© Focusrite Audio Engineering LTD
About this Guide
Launchpad MK2 communicates using MIDI over USB in both directions. This manual, describing the MIDI
communication format, is all the information you need to be able to write software that is customised for
Launchpad MK2.
This is not an exhaustive document. Certain extra System Exclusive messages are used for authentication, and
remote firmware upgrade. These are beyond the scope of this document; however, it is worth knowing that
they exist in case you encounter them while you are playing with Launchpad MK2.
Number Systems and MIDI conventions
There are three ways of expressing MIDI data in this manual. The first, where appropriate, is a plain English
description of the message. When we describe a musical note, middle C is deemed to be ‘C3’ or note 60. MIDI
channel 1 is the lowest-numbered MIDI channel and channels range from 1 - 16.
MIDI messages are also expressed in plain data, with decimal and hexadecimal equivalents. The hexadecimal
number will always be followed by an ‘h’ and the decimal equivalent given in brackets. For example, a note
on message on channel 1 is signified by the status byte 90h (144).
For Max Users
For the benefit of those who use Cycling 74’s Max software to process and manipulate MIDI data, a series of
tutorial patches are available. These demonstrate many of Launchpad MK2’s features and capabilities within
the Max environment.
A runtime version of Max is available from www.cycling74.com.
