Comments on: Akai APC40 Will Be a Many-Buttoned Controller For More Than Ableton Live

By: Brian Stone

Brian Stone — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 08:01:29 +0000

I’m very interested in how this could be used with Apple’s MainStage product as a sophisticated controller or effects system.

By: www.PrimeLoops.com

www.PrimeLoops.com — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 04:53:18 +0000

Awesome – we have been using the MPD24 – Upgrade in order!

By: yourk

yourk — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 02:27:16 +0000

bliss

“The dude that writes JJOS used to work for Akai, so Iâ€™ve heard.”

I used to work at Akai during the Numark Admin

My time was at the company when the JJOS guy first released his OS.

I can tell you that nobody in the company had heard of the JJOS guy before he came in and Drank Their Milkshakes.

By: Brian Green

Brian Green — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 20:25:00 +0000

im pre ordering it.

By: Sean

Sean — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 02:01:59 +0000

That’s a nice piece of kit. Definitely waiting to see it in action

By: Vanceg

Vanceg — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 01:26:31 +0000

Well, Jesse is _the_ authority on the APC-40, but extrapolating on what I saw at NAMM and Jesse’s comments here, I am GUESSING that the lights under the pads and knobs may be controllable by simply sending standard MIDI commands from computer to APC. Perhaps no messing with Sys-Ex needed.

By: thesimplicity

thesimplicity — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 00:47:02 +0000

@Vanceg: thanks so much for linking to that movie. Somehow I missed those before. Seeing the integration of this device with Live as a step sequencer has totally convinced me of its awesomeness.

By: Peter Kirn

Peter Kirn — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 00:35:51 +0000

Hi Jesse — I’ll be around soon.

But just to be clear, that’s not any bi-directional communication with the APC outside of Max for Live?

I mean, this is a significant difference. The monome supports bi-directional communication and all the software is free and open source. You can use it with Live and Max (and it should inherit these same new features of Max for Live), but you can also use it with a variety of other tools – whatever you choose.

Even the Korg padKONTROL supports multiple templates and has been hacked so that you can transmit data to those lights.

I’ll be honest – my prediction is, unless the APC uses audio stream messages for output (and I think it uses MIDI instead), people may find a way to control those lights. ;)

I do agree with others here that not having physical MIDI jacks isn’t such a big deal, in that I don’t see controlling hardware with the APC and you probably already have a MIDI interface on your audio box (and your keyboard, etc.) But the lack of control over the feedback you get on the APC outside of Max for Live to me makes this less suitable as a general-purpose controller.

Peter

By: ehdyn

ehdyn — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 23:00:37 +0000

Got to spend a lot of time with this at NAMM and was really impressed.
The build quality seems very tough, and the knobs have a near perfect feel. Tougher case than say the MPD32. Even the lights look good-if they were bright enough to be seen on the well lit NAMM floor-they’ll do great in a darkened room. Pads are obviously not as good as MPC, but you smack em around a little.
I guess the driver might be the only issue, because there was an easily perceptible latency to input. If it remains proportional you’ll be able to compensate for the lag easily. Hopefully they will tighten it up before shipping.

Could see myself buying this before something like Maschine, but only if it can be used with Logic, SC, and Reaktor.

By: Gamma

Gamma — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 22:13:30 +0000

and why only 8? and what about the usb latency?