Borne

Last week, we asked if the Akai APC40, the new, relatively inexpensive MIDI controller for Ableton Live, was going to make the monome irrelevent.

It’s clear that the Akai APC40 is stealing some of the monome’s mojo, because the APC40 is cheap and offers a great array of controls. At $400, the APC40 is cheap enough to become the new hot platform for music hacking.

As a result, videos, like the one above, are starting to appear on YouTube. The video demonstrates Akai APC40 customization and adding additional functionality with Bome’s MIDI Translator Pro.

This is just scratching the surface, though. CDM’s Peter Kirn has put together a nice SuperGuide to hacking the APC40. It looks at monome emulation, manual MIDI mapping, MIDI lights and more.

This is a must-read for APC40 owners, or if you’re considering the purchase of an APC40.

If you’ve got other ideas or resources for APC40 hacking, leave a link in the comments!