I recently picked up a Novation Launchpad and have been thoroughly impressed with its functionality. The ability to send MIDI data back to the box and see the buttons light up is particularly useful.

Of course this isn’t anything new, older controllers and other contemporary controllers have this capability as well. I can send MIDI data back to my Akai LPD8 and see its buttons light up too, but the advantage of the Launchpad is color. The velocity value of the note sent to the Launchpad determines the color of the button. The combination of green and red LEDs in each button give the controllerist a range of different color options.

This idea of color feedback, as with most ideas related to controllerism, is very new. Commercially available and DIY controllers that give us both tactile buttons and visual feedback are becoming increasingly popular. And, of course, there are dozens of colorful controller apps for the iPad.

We now live in an age where our musical instruments have the ability to give us visual information.

Livid Instruments has taken the idea a step further with their Ohm RGB controller, which has the additional blue LED that gives the controllerist a much larger color palette.

Then there is Ander, in the above video, a Swiss controllerist who designed and constructed the Station MIDI controller using the ucapps.de hardware platform. I can’t speak too much about its functionality or efficiency, but damn is it a gorgeous controller!