjoy mousing around looking at a screen for making music. The launchpad has fixed a lot of those problems and makes music creation and playback fast and easy. The setup is easy, install drivers, load Ableton  and start playing.

The live launchpad edition is ok, but limited in lots of ways. I’m using the 30 day demo of the full version at the moment. With the current Ableton discounts, the upgrade to the full version is pretty cheap. I did a DJ gig a few weeks ago and wish I had the launchpad for that. Much easier and compact for triggering tracks and for portability. The mixer functions are good on the launchpad, but it is easy to change the settings on the wrong track. Also, flicking back and forth between mixer and session view takes a bit of getting used to.

 

 

 

The launchpad is amazing for creating music! I was surprised at home much of a difference it makes. The user1 mode is excellent for drumracks, and if you make sample based music it is great. Load or record your sample, slice to midi using your preferred settings and then play away on the launchpad. This is similar to how I use the mpc1000. It’s a very fast and easy way to try out new ideas. The session view is also good. Setup your instrument or drumrack, set arm on for the track and press a clip button, recording starts and you can play away. It makes it easy to create variations on a riff or drum part. Record a heap of them and then play around using the launchpad clip triggers to see what works best.

All in all, an excellent controller for a small price.

     

Dinghy Wheels

I wanted a simple method to transport the dinghy from the car to water or from my house to the water. I wanted to be able to take the wheels off and carry them with me whilst sailing, if I needed them at my destination.

 

 

I searched but couldn’t find a large enough sized lightweight wheel to put on the side of the dinghy, so I drilled some holes in the bottom. I then glued in some blocks of wood and drilled the holes up into the block. I got two trolley wheels from a metal shop for $10, they slot into the holes and can be removed easily. It works really well and is dirt cheap.
 

Rudder Design

 

The cost of rudder fittings turned out to be prohibitive (around $80-$160 for small dinghy fittings). Had a look on the pdracer site and copied a design from there. Went to the local metal shop and got some aluminium offcuts and a stainless steel rod for $10. After about an hours work I had this:

 

 

Sand flea Dinghy

My Sand Flea dinghy is coming along. It is roughly based on the one that Matt Layden created. I used the  D4 Dinghy Plans

  for the hull and created the rest from looking at pictures of Matt’s boat. I’m using a curved deck and full length flotation chambers.