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Ableton Live performance, perfected. The APC40 is the world’s finest Ableton Live control surface. Ableton and Akai Professional worked in a joint partnership to make the APC40 the perfect Ableton Live control surface. Whether you are an electronic-music performance artist and Live is your canvass, a DJ using Live to mix tracks, or a traditional musician using Live on stage or in the studio, the APC40 is designed for intuitive, powerful control. DIRECT DESIGN Because Akai Professional and Ableton designed the APC40 for Live, you don’t need to map its controls to talk to the software. Just connect your laptop to the APC40 with its USB cable and you're ready to make magic. The APC40 is class compliant, so you don't even need to install drivers. And if you’re an advanced Live user, the APC40 gives you the ability to remap every one of its controls to suit your own style. VIRTUAL VIEW The APC40 talks directly to Live and Live talks directly to the APC40. This exclusive bidirectional communication makes the APC40 an advanced controller in that it can receive feedback from the software and display it on its clip matrix of 40 triggers and on LED rings surrounding each knob. The clip matrix gives you an instant view of clip status: what's loaded, what's playing, and what's being recorded. Each state displays on the matrix in a different color so you can get a quick picture of clip state. You can shift your clip focus and get an overview of the clips you have loaded for your set. The APC40 has 16 knobs, each surrounded by a ring of LEDs. These LED rings make seeing your settings a breeze on dark stages, indicating the currently selected parameters’ values. This advanced visual feedback makes performing with the APC40 focused more on the music and less on squinting at the computer screen. In fact, you might even forget that the computer is there! PREMIUM CONTROLS Ableton selected Akai Professional as a partner because of its leadership position in great-feeling controllers that are rock solid, rugged, and precise. From the legendary MPC series that changed the way music is made to the industry-standard MPD and MPK controllers, Akai Professional is revered by musicians, DJs, and producers everywhere for creating the feel that powers their creativity. The APC40 is built with a rugged, metal chassis and slip-proof rubber detailing. Knobs and faders are solid and precise for pinpoint performance. It even features a high quality, replaceable crossfader. CREATIVE CONTROL The APC40 comes with a special edition of Ableton Live Lite so you can use it out of the box even if you’re new to Live. There's also a free patch that upgrades full versions of Live so if you're already a Live user, you can take full advantage of the APC40. The APC40 has two banks of eight knobs. The first set controls Global parameters so you’ll always have instant access to your main sends, pans, and other essentials. The second bank of eight knobs is dynamically reassigned to the Track you select. You can control eight track parameters at a time, and as you switch channels, the Track knobs follow your focus. You also get special clip-status views and feedback that only the APC40's matrix can display. The matrix is not limited to only 40 clips: you can scroll and shift, enabling access to an unlimited number of cells. The APC40 has a wide range of controllers. The eight Global knobs can access four banks of controls; the eight Track knobs control nine different track parameters each. This gives you a massive total of 72 controllers that are dynamically reassigned. Channel faders, bus faders, and a crossfader give you smooth control of key values. You have even more control power with special controls including Tap Tempo, Tempo Nudge, record enables, solo/cues and two assignable footswitch inputs. Designed in partnership with Ableton, the APC40 is the most advanced Live controller for the most advanced performers.
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Technical Details
- Designed in partnership with Ableton- Unique clip matrix with multicolor lighting displays current clip status
- Exclusive bidirectional communication between the APC40 and Ableton Live
- Comes with Ableton Live Akai Professional APC Edition, free upgrade patch for full versions of Live
- USB plug-and-play connection for Mac and PC
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By Rudimar L. Rayos (Colorado Springs, CO)
well built and solid. all the knobs and faders feel smooth. there's no other midi device that works better than this one with abelton live. it's a must have. I'll be swapping out the plastic knobs with nicer metal ones. other than that I feel that this is money well spent. the programming is endless and works flawlessly right out the box with ableton.
By Takahashii (Wageningen, Netherlands)
I started my keyboard hobby with a Casio CTK4000 (still loving it) but eventually wanted more out of the experience. SO I decided to to look deeper into sequencing software. After testing several programs I ended up with Ableton Live since it lets you *do* things without having to go over endless amounts of settings and controls in order to produce results. But since controlling Live using a keyboard can be quite tedious and I also wanted to get a licensed version I decided to grab the APC40.
It should be obvious by now that the APC40 is a MIDI controller which is fully aimed at Ableton Live. Not surprising if you realize that APC stands for Ableton Professional Controller. But do keep this in mind because there are specific key features which this devices "protects". In other words; options which will only work when connecting it with Ableton Live.
The first thing you'll notice when picking this critter up is that it feels very solid. Its about 3kg in weight, so don't expect any cheap plastics in here ;-) The whole thing is quite robust; the sides have sturdy hard-rubber strips attached to them which protects the device from impacts. All controllers feel very solid, however you'll soon notice that the cross fader feels "different". Thats all part of the rugged design; they expect some tear on the cross fader (which is said to be able to withstand some abuse) and if it eventually should break; no sweat. You don't have to replace the entire device; simply remove the cross fader and replace it with another. Thats right: you can easily replace it by removing 2 screws, then you can simply detach it from the APC40. Now thats a smart design in my opinion!
The APC40 handles itself very well with Ableton Live. My version shipped with Live 7, but also had a leaflet which allowed me to upgrade to 8. The latest Live version will have no problem with picking up the controller, and you'll be done setting things up in no time.
Unfortunately there are a few caveats here and there.. Sometimes it can be a little hard to discover the logic behind certain settings. For example; the knobs on the lower right of the device control the several effects or software instruments. It can be a little disorienting to sometimes see a knob on the right actually steer a controller on the left of the screen.
Another small caveat can be found when controlling devices which have several sections. As soon as you control such a section (for example a separate oscillator in the Operator instrument) the controls will work flawlessly; but don't be surprised if you don't see anything changing on your screen. Although you now control another oscillator the screen isn't always updated.
But apart from these small glitches I have to say that the APC40 fully delivers on what it claims to hold. It is more expensive that the Novation pad but then again it also has to offer more. If your goal is to easily and quickly control Live without having to look at your screen all the time, to have the same options for tweaking controls like cutoff, sustain, release like on any hardware synthesizer AND to gain full control over your Live sets then this is really the controller go grab. What you see is what you get, personally I prefer this "no brainer" approach over other alternatives where you always need to think if what you are looking at is actually that which you expected.
By D. Becker (Arizona)
There are a lot of controllers out there but none that are as perfectly suited for use with Ableton.
I DJ and do production work with Ableton and I couldn't ask for a more perfect controller.
Once you start using it, you'll wonder how you made do with anything else.
By Flynn Joffray (Vashon, WA)
So, I got this little gizmo because I had taken a trip and needed another controller for a show. After messing around with it for an entire night, I can say it has it's pros and cons.
pros:
its really really easy to use. the apc40 is a pretty intuitive piece of equiptment. You just plug it in and go, it really is that simple.
cons:
If you have OSX, you are stuck with the "akai" version of ableton. Have fun NOT using that. You can't map anything unless you have Max for Live, and so forget trying to set other buttons. In my opinion, it doesn't have enough effects options, or options for anything else.
If you are smart and use Live for more than just switching audio clips (lol), than you probably want to look for something different.
Also, i'm sure this is something that will be fixed in the future, but there are some major latency and selection bugs when using knobs and faders quickly, if you are a fast moving DJ than you do NOT want thing.
Overall:
get it and try it out, its a really cool piece of hardware, just not developed enough.
By Bjørn Borud (Trondheim, Norway)
The APC40 feels like a quality product. The knobs and sliders have good feel, the buttons are precise. The integration with the software (Ableton Live 8) is surprisingly intuitive and I managed to figure out how to use the APC40 within a few minutes of playing around with it.
The only thing I am missing is some more visual cues that makes it easier to see which "track control" knobs belong to which track. A backlit LCD might be a good idea for the next revision.
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