Comments on: Akai APC40 Controller For Ableton Live

By: surrogate

surrogate — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 02:02:39 +0000

You can change the bass/treble/mids and control them through the return tracks

By: ndac

ndac — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 20:20:01 +0000

This is amazing. I agree with the first poster. I was like hey, I need a ableton live controller and bam – there was one made for it. Not outrageous or hard to config, or midi map correctly. Some would argue its playsckool now – but nah its time to focus on creating not mapping. Thanks Akai ! ! 2 thumbs!

By: tone

tone — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 01:16:02 +0000

@aegis
assign the dj eq plugin on each channel u want that eq and when u select a device it is assigned to the device knobs, or if u want to assign 2 tracks to the same knobs u could even invert one set so when u turn up the band on one track it goes down on the other.
ur right this is not a great set up for 2deck stlye playing but I think they accomplished a hands on for their “clip view” styling of djing. if abletons new partnership w/ serato comes out that will more likely be platers. selecting clips at will for vinyl like manipulation will would be wicked sweet!

By: Duncan Beevers

Duncan Beevers — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 21:11:44 +0000

Expected availability is the end of March, ~$399 MSRP

By: aegis

aegis — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 18:57:10 +0000

Looks fabulous, although there is one style of play that it isn’t suited to, which is that of a traditional DJ playing nearly full tracks – there is no way to simultaneously control bass/mid/treble. For instance, it’s a frequent-used technique for a DJ to bring down the bass in one track while bringing it in on another. For me, I would have welcomed fewer clip slots and a dedicated per-channel set of assignable knobs (3 or 4) to allow for this type of control. As is, you’ll need to adjust two EQ params in steps, which might be a bit odd to get used to. As a progressive house DJ, it’s unfortunate that the Numark Mixmeister control might be better suited for me. All told, though, the price point is right, and should be a huge hit – if I have the cash, perhaps I’ll just get both! The Vestax VCM-600 is MY ideal controller (almost exactly like my current MIDIBOX homebrew) but it is at a ridiculous price-point.

One other suggestion that people can try (I did, and it works great) is the inexpensive Behringer DDM4000 mixer. This mixer is also able to assign most of its controls to MIDI, allowing you to map CC Midi commands to ableton features using the learn features in AL6/7. It works suprisingly well in this capacity when used with BOME’s midi translator and MidiYoke (these allow the mapping of some ableton features that can not be assigned to MIDI but CAN be assigned to a keyboard shortcut). You send a midi command to Bomes, which outputs a series of KB commands in response.

By: synthhead

synthhead — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 05:41:23 +0000

Nickygee – the Akai is very nice and has a great feel, too.

There’s a lot of competition coming coming for Ableton controllers, though. If you can, you may want to wait a few months so you can compare them.

By: Nickygee

Nickygee — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 05:14:33 +0000

It’s like Akai looked into my brain and made my dream controller.

I tried the MPD32 recently and found it a fairly solid controller in terms of usability with Live, but I’m glad I didn’t spend the cash. I was launching clips with the finger pads, and using the sliders for track volume, and the knobs for various effect controls. It was all pretty sweet aside from requiring a fair bit of screen checking when things got complicated, to be sure what exactly was going on in terms of clip playback.

The APC40 looks as though a user may be able to perform a solid set without having to refer to his/her screen; one of my ultimate audio fantasies realised!