Joined in 2023 
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I get the feeling Ableton doesn't want people to use Ableton for straight up DJing haha which is fair, they want people to create! That’s quite a step up from the original, which required a fairly hefty wall-wart at all times, and makes the Mk2 a much more portable solution. APC 40 MKII comes with a copy of Ableton Live Lite in the box, so you can start making music and creating mixes straight away. With a 5-8 RGB LED grid for launching clips or triggering one-shots you are able to fully sequence complex pieces of music fast.
As well as the shape change, the most noticeable change is that the MkII’s pads are now fully multi–coloured, upgraded from the MkI’s green/yellow/red. All good stuff, and using it reminds you why the original APC40 did prove to be so popular; there’s smart design going on here.Saving your mappings can be a problem as mappings are saved with an Ableton session, so if you start a new session you will need to re-map your controls again. The instrument raised the standards of controller design, revolutionized hardware and software integration, and proved to be an essential performance tool for Ableton Live users everywhere. On the other hand, though, the way to tell if a pad is active, and playing, now, is that the illumination gently pulses.
This means noticeably less banking, and more visibility into the Session, and I would have liked to see this on the APC40 as well, even if it required a larger surface area. In 2009, Akai Professional collaborated with the creators of Ableton Live, a powerful music performance and production software environment, and introduced the original Ableton Performance Controller-APC40.Whilst Intro and Standard are highly functional, Suite includes an additional 70GB library of sounds, in comparison to Standard's 10GB. Ableton Live has changed the landscape for music production, sampling and audio editing since its introduction in 2001. A dedicated tempo control knob joins the Tap Tempo and Nudge buttons, which should make mixing your Live set into a DJ set a little easier. In 2009, Akai Professional collaborated with the creators of Ableton Live, a powerful music performance and production software environment, and introduced the original Ableton Performance Controller—APC40.
In the time it took you to read this, you could have created your own custom Ableton Script for that controller sitting in front of you! Moving the physical control on your Apc 40 Mk2 will now move the position of the corresponding parameter in Ableton.There are a lot of products that overlap with the APC40, not least, of course, being Ableton’s own Push. This is a much more logical setup, and as they are endless rotaries with LED ring lighting, will immediately adjust to match their mode, or channel as you navigate around your Live set. The faders can be quickly assigned to different functions with dedicated buttons, and clever use of a shift key allows the Mini to pull off a lot more than you might imagine for such a tiny device. Another plus is it has fantastic Bitwig script, which is much more comprehensive than for Live (ability to play chromatic and in-key, step sequencers). Connecting the Akai Apc 40 Mk2 with Ableton Live is pretty simple, and when the two are linked you'll be able to adjust the software's parameters from your midi controller.
Anyone who was put off by the lack of ‘creation’ options before won’t find anything new here to get them excited, but considering what this controller is designed to do – control Ableton Live in a live environment, it achieves that superbly. Constructed from high-quality polycarbonate material, our cover provides exceptional durability, ensuring the longevity of your APC40 MK2.I had Push2 in the past but sold it because it was big, heavy and didn't really meet my expectations with regards to producing / playing without looking at laptop screen. Both feature 3 colour LED clip launch pads, rather than RGB, but those pads are just big enough to be usable. PC: Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7 or Windows 8; multicore processor; 2 GB RAM; Windows compatible sound card (ASIO driver support recommended), QuickTime recommended.
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