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

So, it havent been long time since the Akai APC40 was introduced to the market with full support from the Ableton developers. But now it seems like we have a new gadget which takes the step further (atleast for me) with the new Vestax VCM 600 comming into the market. Sure, many may argue that how could it possible beat the Akai APC40…

I think that the VCM 600 got a better overview, less messy trigger/button organization and it gives you a better overview of what actually is goin on. The VCM 600 is abit more expensive (around 700 euro) though and it doesnt have the smart play triggers like the APC 40 has… I wish someone could combine these two into one solid piece of midi performance gear!