Written by deeflash Thursday, 18 June 2009 19:10
The new Akai APC40 is the midi controller that every Ableton Live enthusiast has been waiting for. I pre-ordered mine back in the beginning of May and as the shipping date of June 1st was getting closer and closer, I called the retailer to find out if I was going to actually receive it on June 1st or if it had been back ordered like most other retailers showed. I was told that I might receive it on July 26th. I quickly checked the other online retailers and saw that AudioMidi showed that it was in stock and placed my order immediately. The next day I saw that it had shipped and cancelled my other order. Judging from the excitement generated by this controller, I'm sure I am not the only one with a story like this.
The Akai APC40 has 9 faders which automap to your track faders, a crossfader, 8 endless rotaries assigned to 4 banks that automap to pan and sends, and 8 more rotaries that automap to your devices in Ableton. It also has an 8x5 clip launch matrix, buttons to control clip view and clip stop for all 8 tracks, 5 scene launch buttons, and mute, solo, and arm buttons for each track.
The build quality of the APC40 is very sturdy. It has a metal base with soft plastic sides and a plastic top. It is 13 x 16.8 inches and weighs in at just under 6 lbs. It would fit in most DJ bags and it's not too heavy to travel with a laptop. The buttons have a nice tactile feedback but are not too hard to press. You can mash the buttons quickly without fearing that you will hit a wrong button accidentally. The faders are very smooth and have a decent amount of resistance, the crossfader has slightly less resistance as is usually expected. All of the rotaries are endless and, except for the cue level rotary, have LED rings to show you their current position. The clip matrix also gives you LED feedback showing you which clip slots currently have clips in them by glowing orange. A currently playing clip will glow green, a recording clip will glow red, and an empty slot will not light up at all. The Mute/Activator, Solo/Cue, and Record Arm buttons will glow green, blue, and red respectively to show their current status, matching what is on the Ableton screen.
Once I received the APC40, I connected the power connector and USB cable. One drawback to the device is that, due to the large amount of LEDs, it requires a power adapter. My Windows Vista PC computer instantly detected the device and installed it without any issues. The first time you launch Ableton Live, you need to add it to your midi devices in the preferences panel, Ableton then automatically maps it's controls to match Ableton. After you add it to Ableton, you will have a blue box around a group of clips, this is telling you which clips the clip matrix is currently controlling or mapped to. You can move the clip matrix around by using the Bank Select buttons on the APC40, if you hold down the Shift button and use the bank select buttons, it will move up/down by 5 or left/right by 8. Also, if you hold down the Shift button, your clip matrix turns into a large "Session Overview" and allows you to jump to different sections in your live set using the matrix.
While it is great that every control automaps, Ableton is the type of tool and program that almost every person uses differently and some may not need to access their Pan and Sends from the controller, and Ableton and Akai know that. They made every control remappable through the Ableton interface. You just click the Midi Map button and select what control you would like to remap it to and use the control on the APC40 that you would like to use, just like any other midi controller. Using the Pan, Send A, Send B, Send C, buttons you can change banks on the rotaries in the "Track Control" section which ends up giving you 32 different controls that respond to midi feedback even when changing between banks.
It's easy to see that Akai and Ableton's goal for the APC40 was to create a device that would make it possible for users to use Ableton more freely without being tied to a keyboard and mouse and staring at a monitor and they have really succeeded. With the LED feedback on the clip matrix, you don't really need to check your screen as much to see where you are in a live set. And while more rotaries would have been nice, you can get very creative with the ones you have and map buttons or faders to give you more control. Although the device has only been out for less than a month, users have already come up with new and interesting ways to use the APC40 with a Monome emulator, Max/MSP patches, and a really nice Bome Midi Translator patch. (
Create Digital Music » APC40 Hacking Superguide) And although the APC40 was designed for Ableton, it sends midi for most controls and can be used with other programs that receive midi. You just will not get the automapping and some of the more advanced LED feedback.
Just like with Ableton Live and other music creation programs, where every artist uses it differently, I think that we will begin to see more and more interesting and diverse uses for the Akai APC40 as each artist and performer finds new ways to create and express their music using it. Overall this is a great controller for almost any Ableton user and I think it will last a long time in studios and on the road.
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