Nostalgia Bytes
Remember when you were young, during the glory days of 8 bit computing, when miners were manic, eggs were dizzy and Far Cry was nothing more than a noise your sister made when you hit her with a frisbee? Fantastic wasn’t it? And yet, as good as those games were, can you remember how you also longed for better, more colourful graphics, more realistic gameplay and a multi-button controller that didn’t look like a prop from those naughty films your dad watched?
Of course you do.
That’s why, as soon as you saw the exquisite detailing on Chun Li’s hem-line you ditched the Spectrum in favour of a SNES, SF2 and a loin full of misplaced lust. You might even have fond memories of typing obscenities and unrecognised commands into the Rod Pike classic, Dracula, but would you really prefer to play a text-based adventure when you could be slapping zombies in Resident Evil 5 and admiring Sheva’s cleavage instead?
Of course not.
The same is true of mobile phones, cars and royalty cheques. You love the one you have but cannot wait until a better one comes along. It’s ironic then, that in an industry where the chief players prefer the sound of a flatulent robot raping a dustbin to the sound of a real instrument, the arrival of the next best thing is either met with derision or hostile suspicion.
Back In The Day, when Technics was more than a type of Lego and your sole reason for buying an OEM turntable was to take it to the tip three months later, DJs longed for samplers that didn’t cost the same as a small planet, that could fit in the palm of your hand rather than the boot of your car, and had a memory capacity greater than that of an elderly relative. Being able to remix tracks and add additional production to your set without ‘cashing in’ your parents’ life insurance was truly the holy grail of DJing.
And yet, as soon as that holy grail became apparent and affordable to all but the most bankrupt of DJs, those that adopted it were derided by proponents of the old-skool as ‘fakes’, ridiculed by old ladies in supermarkets and given a good kicking by anyone wearing a stripey jumper and trackie pants tucked into their socks.
Why?
Possibly, because having spent at least a grand on DJ equipment and years of practice perfecting your skills, the last thing you want to see in a DJ booth is some pretty boy with fancy hair and a winning smile getting paid more than you to press a few keys, impregnate groupies, get drunk and still mess it up. More likely for old-skoolers, however, is that hitting a couple of mouse buttons is nowhere near as fun as pushing faders, rotating dials and moving platters.
Which brings us onto Akai’s face-punchingly desirable APC40 (finally... Gizmo).
In recent years many manufacturers have fallen over themselves to introduce MIDI controllers that offer a tactile feel familiar to DJs and allow them to exploit the creative possibilities offered by software. What has been missing is bi-directional communication between controller and software, together with Plug & Play connectivity that genuinely works.
NI have plugged this gap with Maschine, but unlike NI’s electronic nicotine, Akai have come up with a unit that is to be used to control mixing, on-the-fly sequencing and effects devices. It’s also intrinsically connected to a software application that splits opinion in the DJ community like no other - Ableton Live.
The APC40 features 8 channel faders, a master fader and a crossfader, more dials than a clock factory and plenty of buttons to trigger the play of music. It also ships with a special version of Ableton Live 7, creating a package that you can use straight out of the box, and the £379 that Akai ask for the APC40 buys you a lot more functionality than you get with traditional hardware, whether vinyl or CD.
Have Akai finally created a controller that will allow old-skool DJs to incorporate software without feeling guilty?
Disco Buttons
The first thing you’ll notice about the APC40 is the soul-tearingly beautiful, slick and stylish veneer. Akai have ignored the boxy, utilitarian traditions that dominate DJ hardware design and have gone for something that wouldn’t look out of place in a Giger-inspired space shuttle.
The second thing you’ll notice is the mass assemblage of rubber buttons that dominate the fader area of the APC. The majority of these buttons make up the Clip Matrix, and for many DJs and producers the Clip Matrix is where their attention will be focused. It is an 8X5 matrix which means it contains no less than 40 buttons with which you can launch and re-launch clips from Live’s Session View. Tracks are represented horizontally whilst the clips are stacked vertically so as to match the on-screen session view within Ableton Live.
The clip buttons are illuminated either red, amber or green according to their state. If a clip is currently playing it is illuminated green, otherwise it is amber. If you have armed a MIDI track for recording then pressing a clip will select it for recording and it will light up red. Sure, this is a simple traffic lights system but it works so well, the visual cues presented by the APC mean that you don’t have to squint at a tiny laptop screen to work out which clip is playing, which is armed and so on. If you know your set well (and let’s face it, you should) you can concentrate on the APC instead, allowing you to work much more quickly with Ableton, especially during a live performance.
Below the Clip Matrix are eight Clip Stop buttons, one for each track. To the right, stacked vertically, are 5 Scene Launch buttons that when pressed trigger an entire row of clips.
Somewhat disappointingly, the Scene Launch buttons have no back-lighting to denote the currently playing scene, as the lighting of the Clip Matrix makes it blindingly obvious which scene is playing. Below the Scene Launch buttons is a solitary button that when pressed ceases play of all clips.
The buttons themselves are fabricated from a soft rubber that nicely cushions your fingers as you bash the living daylights out of them. As with all of the materials and switches that adorn the APC, the buttons of the Clip Matrix stand up well to prolonged battering and give you every confidence that they’ll last a long time.
Although the APC Edition of Live limits you to a maximum of 16 tracks (8 MIDI and 8 audio) the APC is capable of supporting the unlimited number of tracks and scenes that the full-fat version of Live 8 can support. The logistical nightmare of traversing a vast Ableton landscape is eased with the Shift key that, when pressed, uses one Clip Launch button to represent a full 8X5 matrix.
If your Live sets are more modest you can use the bank select buttons to traverse the set one track or scene at a time.
The rest of the fancy flashing buttons are located below the Clip Matrix and consist of Activator switches that enable or disable a track, Solo/Cue switches to silence all other tracks except the one you want to hear and Record Arm buttons that allow you to record your performance into a MIDI track.
Faders
The channel faders are stiff, which aids precise positioning for mixing down studio tracks, whilst the crossfader is taken straight from the parts bin of the Numark’s budget assembly line. Any attempts at turntablism and even basic scratching will cause the crossfader to bleed in no time at all.
Luckily, you can quickly replace the crossfader by opening a hatch on the underside of the APC and pulling the old one out. As long as you’re fading and not scratching the crossfader won’t be an expensive consumable over the life of the unit. The crossfader bay is short on space so the fitting of aftermarket solutions isn’t possible.
Actually using the crossfader is an unpleasant experience due to the scratching sound it makes as you move it, a sound akin to that made by fingernails as they’re scratched down a blackboard. It isn’t loose and although you can’t accuse it of feeling jerky, there is way too much resistance to the crossfader travel.
This stiffness has nothing to do with precision and everything to do with the use of a cheap fader. That said, it keeps the cost down. There is no need for a high quality fader in a unit like this and besides, how many people actually need a crossfader with Ableton? I’m sure over time the channel faders will loosen, but they feel well constructed and should last a long time before replacements become a necessity.
In fact, only two criticisms can be levelled at the faders. The first being the close positioning of the transport controls to the crossfader, something that could cause the Play or Stop buttons being accidentally hit during an intense mix. It must be said, however, that this never occurred during the test period.
The second is an irritating fader phenomenon that afflicts all MIDI controllers, not just the APC, although it is more keenly felt when using the APC due to the fact that it has 9 faders rather than the more usual 2 or 4. And that is that Ableton cannot detect the fader positions at start-up, you have to fully open a fader to engage it in Ableton and then move it to the desired position.
Sure it’s not a major niggle, but the irritating effect is heightened over time rather than diminished.
Device Controls
The lower set of dials to the right of the APC control the effects devices and software instruments loaded into the currently selected track. So if, for instance, you have the Akai 808 drum instrument loaded into the currently selected track you can control the 5 parameters offered by the Akai 808 instrument with the rotary dials of the APC’s device section. The dials are infinite rotation, but to help you keep track of your device’s setting each dial is surrounded by 15 LEDs. Turning the dial clockwise will illuminate the LEDs in a pretty green colour. Turning the dials anti-clockwise will turn them off.
Although there are 8 dials on the APC not all devices have 8 parameters in Ableton. Naturally, when that is the case some dials on the APC’s device section will be disabled. Similarly, some devices in Ableton have more than 8 parameters and you cannot therefore control some of them. In those cases the shift key can be used to select different banks of device controls, but to be honest it’s a bit awkward.
The rotary dials feel well constructed and lack the wobble of similar dials seen on the Ecler Evo 5 and the Korg Zero 8, giving the user confidence in their sustained use. The LEDs respond to dial turns quickly as does the corresponding parameter in Ableton.
As effects devices can be chained in Ableton there are two directional buttons just below the rotary dials that allow you to select the device you wish to control. There is also a button for switching the currently selected device on and off as well as a button for switching between clip and track view.
Physically, the buttons are hard-wearing plastic push buttons. They might lack a luxury feel and have something of the ZX81 about them, but can take a beating.
Track Controls
At the top right of the APC lies the Track Control section, which allows you to control the panning of eight tracks as well as the dry/wet controls for Sends A, B and C for eight tracks at any one time. If you have more than eight tracks you can use the bank select buttons to move horizontally amongst them.
This means that if you have 12 tracks running and your track control dials are currently assigned to the first eight tracks, pressing the right bank select button will assign the eighth dial to the ninth track and the first dial to the second track. The Clip Matrix is updated as you press the Bank Select buttons so you won’t get confused as to which dial controls what track.
Performance Controls
Dotted around the APC are a number of miscellaneous performance controls, such as the Play, Stop and Record buttons. Their names betray their functions and they work exactly as you’d expect. They’re unforgivably obscured, however, by the crossfader, to the point where you’re tempted to remove the damn thing in its entirety and just use the channel faders instead. To a lesser extent the crossfader also affects the use of a further set of illuminated buttons that control Live’s quantization, overdub and metronome functions.
Akai could argue that the APC40 is supposed to be used whilst performing, standing up, but most users will be seated at their workstations with the rest of their studio gear, meaning that most users will find the lack of space between the crossfader and these controls problematic.
Interaction with Ableton Live
The most striking and pleasing thing about using the APC is the speed with which the APC and Ableton interact. There is no lag between tweaking a control on the APC and something happening on-screen. Similarly, as soon as you tweak something in Ableton, such as an effect parameter, the APC has changed its colour scheme accordingly.
Ableton Live APC Edition
Ableton Live is much too sophisticated and feature-rich an application to cover in a review of another product, but it’s worth covering the general ethos of Live and the tools it provides. Put simply, Ableton Live is a Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) that also features some DJ functionality.
Included in Ableton Live are a set of instruments with which you can play and create the building blocks of a song - beats, rhythms and melodies, as well as a sequencer onto which you can record your musical efforts and use them to construct a song.
You can also ‘borrow’ audio from sources other than your own talent and include them alongside your own work. It also features audio and MIDI effects and a mixer - all standard DAW material - but what Live also gives you is a novel way of sequencing a track ‘live’ by triggering individual clips or scenes (entire rows of clips) through it’s Session View. This means that you can trigger a breakbeat, let it play for 8 bars, bring in the bass for 8 bars and then launch a scene of clips to kick off the song proper. After that you can exclude or include clips and scenes as you see fit, sequencing the song as you go along. It is the Session View that you use for DJing.
The best way of getting round the concept of the Session View is to view it as a table with each column being a track and each row being a scene. Each cell within the table is known as a clip.
Tracks (the columns) come in two flavours: MIDI and Audio.
The full-fat edition of Live 8 places no limits on the number of tracks you can include in a set, but with the APC edition you’re limited to 16 – 8 audio tracks and 8 MIDI tracks, though that should be enough for most people, especially if you’re DJing with Live. The look and feel of the APC Edition of Live is exactly the same as the ‘proper’ version. If you’re familiar with Live then everything you need will be where you expect to find it.
The difference between the two editions is predominantly a case of limitations rather than omissions, such as the limited number of audio effects that can be used in a set and the limited number of VST plug-ins you can use. Examples of features that are missing include the import and export of video, the editing of drum, instrument and effects racks, as well as the transmission of MIDI data to hardware instruments.
Perhaps the most annoying limitation is the inability to import audio file types other than wav. If you only have your tune collections saved in MP3 or some other format you’ll have to convert them to wav before you try to import them into Live APC Edition.
The full list of differences can be found here. On the whole, though, the APC Edition of Live is a fantastic piece of software to be bundled with a piece of hardware as good and as affordable as the APC40.
If you already own Live you won’t need it, but if you’re new to Live you’ll find the APC Edition is a great learning platform and a cost effective springboard to the full edition via upgrades.
DJing with the APC40 and Ableton
The APC features everything you need to use Ableton purely for DJing and creating live remixes, except a soundcard. Songs are loaded into Live by dragging them on to a track, with each song occupying one clip within a track. This means that you can have a stack of songs in one track or a stack of the same song split up into loops so that you can use the APC’s Clip Matrix to launch individual sections of a track.
Once the songs have been loaded into their slots and analysed you can set their cue points or loop points within the clip view for that song. Each track can be assigned to either side of the crossfader or just routed straight through to the master output, just like your average mixer, with the curve of the crossfader being set to your individual taste through Live.
To play a song you just bash its Clip button and Live will start it at the appropriate point using quantisation. If, for some reason, it does start off-beat you can always hit the clip launch button again and it will rectify the problem.
EQs are assigned to a track as an audio effect as the Live mixer doesn’t have any integrated equalisers of its own, which is actually quite handy as this allows you to choose the exact type of EQ you desire. The EQs are therefore controlled by the Device Control section of the APC.
Effects are controlled in the same manner as the EQs. You select the effect you want from a list, give it a double-click and it appears in the detail view for the currently selected clip. Best of all, Live’s effects can be side-chained, which means that you can get some really warped audio coming out of your monitors.
Using the APC with Other Software
The APC is a MIDI controller and can therefore be tailored to work with other applications, such as Traktor.
Mapping the APC40 to your software of choice will, of course, be an idiosyncratic endeavour as everyone will have their own idea of how the APC can be put to best use. This also means it’ll take ages if you want to map all every control on the APC to every control in your software, but if you just want to configure a few controls to get you going and then configure more later you can be up and running in no time.
Of course, you lose the flashing lights of the APC when you use it with other software, but it’s still a good controller, nonetheless.
Conclusion
Should you buy one? Yes, if you want the ultimate all-in-one Ableton package. The APC40 is inexpensive for what it is and does. £379 for the APC and a fully usable edition of Ableton Live is a bargain.
There are some quality issues – notably the crossfader – and there’s no escaping the cheap feel of the hard plastic buttons, but in all honesty Akai seem to have chosen the right materials for the job. Akai could easily have shipped the APC with a non-contact, optical crossfader, but why when the APC isn’t intended for turntablists and the addition of such a thing would increase the price? That said, one way the APC could be improved on a practical level would be the inclusion of a built-in multi-channel soundcard, as on the Xone:4D, for those that may not have one.
So can an old-skooler use the APC40 without feeling pangs of guilt? If you’re into a linear, deck-to-deck style of mixing then the APC40 isn’t going to convert you to the dark art of Ableton DJing, but if you want to augment your sets with a bit of your own production or mash-up some tunes then check it out.
The APC40 combines all the tactile fun of traditional DJing with a new and exciting method of mixing music.
Ratings
Build Quality
Some of the controls feel a bit cheap but they are fit for purpose and don’t detract from what is a well built unit. Should prove reliable and long lasting.
Features and Implementation
Everything on the APC serves a purpose and is easily accessible, bar the buttons in the crossfader area.
Value for Money
£379 isn’t pocket money cheap but it is fair considering the quality of the controller and the software.
Bottom Line
If you need a realistically priced environment controller for Ableton Live, the APC40 should be top of your shopping list.
Good alternatives
Ohm 64 – The wooden, home-brew feel of the Ohm 64 lends it a unique charm that the APC could never possess.
Xone:4D – if you have the money you could get the ultimate A&H mixer/controller, but you’d be missing out on the APC’s Clip Launch matrix.
Novation Launchpad – solely for launching clips, but if that’s all you want to do it is cheaper than the APC.
