Akai APC 40 – The one and only, or just one of many?

Akai APC 40

The midi controller market is just overflowing ATM, everyone seems to be into this trend of doing so called “live sets” or making the DJ life way simpler or more advanced depending on how you look on things. Up till now I’ve been trying to find my way in this jungle of midi controller’s, where they all promise the ultimate experience.

So what creates the “perfect midi controller”?

It has to be a solid machine, you must be able to manhandle the knobs, the faders as you would do when you rock out at the club in front of your crowd.

Easy to set up – Plug and play. Lets face it, there’s nothing more annoying as a DJ, when the DJ after you comes in drunk, and needs to hook up 300 different cables and then struggle to get the shit running.

Easy to use, or at least easy to program so you can make it as complex or as easy as you would prefer.

I still haven’t tried a controller who has all these parts! Where most controllers fail is in the quality feel of the knobs and faders. Last thing I would want playing out is to be worried I’d break off 3 knobs and a fader in the process.

Now this is where the APC 40 takes home the price for me. It’s a solid piece of equipment, it’s not the lightest out there, but you can tell at once it’s not a piece that you would break easily.
The knobs are FANTASTIC! Super tight , also with the light so you can actually see where you’re at in a dark club. The buttons are just as tight and no hassle! The faders on the other hand are still a little too weak IMO.  They could learn a thing or two from the Pioneer mixers in this matter! But still they are precise and I could live to learn with it, cause all above is brilliant!

To hook it up what you need is: Power adapter (included) and a fire wire cable (included)!  It’s too bad I couldn’t get it going with only the fire wire cable though, would have made the process one step easier! But a solid machine sometimes need a little more juice than a fire wire port can provide!

Once it’s plugged in and Ableton 8 is open this thing works like a CHARM!  It’s plug & play and just a joy to actually start exploring the possibilities straight out of the box, instead of countless hours reading tutorials finding out what to do.

What`s also cool is that you could set the APC 40 up in any way you prefer, you are not bound to the pre programmed set up!  Another +.

So the APC 40 gets big ++ over the whole book! The possibilities for using it alone are endless, though I could not se myself using this alone with a laptop as a replacement for the DJ set up, because IMO you would have to set up alot of the elements in advance to get it sounding really good. And planning/preparation  for me, kinda ruins the whole club experience especially for me as a DJ! However, for studio and as a add on to my DJ shows I can for sure see myself using it! The possibilities are far too many to ignore!

So if you are on the look out for a fairly reasonable priced machine to control ABLETON, this is by far the best machine I’ve tried for this purpose! If you are on the look out for a controller that you could  use for different programs as Traktor, logic etc, save your bucks and look at the Jazzmutant which is way more versatile.

Sum up Akai APC 40:
+ Buttoms and Knobs are BRILLIANT
+ Solid machine
+ Easy to use
+ Plug N Play
+ Reasonable priced
+ Perfection for Ableton

- Faders
- Only good for use in Ableton

Rating: 9,5 / 10

3 Responses to “Akai APC 40 – The one and only, or just one of many?”

1. liggins says:

   2009/10/20 at 07:50

   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yaKv8lOhB_g

   I think you’ll find its usb 2 and not firewire

   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yaKv8lOhB_g

   Current score: 0
2. Thomas Sagstad says:

   2009/10/20 at 10:17

   Sorry about that, typo! Obviously meant the usb 2

   Current score: 0
3. Super Chavra says:

   2010/06/02 at 09:37

   Why did Ableton/Akai forgo the Firewire protocol (800 MB sec) for the outdated USB 2 (12 MB sec)? Or am I missing something?

   Current score: 0