Akai APC40 – Total ‘Live’ Control
By Paul Dakeyne
| Posted in Music Technology
It’s just over a week away ’til the highly anticipated public launch of Akai’s new Ableton Live controller, the APC40. At last, all those eager to see, feel and play with this dedicated hardware will now have their chance. That maestro of all things Akai and ‘techy’, Andy Mac will be around too, demonstrating the power of this baby!
So what exactly has the APC40 got to offer Live users? Stepping up first is the light show named the ‘clip launch’ section: This area is an 8 track/5 scene matrix (expandable with the bank select buttons) allowing clips to be start/stopped individually, or as ‘all’, and enables the launch of a complete row of clips using the ‘c-launch’ function. Next up is the ‘Mixer’ section, with 8 channels and a master fader (once again, expandable), taking care of ‘mute’, ‘solo’ and ‘record arm’ duties.
The 8 channel ‘Track Control’ section looks after pans and sends (and of course, guess what, it’s expandable too). Handy tap tempo and +/- nudge buttons offer a useful way to re-sync back up with those pesky live musicians who may wander away from your song tempo (tsk tsk).. Moving to another area of the APC40′s surface real estate, track effects (and vst’s) are easily controlled by 8 (erm, expandable..) knobs conveniently pre-mapped to your highlighted and focused effect parameters. The Transport control area (with crossfader) benefits from a ‘Global Record’ function that will record any automation you perform whilst your Live set is running – great for playback/review of your set at a later date 
And finally, the icing on the cake for those with the inspiration to take this machine to the next level, use of ‘Max for Live‘ software enables the user to extend the APC40′s feature set, so forming a customised, unique and bespoke operational control surface. Do check it out – This is true Nirvana for Ableton users, performers, artists and DJ’s!
Tags: ableton live, Akai APC40, Controller