Novation Launchpad - "The Ableton Live Controller"

It is amazing how much influence Ableton Live has had over the way computer musicians approach live performance, and the market weight Ableton has created can now easily be appreciated in the wave of dedicated controllers coming to market. Despite Akai's inability to fulfill early orders for their APC40, (or maybe it was just that they choose to ignore the value of small, independent retailers) it is still tempting to assume that the overwhelming success and relative affordability of the Akai APC40 controller would make it difficult for a new controller to make itself noticed, but the Launchpad by Novation has more than garnered our attention. With Monome-like simplicity, a much tighter footprint than the APC40, and at half the price, we are betting that the Lauchpad will be a Robotspeak best-seller this fall, and I for one am looking forward to getting one of my own. More information on the Launchpad from Novation's Site...