The APC40 (Ableton Performance Controller) is a dedicated controller for Ableton Live, designed by the same engineering team responsible for Akai’s iconic MPC range of products. This is a dream come true for the Ableton Live community and an exciting first step into the world of Ableton Live for new users.

The APC40 features high quality controls for real-time mixing, remixing and production. 109 buttons, 16 endless encoders with LED rings, nine 45mm faders and a replaceable crossfader give musicians and producers complete control of Live’s Session View, effect devices and virtual instruments.

Whether you’re in the studio or on stage, DJing, making beats, running backing tracks, firing MIDI loops or triggering sound effects, you can kiss your mouse goodbye.

The APC40 was co-designed by Ableton and Akai Professional.

Key features

Clip Launch Matrix
The APC40′s unique matrix of buttons gives you direct access to the clips in your Session View. The matrix has 40 three-color buttons arranged in a five-scene-deep-by-eight-track-wide grid.

Session Overview
The Session Overview lets you navigate through your Live Set quickly. Hold down the Shift button and the matrix zooms out to reveal an overview of your Session View.

Mixer Section
The classic mixer section gives you controls for volume, solo/pre-cue, record arm and mute functions. The eight faders correspond to a bank of eight tracks in Live; you can shift right and left to move to tracks nine, ten and beyond.

Track Selection and Device Control Encoders
The APC40 features an intuitive way of controlling effects and virtual instruments. Eight endless dials and four control buttons map to your devices automatically for flexibility and speed on stage or in the studio.

Transport and Global Buttons
Live’s Play, Stop and Global Record buttons are all easily accessible, and four additional buttons provide direct access to some global functions in Live, cleaning up your screen view onstage and freeing you from the mouse in the studio.

Track Control
The Track Control section consists of eight endless dials with LED rings and four buttons. The eight encoders control parameters related to the current bank of eight tracks.

Tempo Control
Tap Tempo and Nudge Left/Right buttons are essential for live performance, helping you to stay in sync with turntables, other musicians or a live band, and correct timing issues quickly.

Crossfader
The APC40′s replaceable crossfader can stand up to some pretty brutal treatment. Not only an essential DJ control, it’s also handy for controlling effect, volume and modulation curves.

Customize
You can change the assignment of all of the knobs, faders and buttons on the APC40 using Live’s MIDI Map Mode.

Hardware plus software: Ableton Live Akai Professional APC40 Edition

Every APC40 comes with a custom-tailored software package: Ableton Live Akai Professional APC Edition.

This features eight audio and eight MIDI tracks plus twenty Session View scenes. It also includes all of Live’s effects and even allows custom mapping, making it a simple but adequate out-of-the-box solution for studio and stage. To see the differences between this version of Live and the full version of Ableton Live 7, please check this feature comparison chart.

Pricing and availability

For more information on pricing and availability, visit: http://www.akaipro.com/apc40

Software system requirements

The APC40 requires Ableton Live 7 or higher.

Mac: Any G4 or faster (Intel Mac recommended), 512 MB RAM (1 GB recommended), Mac OS X 10.3.9 (10.4 or later recommended), QuickTime 6.5 or higher, DVD-ROM drive

Windows: 1.5 GHz CPU or faster, 512 MB RAM (1 GB recommended), Windows XP or Windows Vista, Windows compatible sound card (ASIO driver support recommended), QuickTime 6.5 or higher, DVD-ROM drive

The next level

Extend and manipulate
With Ableton’s Max for Live you can customize your APC40. Want to use the Clip Launch Matrix as a step sequencer? Go ahead. Max for Live brings the power and flexibility of Max/MSP into Live—it’s a world of possibility. Ableton encourages you to dig deep into the APC40 and push the limits in completely new ways.
Find out more about Max for Live

Share your APC40
Using Ableton’s web-based collaborative platform, you can share your APC40 mods with other APC40 users. And because communication is two-way, you also get access to all the other shared APC40 goodies that the Ableton community has to offer.
Read more about collaboration with Ableton Live

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