From Novation’s website:

“Jointly designed by Ableton and Novation, Launchpad places Ableton Live at your fingertips. Whether you’re a DJ, performing musician or studio producer, Launchpad gives you all you need to truly ‘play’ Live.”

Basically what we have here is a mass produced Monome custom tailored to Ableton Live. This device can be used as a clip launcher, step sequencer, equalizer and more. You can even chain multiple units together to gain greater control over multiple functions simultaneously. On top of that, Launchpad was designed with Max MSP (for Live) in mind and will take advantage of the amazing flexibility that upcoming extension for Ableton will offer us – that is, whenever Ableton gets around to making Max available.

Click read more to view a video and for some links with more in-depth coverage of this new device.

EDIT: We just added another, even better video after the jump. Be sure to check it out.

Online retailers such as Musician’s Friend and Guitar Center are already accepting preorders and the device has a listed retail pricing of only $199 which is a lot cheaper than we would have expected. Announced ship date is in the beginning of November. Might just have to pick one of these up.

You can find more information on Novation’s website or at the Create Digital Music blog.