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Knobs and faders

The LaunchControl XL has three rows of 8 knobs and 8 faders. Assignments depend on which LC user template (U1–U6) is active.

Knob Rows

Each player’s LC shows 3 rows of 8 knobs. Columns 1–7 are the per-sequencer knobs; column 8 is the meta column, where the mid and bottom knobs do something and the top knob does nothing. The rows are named top, mid, and bottom (the physical row order on the hardware, from top to bottom on the LC panel).

Confirmed global assignments

Knob row Controls
Top (row 1) Per-sequencer duty (gate length)
Mid (row 2) Per-sequencer velocity
Bottom (row 3) Per-sequencer percentage chance threshold
Mid, column 8 Mod wheel: one shared CC 1 value, broadcast to whichever sequencers you switched on in the mod-wheel toggle view
Bottom, column 8 Fine swing for the sequencer this player is editing

The mod-wheel knob is the one control on the panel with no ring feedback: its value is not stored anywhere, so the LEDs have nothing to read back. Turn it and listen rather than looking.

Every knob sits in the same place in every template; what the template changes is which bank of sequencers the knobs address. The mapping lives in the SysEx user template files in daw_additions/user_*.syx, loaded with the Novation Launch Control XL editor.

Template: sequencer mapping

The template chooses which bank of sequencers a player’s knobs and faders address. It says nothing about which player is turning them: both units send the same messages, and Pure Data tells the players apart by the port they arrive on.

Template Sequencers on the knob rows Faders and buttons
U1 Seqs 1–7 Seqs 1–8
U2 Seqs 9–15 Seqs 9–16
U3 Seqs 1–7 Seqs 1–8
U4 Seqs 9–15 Seqs 9–16
U5 Seqs 1–7 Not routed (FX page)
U6 Seqs 9–15 Not routed (FX page)

U1, U3 and U5 → sequencers 1–7. U2, U4 and U6 → sequencers 9–15. Column 8 has no per-sequencer knobs, so sequencers 8 and 16 get none.

U5 and U6 are the Ableton FX pages: their faders and button rows go nowhere in MSEQ, but their three knob rows still address the sequencer banks above.

At boot MSEQ pushes Player 1 onto U2 and Player 2 onto U1, which puts the two players on opposite banks. Move either one wherever you like. Fine swing used to care and no longer does, because it takes the player from the port the message arrived on. The Euclidean faders below still take it from the template.

Percentage chance display

The bottom-row knob sets the per-sequencer chance threshold (0–100%). The threshold affects any step in the trig view marked as PERCENTAGE_CHANCE. The Launchpad shows the step at different shades of green depending on the threshold value: the paler the green, the likelier the step:

Knob position Trig display Chance
Far left (0%) Looks like TRIGMUTE Never fires
Low Deepest green 1–12%
Mid-low Green 13–25%
Mid-high Light green 26–65%
High Palest green 66–95%
Far right (≥96%) Looks like ON Essentially always fires

Faders

The 8 faders address one bank of sequencers each, chosen by the template exactly as the knobs are: U1/U3 for sequencers 1–8, U2/U4 for sequencers 9–16.

Beyond setting per-sequencer volume, faders 6–8 drive Euclidean density, rotation and length (see Euclidean trigs), and faders 2 and 3 also send their value onward as CC 37 to the instrument. Every fader move is mirrored in the webapp.

Those three are the one place where the template decides whose editing you are doing rather than which sequencers you are addressing: a fader on the sequencers 1–8 bank edits the first player’s selected Euclidean row, one on the sequencers 9–16 bank edits the second player’s. Everything else on the panel reads the player from the port.

Knob LEDs

Each knob’s LED ring shows the current value of whatever that knob is assigned to. Knob input is smoothed on the way in, so a slow turn moves the ring evenly rather than in jumps (see Slew and CC smoothing).

The bottom row’s column-8 ring is the exception: it shows the fine swing that knob is about to change. It goes dark whenever the knob would do nothing, on an LC page sequencer, or in the SWING view before you have picked a sequencer.

Cross-References