I went forward and sold the APC 40. As I described in my initial post I am house/techno DJ from the 90's. The days when two technics and pioneer DJM500/600 was the set up to have. I require a great deal of real time hands on control.
I bought the NI Maschine. Let me just tell you. This piece of gear is absolutely wicked. 10 times as fierce of when I had my first MPC 2000xl years ago. I feel kind of stupid that I am just hoping on to the Maschine wagon now. Hands down the funnest, most intelligent piece of equipment I've used in years. Also, if I really want too, it works with Ableton perfectly, but I am not there yet.
In my initial post I was a bit distraught over "what was I really doing and accomplishing with the APC 40" as a stand alone piece. The APC 40 does absolutely nothing in my opinion. Perhaps as compliment to something else it could work nice, but on it's own, I was just a zombie "triggering" stuff. People suggested I remap the APC to handle my type of work flow. Again, I saw no sense in that. The pads were not pressure sensitive or real time, there were not enough knobs ultimately to act as a 'mixer' and most importantly the layout of the APC itself, while perfectly aligned to Live 8, just is not the proper format for a real DJ. I don't want to knock Akai. The APC 40 in build quality is actually very strong and well made. I don't want to insinuate that I feel cheated in any way. The point I am trying to make is that do you "make" music with the APC 40? Absolutely not. I thought initially that is what I was getting. I perfectly integrated item for Ableton 8 that could encompass every aspect of music making. I was completely wrong and it take multiple items and multiple scenarios to set-up.
I could go on for hours about this, but it's obvious I am not abandoning Ableton 8 altogether. I just changed up the hardware aspect of my set up. For anyone that has these same thoughts, the Maschine is absolutely ridiculous. Next up is saving for a A&H Xone 4D, but likely going to pick up a Kontrol x1 for $200 in the meantime. Traktor to follow. I just don't understand what the APC 40 and the launchpad and items like that are really meant for. Especially the launchpad huh? If there has ever been an item that I looked at and said "what the hell am I going to use that for" the launchpad is at the top of that list. Perhaps if you are from the present generation of music makers items like this make sense, but for the few of us on here that have been around music a long time the Maschine is everything you need and something I immediately can related with. As a DJ I was really loyal to Ableton, even when I purchase Live 2 about 7 years ago. I stuck with it and did not try other softwares. I look back and now wish that I had been using Traktor all along.
I found this on youtube. This is an example of what I am talking about with Maschine. It's not me, but this is exactly how I envision using Maschine. There are others on youtube that are mindblowing. Then go look at APC 40 videos. They basically all suck.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=taUkJfVosVk
GAFM ***
