I had booth.. and booth suck..
as soon you entere rewire mode into a real daw...
so you are actually better of with controlers that emulate the mackie protocoll and have your computer keyboard as cliplaunch matrix...
as it was before the dedicated controlers came up..
BUt.. of cause you can work with ableton live standalone.. and, after the princip that hope dies last, with the soon to come stable version of L9.. ( L8.1 mfl is actually L9 the ableton guys are just too chaotic and therfore got it all mixed up ) it also can be called a real DAW... only pussys need automation.. i dont... propper timecode handling would be nic thou..
however..
THe APC wins..
it has a very good haptik feel to it.. and the dedicated buttons for menu controls turn it into a real dedicated controler..
with abletons quirky thru routine a button for midi overdub on/off quickly becomes essential..
dedicated track arm and mute / solo... comfi..
the rotary emcoders are the shit.. never touched a better rotary sofar.. exeptionally well done..
But.. the clip launch matrix is too small... when you really play live and dont just fake it by firing you backing in 5 slices... theese 5 rows are not enough..
you allways end with solid blocks with all clips engaged..with results in a total overview loss that leads to anyway consulting the monitor on stage..because ther are no grafical patterns anymore in the arrangement of clips..
The launchpad with its 8 rows actually has just! enough rows to concive that...
A APC with an 8x8 matrix and a better software from ableton to handle it would be a pretty cool..
theese square button design is actually a failure anyway.. looks good..but dont matches reality on screen..and therefore results in overview loss..and overview is important.. no second thaughts on stage..
Anyway.. who can live with the 5 row matrix is defenly better of with the apc.. you get much more for the money..
The Lunchpad is a toy..thats nice has 8 rows..good.. but with the wide square format that is allmost to big to have it all in sight there is defently no match to screen reality at all.. but as a plain cliplaunch ok..it works.. no ideal design do suit the program, but works..
ANd..its fun to do patches for it on other programs like reaktor or even my nord G2
so i guess the main fun with lunchpad is for MFL users.. there the plain square that is not dedicated to anything you find in Live is like a clean slate... and even the szise is good than to have some distance between functional parts.. The internal software handling of the LP is much more optimized for mfl use than it is developed as stand alone live controler... that shows a bit the main intention..its rather a programmers toy.. not really a remote control for ableton live..
So in the resume..
booth suck
The APC is ideal for DJ like acts that replay prerecorded material or in the studio as comfort control..there 5 scenes are enough and having no access to fx returns or just one block of 8 rotarys auto assigned is enough... you still have your normal daw controls in the studio and no reason to hide a monitor..
The lunchpad is ideal for MFL patchers that can create button and sequence controls with visual feedback... it also is better cliplaunch matrix because the 8 rows.. lightwight ..bus powered good looking..
but not ideal for live use because you cant record arm clips on the fly to create new content like you can do with tha APC.. what could be changed by software updates.. of cause..
but as mentioned..square buttons are nt that ideal IMO and its actually bigger than it should be..
in the end of the day an APC dont eats much more space on stage than the lunchpad..
Conclusion.. booth ar good devices that might get even better with some software updates..
But booth of them compromise stage use for other goals.. They are rather living room optimized..
I would say there is plac for a third model somehow... A stage orientated version that really allows to abondon screen contact.. maybe with a little display for the knobs.. and real multicolour leds for the launch pads..
touchscreen? lemur ..i pad? probably the close future.. could be however fun to have a device with real knobs and buttons that allows a similar overview..