This video, via Novation, takes a look at using the new Novation Launchkey with Novation’s iPad music apps. 

Launchkey is a range of 25, 49 and 61 note keyboard controllers. They offer up to 50 physical controls, including 16 velocity-sensitive multi-color trigger-pads that launch clips and scenes in Ableton Live.

As well as enabling hands-on control of your DAW’s mixer and instruments, Launchkey is an integrated software/hardware instrument. The control surface has been designed to work tightly alongside two free apps for iPad:

• The Launchpad app is a totally self-contained iPad app that hosts loops which can be triggered by an 8×8 grid of virtual ‘launch pads’. The app can be flipped between different modes that give you access to faders and buttons, which can be used to alter volumes and trigger filter and stutter effects.
• The Launchkey app is a synth with a touch-screen interface for creating and morphing sound in multiple ways at the same time. Unlike a conventional synth you can ‘grab’ many sound-shaping parameters at once and move them around in a single action to make dramatic or subtle changes to the sound.

See the Novation site for more info on the Launchkey.