Button bashin' and clip launchin' is the new DJin' - or at least if you follow these pages that's the way it seems. To some, it's all rather alien and not what DJing is about, but for others its the next logical creative progression. So when Akai got cosy with Ableton and came up with the everso Live friendly APC40, the aforementioned DJs rejoiced as they now had something that could integrate into their existing setups. Andrew Unsworth applied his Live experience to the APC40 and transcribed his findings.
Live is still my nemesis. I'm perfectly happy with any kind of DJ metaphor you care to throw at me. But as soon as the spinny things are removed, I'm all a dither and feel quote lost. I guess a few hours with the tutorials will help - especially as I have to punish The Bridge beta as well. And for the record, the first rule of Bridge club… well you know the rest.
But Andrew seemed to like the APC40 and you can find out what he thinks right here. I wonder if reviewing the all new APC20 is as simple as hacking out lumps of text?
9 comments to this story
On March 9, 2010, regend commented...
i tried DJing with Live and it's a bit wonky for me. things don't launch all that accurately. it's great for production and create music but i'll stick to spinning discs and vinyl emulation. my partner did get an apc40 and i may try it out to see if the launching of clips is tighter with the apc40. i think that's my main gripe about Live is that i like to trigger things really quickly and i also hear a lag in my Live sets as well as everyone i've heard who plays out. it just makes someone's set sound really amateurish.
On March 9, 2010, regend commented...
i tried DJing with Live and it's a bit wonky for me. things don't launch all that accurately. it's great for production and create music but i'll stick to spinning discs and vinyl emulation. my partner did get an apc40 and i may try it out to see if the launching of clips is tighter with the apc40. i think that's my main gripe about Live is that i like to trigger things really quickly and i also hear a lag in my Live sets as well as everyone i've heard who plays out. it just makes someone's set sound really amateurish.
On March 9, 2010, Andrew Unsworth commented...
Regend, have you tried changing the global quantisation setting at the top of the screen? This might help with the problems you're having.
Using Ableton to mix tracks in a linear fashion is a recipe for boredom. Use it properly and your imagination's the only limit. That and the 16 track maximum in APC Edition.
On March 9, 2010, chong commented...
Hi Giz, i wonder if the left & right "wings" of the unit can be easily removed to put it in a rack ? i think its a waste of space and i spotted screws there....
@chong - it went back today so I can't test the theory. There doesn't seem to be anything in the manual about it though.
On March 9, 2010, Thrawn commented...
I tried DJing with live about a year ago an just couldn't get my head around it. I ran into simular problems as regend. I recently went back to try it again and picked an APC40 up and I have to say that i love it. Once I got my head around live and actually took the time to learn how to use its features it just became so simple. I now cant wait for the bridge to come out. In response to chong question I dont thing out can mount it, but I dont have the unit in front of me right now but I will check for you when I am at home.
On March 10, 2010, Deco commented...
Nice review. I have one myself and did a gig with it recently. Tracks launch in sync if you set your start points/ warp points correctly. You have to get used to the way ableton launches a track, you press the button in advance of the clip playing, so ableton will play it when the next bar comes along. Creating audio effect racks makes the controller more usable for a dj set. My main gripe is the stop buttons, too easy to press them instead of the activator buttons! But i remapped another button to this function.
And as a minor clarification, if you install quicktime you can use mp3's in ableton, something to do with Ableton using a conversion tool in quicktime...?
The Ableton forum has a lot of APC40 owners, some good help there. And Riley and durrant have a youtube video explaining how they dj with live, i found it very useful when i was getting started.
On March 11, 2010, Scott Frost commented...
Does Ableton try to "AUTO WARP" a track?
How do you do it if you add a new track on the fly during a live set?
On March 11, 2010, Evan commented...
Ableton only autowarps if you have autowarping turned on, its your choice. If its a fairly straightforward track you can drop it in live, once you get proficient at warping you can usually do a generic electronic track in 30sec or less.
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On March 9, 2010, regend commented...
9 comments to this story