AKAI Professional APC 40 Mk2 4-stars Reviews

Decent

I use midi controllers for Ableton and Resolume Arena for live performance.

The APC40mk2 is barely of a quality that I feel comfortable bringing onto a stage.

We have gone through 3 or 4 of them at this point as they do not handle the abuse of stage-life as well as one would hope.

For knobs, I much prefer the quality and the feel of the midi fighter twister.

Sadly, the apc40mk2 remains the best 1-in-all option still.

GOOD BUT NOT PERFECT.

Very good. integrates with Ableton for Live performance.

It would be perfect if it had motorized faders.

Ableton Live essential

The great successor of MKI, smaller and much better. The only thing I'm still missing is the ability to map the controller by myself, especially when it comes to faders. Playing live and not going beyond 0 db mark is always difficult and I wish I could adjust min and max values of the faders

I love using this controller. The only thing that could be better is the build quality-- a couple of the faders have given me issues at times as a result of the cheapness in material. Nevertheless, an amazing controller for ableton-- seamlessly integrated.

A great addition for Live

I have used this for Live for over 4 years.

It is great addition to my setup. I use the crossfader to mix back and forth from duplicated VST's that I have added different effects to add variation that cannot be achieved with one VST.

On a large Live set it can easily make the volume faders redundant. In the studio it is very easy to toggle from clip to instrument which is difficult to do on regular computer keyboard and this benefits my workflow.

The effects section

The effects section is very annoying when it changes constantly and there is no indication of what device you are tweaking. I basically have the device lock on all the time for one effect rack and use the Xone K2 for all other effects.

Setup was such a breeze that it was almost counter-intuitive. I?m so used to having to download remote scripts for Ableton, that I spent ten minutes trying to figure out where to download one, before I read the manual and found out it was already installed. Go figure... Once I?d chosen the APC40 MK II from the list of hardware, I was up and running. And, I have to say I was impressed from the start.

Construction-wise, and like all of the current Akai controllers I?ve seen come around in the last few years, the APC40 MKII is nicely put together. The pad/buttons feel and look really nice. There is also high level of LED goodness, here, too. As soon as you?re in Live, cued scenes and the clips, therein pulse green, slowly within the APC40 MK II?s own grid of buttons. And, to be honest, out of many of the controllers that I?ve looked at, I?d have to say that the way the LED default color assignments are set up would have to be one of my favorites. The default color assignments of the LEDs, for me, were very helpful in guiding me in to trying new things, with the APC 40 MKII.

Just intuitive in every single step and way.

Good quality but outadated

Good quality... Akai is really great building stuff.

Nevertheless I think the layout is outdated