Novation’s Launch Control 3 is a go-anywhere MIDI controller for almost every producer£130, novationmusic.com
Following the release of the Launch Control XL3 in 2025, Novation has redesigned its smaller sibling and put many of the concepts I love about the XL into a more compact form factor.
Launch Control 3 has been fully redesigned, dropping the toy-like look and feel of its predecessor in favour of a much more sleek, minimal and —dare I say it— Native Instruments-style finish. It’s still incredibly portable, however, and designed to be carried anywhere, taking up minimal space even on the smallest desk or table.

READ MORE: “An important tool regardless of how you make music”: Novation Launch Control XL MK3 review

The hardware is lightweight yet well-built, with a partly rubberised underside ensuring it stays still on any flat surface. It powers and sends data over USB-C or, when used in standalone mode, is powered by any USB-C power supply. The rear panel has three 5-pin MIDI ports – one in, one out and one that doubles as a MIDI thru, meaning the controller can be used to link MIDI hardware through its circuitry without the need for a computer. Plus, handily, incoming USB MIDI data can be routed onwards to the MIDI thru port.
As with Novation’s other gear, you manage the Launch Control 3 via the dedicated Components app, which is also available in your web browser. The app provides access to the configuration of the controls and lets you upload and download templates for various instruments and your custom setups. This works well, and the web app option means plugging into any computer and logging in lets you make edits even when away from home.
Image: Press
Launch Control has two main modes: DAW and Custom. Within DAW mode, there are two separate modes: DAW Mixer for setting levels, panning and sends, and DAW Control for tweaking your DAW’s plugins and devices. The front panel has eight assignable buttons and 16 endless rotary encoders with multicoloured dimming LEDs to denote their various functions, and adjustable response curves. There’s also a small but adequate OLED display, Page and Track select buttons as well as mode select, Shift and Function buttons.
DAW integration is key to Launch Control, and it has direct support for most major DAWs, including Ableton Live, Logic Pro, Cubase and FL Studio, with additional support for Pro Tools, Reaper, Studio One and more via the Mackie HUI protocol. As is often the case, Ableton Live integration is the smoothest, with the controller being automatically recognised and selected. Installing the Cubase script makes the controller appear easily in that software too, while Logic Pro’s script triggered an auto-set up process on loading, and successfully mapped itself.
Once set up, the hardware controls map to various parameters in your software. These vary by DAW, but essentially, in Mixer mode, the encoders will change fader levels, send levels and panning, and in DAW Control mode, they are mapped to devices or channel EQs and the like. Buttons control track solo, record arm and mute, depending on how you want them to behave. Navigating around tracks is easy too, though there are no transport controls mapped as part of the standard presets that I could find.
Launch Control 3 and Cubase. Image: Press
Specific mappings change slightly with each DAW, and some (like Cubase) have detailed re-mapping tools actually available inside a project. While you initially need to read up a bit about which mappings do what, the chances are you’re probably using one DAW most of the time so the learning curve isn’t particularly steep or long-winded; things do become familiar quickly. The HUI protocol is a bit more basic, as ever, but it does work as advertised.
It’s also possible to remap controls on the hardware, a process that the Components system makes extremely accessible. This also ties in nicely with the hardware control functions, where you can dig into the MIDI parameters linked to any controller-message function of any gear and map it directly to the controller. This is incredibly useful for taking hands-on control of things that might well be buried inside many levels of menu on hardware.
Of course, this requires some setup and figuring out which MIDI controller messages are linked to what, but it’s eminently achievable for anyone with a moderate grasp of music technology. The Launch Control has seven custom mode presets, accessible via the buttons, which are pretty much essential if you’re using it in any kind of live situation, jumping between devices or combinations of setups without needing to go back into configuration screens. The ability to have presets that control software and hardware at the same time is also valuable for the people out there running a mix of studio and live rigs.
Image: Press
Novation throws in some software goodies with your purchase, which is a nice bonus. After registering the hardware, you get access to limited-version DAWs, Ableton Live Lite and Cubase SE, plus plugins Klevgrand’s Fosfat transient designer, Baby Audio’s Parallel Aggressor effect and Output Movement, an effect modulator. There aren’t any individual software instruments bundled, though the DAWs have some of their own.
Launch Control 3 is a fun and flexible little controller but it does trade some functionality for portability. Although the full-size MIDI ports are handy for incorporating external gear there are no control voltage outputs like you’d get on some of the smaller Arturia controllers. The XL3 is significantly larger and by definition, less portable, and while the smaller model does a fine job of fitting a lot of that functionality behind mode and shift buttons, I do miss the dedicated transport controls of the XL. You can program things like Play and Stop using Components, but separate physical buttons would be so useful.
Perhaps those two are just examples of the compromises required to achieve this ultra-portability, and they’re probably not deal-breakers for most creators. In terms of price, £130 is reasonable, but perhaps fractionally high — it’s £50 more for the XL version, and other compact controllers like the Akai MidiMix are cheaper, though older and less elegant. Fundamentally, this unit gives you control over a wide selection of DAW mixing and plugin parameters as well as letting you bring external gear into the fold as well. And it does all this while taking up about as much space as a paperback, which is pretty impressive.
Image: Press
Key features

MIDI controller
19 endless rotary encoders with dimming LED lights
8 assignable buttons
Track navigation and page / mode / function buttons
USB-C power and data
5-pin MIDI in, out and thru
Monochrome OLED display
Support for leading DAWs and Mackie HUI protocol

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