I talked the manager of the local Guitar Center to unbox one of three Akai APC40s so that I could get some hands-on time with this (what I assumed would be) amazing device. Needless to say, after leaving, I wanted to buy one very badly.

Clip Matrix / Pads

In my opinion, this is one of the major benefits of using an APC40. This makes performing with an APC40 much more feaseable; it’s almost like playing an instrument. The clip pads are red when there’s a clip loaded and green when clips are playing. There’s scene selects so you can launch entire scenes at the touch of a pad. There’s also individual “Stop Clip” buttons for each row of clips. Include a global “Stop All Clips” button and you’re all set.

Beneath the Clip Matrix is the Track Selection bank. You can choose one of 8 tracks at a time (ie. you can choose tracks 1-8, and once you start banking, you’ll be able to select tracks 9-16). You can also choose the Master track. These buttons select the track you want, enabling you access to the selected tracks’ plug-ins/sample view.

Below the Track Selection bank, you’ll see three rows of pads. The top is the Activator (on/off), in the middle is the Solo/Cue (solos the track and/or cues it for you), and the bottom is the Record Arm row.

The pads feel GREAT. They’re plenty responsive while not being stiff like the ones found on the Remote Zero SL. You don’t have to stab the pads hard to get your desired result.

Faders

The second serious selling point for me was/is the faders. I still prefer to bounce stems and and mix inside Pro Tools, but these faders make it totally possible to mix inside Live without a second though. They’re short-throw faders, but they’re far more accurate than those on most other controlls. They’re no P+G faders, but hey, they do the job.

There’s 8 faders, but once again, when you bank over, you’re able to select other tracks. There’s even a fader dedicated to the Master.

The crossfader is a great addition, especially for those of us DJing with Live. Instead of blending tracks with individual faders, you can easily set tracks to either A/B and bounce between them with this crossfader.

Encoders

At the top-right of the controller is the Track Control bank: it’s a bank of 8 encoders that can either be a pan or send (A, B, or C). Again, like everything else on this controller, these are bankable.

Below is the Device Control. This bank allows control over any of Live’s devices, which, again, makes this device feel more lke an instrument than a controller. It allows up to 8 parameters to be controlled at any one time. It has a Device On/Off switch for performing the obvious, as well as two arrow buttons (<- and ->) so you can bounce forward and backwards on each track so you can control more than one device with the push of a button.

There’s also an encoder for the cue level.

Additional buttons include: Detail View, Record Quantization, MIDI Overdub, and Metronome.

The Rest

The bank select area is amazing. Once APC40 is installed, you’ll see a red box around the clips that are currently being controlled by the APC40. You can bank up, down, left, and right. There’s also a Tap Tempo button which does exactly what you think it does.

Above the crossfader are global session controls: Play, Stop, and Record.

The build of this device is amazingly solid. It feels like it could take some serious road mileage and still keep working. Everything on this thing is built very well. I honestly feel like, if you buy this device, you’ll have it for quite some time.

The End

Since the picture I took is kind of shitty, I figured I’d link to a few different pictures. This one, a high-ish rez pic of the front and this one, a view of the top, front, and back of the controller.

I can’t wait to own one of these things. For DJing inside Live, it’s all you need. For performing live-sets…well…again, it’s all you need. If you’re a Live users, you need to fit this device into your budget.

BONUS! Awesome videos of the APC40 in action.

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