The Akai APC 40 is not exactly new however I have had my eye on it for some time since I use Ableton Live. I also intend to use it for live performances. I have been playing around with TouchAble on the tablet which is fine at home, however since I use an Android Tablet, the only way to connect is via Ad-Hoc which I don’t think is 100% reliable.
The APC 40 allows me to easily record and play back clips since I have it just to the left of my keyboard. I would love to be able to record and play back clips live on stage. I would have pre-recorded clips also just in case the live versions don’t sound too good. It may be difficult to see from the pictures but the buttons light up with the same colours as the Ableton Live session view. The only thing is, you can’t see the names of each track, you will need to check your laptop for that. But colour coding and memorizing is what most people are fine with.
Check out the little session I did below. Recording my Nord Electro into Ableton and controlling the clips with the APC 40.
Nice beat man, what are the chords?
The chords are Gmin9, Fmin9,Emaj9, Ebmin9. Ab7b5/D, Dbmaj9
Can this also double up as an MPC?
I suppose it can be configured that way. However that’s not the way it’s designed to be used. The buttons represent the grids on Ableton Live. I use my AKAI MPD or Keyboard for triggering sounds and drums etc.
I wonder if this can be used for FL Studio??
Well I guess it can be connected, however the keys on the APC 40 are mapped out to match the session view in Ableton Live.
FL Studio is not structured the same way so the pads would just act as an MPC, and the dials may be able to map to various functions.
However there is one now by AKAI for FL studio.
https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/Fire–akai-professional-fire-grid-controller-for-fl-studio