Launchkey, Klevgrand, and just two hours. Can we finish a track?
Watch our latest video to find out if Novation and Klevgrand’s finest beatmakers can beat the clock in Berlin.
Back in early summer, our very own Launchkey expert Vini flew to Berlin to challenge himself and his Klevgrand counterpart, Lucas, to make a beat in two hours with some strict limitations. With just a Launchkey Mini 37, Logic Pro, and the full suite of Klevgrand plugins to hand, how did they get on? Watch the video to find out, then read on to learn more.
A longtime collaborator
You might recall back in January that we announced a partnership with long-term collaborators, Klevgrand. Klevgrand plugins are now included with a variety of Novation hardware products. Launchkey MK4, as seen in the video, comes with Slammer, R0verb, and Luxe.
Who is Klevgrand?
If you’re unfamiliar with Swedish plugin makers, Klevgrand, they make a sweeping variety of inspiring instruments and effects to use in your DAW of choice. Not only do the plugins sound fantastic, they look the part too; Klevgrand often represents sonic changes visually, in real-time, and they’ll always give you something nice to look at while you create.
Laying down the drums
Using Launchkey’s Drum Pad Mode is the perfect way to lay down drums for your track. In this mode, the different components of the drums are assigned across all 16 pads. The pads are velocity sensitive which is a great feature to achieve real-sounding drums when inputting MIDI as they respond to the force in which you press them, from the slightest of snare hits up to the intense crash of a cymbal.
OneShot, Klevgrand’s go-to drum sampler, was the plugin of choice for this part, and with over 40 velocity layers per drum it perfectly complements Launchkey’s velocity-sensitive pads, making it easy to get human-sounding drums with a dynamic feel.
Playing in the chords
After a beat is laid down, dropping in chords is effortless with Launchkey’s Chord Map. The blue pads represent a set of eight chords linked to your chosen scale, and the orange pads are performance modifiers, which determine the way in which the chords are played — from inversions to arpeggios and more.
It goes deeper though; Adventure and Explore — accessed through the endless encoders — change up the chord variations, allowing you to foray into different musical directions. Adventure controls how harmonically complex the chords are and Explore provides different chord sets at each Adventure level. Experimenting with these two controls together is a great way to discover new chord progressions that you might not have otherwise considered.
Spread and Roll functions offer two additional ways to alter the sound of your progression. Spread controls how closely the individual notes of a chord are placed on the keyboard, and Roll slightly staggers the individual notes of each chord, playing them sequentially for added flavour.
Tomofon is a unique plugin that blurs the boundaries between synthesis and sampling. Import audio, and rather than simply playing it back like a sampler, Tomofon converts it into a large set of waves, called an Audio Model. This allows it to go far further with modulation and natural, or un-natural, expression than would be possible with a traditional sampler — while retaining the characteristics of the original sound. Here, the duo put it to work on a dreamy chord sequence that fills out the beat.
Arpeggiated basslines and melodic leads
Launchkey’s powerful and flexible arpeggiator can be used in a number of ways. Vini and Lucas demonstrate two of these, first using it to generate a bassline. Holding down the Arp button allows you to visually adjust your sequence with Arp Pattern mode. Insert and remove steps on the pads and use the encoders to adjust parameters such as tempo, swing, type, and much more.
The arpeggiator is a great way of creating melodic lines too, especially when using Mutate. Depending on how much you apply, this can be either a subtle or intense effect that affects both pitch and whether a note is triggered. When in the eight-step editor, you can use the bottom row of pads to add Ties, Ratchets, and Accents for added expression.
One-key shakers
If you’re looking to add extra percussion and textures to your track, Skaka is the perfect solution. It’s a sample-based sequencer plugin and has 12 slots, each with its own instrument, parameters, and patterns, which makes adding elements a breeze. Each pattern contains events, with individual parameters like pitch, velocity, and envelope.
With full control over shuffle/swing amount and an internal awareness of in- and out shakes, timing fine-tuning, and variable sequence lengths, Skaka can get very close to the way a human percussionist would sound at almost any tempo. Simply hit the note that corresponds to the pattern you want to trigger, and you can record in your shakers and tambourines with ease.
The final touches
When it comes to mixing, Klevgrand has an abundance of options for carving out your sound, smoothing rogue signals, and adding flavour. Several of these make appearances in the final stages of the video as Vini and Lucas wrap up their two-hour challenge with some final polishing.
DAW Cassette, as you might have guessed by the name, is a tape deck emulation. It’s used to add saturation, distortion, noise, and even a little wobble to your sound. Here, Lucas applies it to the track’s intro, stripping out a good deal of low end in the process. Turning the plugin off when the main beat drops is a great way to add impact.
Spinn, a multiband modulation effect, adds subtle movement to the mix. Having the ability to tweak the amount and behaviour of the effect across different frequency bands allows for greater flexibility, especially when other elements in your mix might be fighting for attention.
One of the best ways to “glue” a mix together, of course, is compression. But this can be a tricky effect to master. One of Korvpressor's real strengths is an interface that helps you visualise exactly what it’s doing to your audio. Combined with a super-simple UI, this makes it a versatile, confidence-inspiring tool that can help you tame any track.
Of course, Korvpressor sounds solid too. The algorithm was designed with transparency in mind which makes it suitable for processing almost any kind of audio, from vocal tracks to full-blown mixes.
The final track
Just want to know how it all turned out? You can listen to the final track on Soundcloud below.
Learn more about Launchkey below, and head on over to Klevgrand to explore their whole catalogue of plugins.