Tone Deft wrote:Hermanus wrote:I would never have bought the apc knowing there was no way to emulate a monome.
With monomulator from trackTeamAudio it's fragging fun for emulating a monome and got faders + knobs + apc functions.
The launchpad has already it's own monome emulator [nonome], still in dev but seems to rock_ even if it can't handle every monome apps at the moment [molar, 7upLive].
LP is more portable than the APC.
And would I say I Love the apc and don't regret the buy
monome apps are the tip of the iceberg for what the APC and LP can do!!! give it a year, the APC and LP will have 100 times (at least?) the number of people geeking out making apps for them, the monome apps were by and large written by a very small group of people, but used by many more.
I have both, APC is the ego, LP is the Id.
IMO the APC is a general studio controller. with it you can have overall general control over Live. faders really are ideal for controlling track volume over knobs. as for the the knobs you only get 8 automappable controls but that's fine for general studio use. as for the sends/pans knobs they're a little slow for tweaking multiple tracks at once but for one track at a time, they're fine. I usually reassign them to global controls in Live like quantize setting, bpm, things like that. the dedicated Cue knob has been much handier than I thought it would be. ultimately the APC replaced by Novation SL25. largely because the APC has shuttle controls and fader knobs. the tiny LCD and paging through it on the SL got old for me.
the LP has a great feel, it feels great to pick up in both hands and get freaky with. launch clips, tweak volumes and pans all with the SWIPE of your finger. it's a nice layer of abstraction away from the Live GUI for f-ing sh!t up. then there's the User modes which are great for home brewed stuff like the monome apps for the stuff people will make for max4Live. being bus powered is a GREAT addition.
in addition to those I really really like the BCR. it's dirt cheap and when I need more controls for something, even LOTS of controls (it switches banks very very simply and quickly) I go to it. you might also look at the Akai MPD or MPK for pads.
buy one thing at a time, evaluate what you're lacking then add another piece of gear. don't buy another piece of gear until you've truly learned what you already have, if you don't you can't evaluate what you're lacking.
spending nearly $1k on gear you're unfamiliar with?? (that was 4/4's comment, seek out the most expensive trendiest gear you can find if that's your M.O.)
Thanks Tone,
It's good to get some feedback from someone who actually uses and owns both controllers. It's also interesting to read comments from other users who appear to hate the APC40.
I'd say that overall the APC is probably for me as all I really want to start with is a decent studio production controller with knobs and faders that automatically map within Live. The fact that it can be hacked and used with Monomulator is an added bonus for me. However, I will explore the alternate option of a LP and separate controller as
delicioso mentioned, as this does have it's advantages.
I think if they managed to make the APC with a bigger grid, physically smaller, bus powered and possible cheaper, I would have jumped on it without hesitation.
Anyway, thanks for all your help. I've learnt a few things and now I just have to weigh up the pro and cons of either solution in my setup.
Cheers,
TT
When the Launchpad was first announced, every thread on Launchpad was besieged by zealous APC40 fanboys who were keen to defend their investment at all costs and hating on Launchpad. Of course Tone was hating on everyone starting these types of threads saying "Get a job and get both, losers."
