APC40 mkII or Touchable?

Discuss music production with Ableton Live.
Matt_Quinn
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APC40 mkII or Touchable?

Post by Matt_Quinn » Fri Aug 15, 2014 1:01 pm

I'm torn. I have an original APC40 that I love and that works fine. I had been planning on upgrading to the mkII just because I really like the idea of multicolor pads & the lack of an AC adapter. Then I realized that $400 is a lot of scratch for 2 pretty minor upgrades. $400 could also buy me a brand new iPad. Touchable looks really appealing to me, and obviously can do most everything the APC can do, and plenty of things an APC can't. And of course the iPad itself can do any number of cool music related things. That said, I know I can plug an APC in and have it working perfectly in about 5 minutes. No learning curve, basically. iPad/Touchable (especially since I run a Windows machine) would require more set up time I'm sure. Just wondering if anyone has strong feelings one way or another about either choice.

FWIW either would be for exclusive use in my home hobby studio. No shows/road trips/gigging etc.
the_planet wrote:Trap music is not supported in the current version.

thecld
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Re: APC40 mkII or Touchable?

Post by thecld » Fri Aug 15, 2014 1:05 pm

Personally I'd go with the iPad if I already had an APC40 :D
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beats me
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Re: APC40 mkII or Touchable?

Post by beats me » Fri Aug 15, 2014 1:20 pm

chmurok wrote:Personally I'd go with the iPad if I already had an APC40 :D
Plus There's also the Lemur controller app and a bunch of synth, drum, and DAW apps.

login
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Re: APC40 mkII or Touchable?

Post by login » Fri Aug 15, 2014 2:52 pm

Touch able or Push, or Lemur.

h3rtz
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Re: APC40 mkII or Touchable?

Post by h3rtz » Fri Aug 15, 2014 3:42 pm

+1 for ipad

Check xmonstas lemur template called pull. Theres nothing similar to this.

Buleriachk
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Re: APC40 mkII or Touchable?

Post by Buleriachk » Fri Aug 15, 2014 5:30 pm

The APC40 Mk2 is gorgeous (I was lucky to sell my original APC40 before the Mk2 was announced.) If you can sell the APC40, I certainly recommend it.

That said, you might want to consider the APC Mini and/or the APC Key 25 to complement your APC40..

(I don't own an iPad, so can't comment except to say I am underwhelmed by the idea of a touchscreen for ableton Live except for launching clips; and there are lots of alternatives for that already available.

But, of course, YMMV.......

Matt_Quinn
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Re: APC40 mkII or Touchable?

Post by Matt_Quinn » Fri Aug 15, 2014 6:02 pm

The Mini and 20 are definitely out. Clip launching is really not even huge on my list (I work more in arrangement), and even if I didn't have an APC, I do have a Quneo which is fine for clip launching. The Device control/knobs that *look* like Live's Macros IS important to me though. Honestly, I wish Akai would just release a device that was just 8 knobs and looked like the standard Live Macros. Think Novation Nocturn, but lined up properly. You could probably give them rack ears & fit 3 of them in a standard 19" rack, which would be sick. But I digress.

Think I've decided to go with the iPad. Between Touchable & Pull, it looks like it can cover a LOT of ground for $400, plus all the other non-music functions. I'll update the thread after purchase and installation though, we'll see how it all goes. Fingers crossed. Thanks folks.
the_planet wrote:Trap music is not supported in the current version.

beats me
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Re: APC40 mkII or Touchable?

Post by beats me » Fri Aug 15, 2014 6:22 pm

Don’t have my main iPad in front of me so I can’t think of the names, but there’s also some great sample and loop mangling apps that I can’t think of anything comparable in desktop form. Great for creating unique sounds if you have 5 minutes to kill.

Sorry for being vague, but just saying you can think outside the box with an iPad.

login
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Re: APC40 mkII or Touchable?

Post by login » Fri Aug 15, 2014 10:19 pm

Matt_Quinn wrote:The Mini and 20 are definitely out. Clip launching is really not even huge on my list (I work more in arrangement), and even if I didn't have an APC, I do have a Quneo which is fine for clip launching. The Device control/knobs that *look* like Live's Macros IS important to me though. Honestly, I wish Akai would just release a device that was just 8 knobs and looked like the standard Live Macros. Think Novation Nocturn, but lined up properly. You could probably give them rack ears & fit 3 of them in a standard 19" rack, which would be sick. But I digress.

Think I've decided to go with the iPad. Between Touchable & Pull, it looks like it can cover a LOT of ground for $400, plus all the other non-music functions. I'll update the thread after purchase and installation though, we'll see how it all goes. Fingers crossed. Thanks folks.

Check out Midi fighter twister, it's a nocturn with 16 encoders with led rings.

Matt_Quinn
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Re: APC40 mkII or Touchable?

Post by Matt_Quinn » Wed Aug 20, 2014 3:28 pm

Well that certainly went better than expected. Picked up an iPad Saturday night and had Touchable up & running in like 10 minutes. And it is 100% epic. Having occasional issues with sets hanging, but as this is not for live use, not that big a concern. Can't wait to dive into making some of my own templates.
the_planet wrote:Trap music is not supported in the current version.

yur2die4
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Re: APC40 mkII or Touchable?

Post by yur2die4 » Wed Aug 20, 2014 3:38 pm

I love how Touchable lets you:
Edit clips, drawing in notes
Load devices in channels with simple drag and drop
Has a Push-style playable grid.

I feel like the device parameter layout could use improvement. But even that has some pretty clever feature (like a strip of fast-recall devices). Mainly, I get frustrated when using it with devices that use a lot of parameters (Operator/Analog). It just seems to spew out all the parameters in an order that I have difficulty with.

Matt_Quinn
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Re: APC40 mkII or Touchable?

Post by Matt_Quinn » Wed Aug 20, 2014 3:41 pm

Ah yes, that was one of my main questions: why are almost all parameters for racks represented by faders instead of knobs? That is kind of odd.

Yeah, drawing/editing MIDI on the grid with fingers is really fun!
the_planet wrote:Trap music is not supported in the current version.

Schmidi
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Re: APC40 mkII or Touchable?

Post by Schmidi » Thu Aug 21, 2014 12:42 pm

If you have a working MK1, you are getting very little extra by buying an MK2. Even looks like you lose a few functions that are helpful in arrangement/production. I would definitely WAIT 1 month (Apple are about to release iPad 6 in September), then get an Ipad.

Schmidi

yur2die4
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Re: APC40 mkII or Touchable?

Post by yur2die4 » Thu Aug 21, 2014 1:25 pm

Yeah. I resolved about a month ago to acquire an iPad for sure after years of lusting. I already have an iPhone 5s and find it to be extremely powerful for music. I was hesitant to get an iPad because it is not as portable. It won't just happen to be in my pocket while I'm eating fries at a restaurant when I get an epiphany.

Still, many synths, control interfaces for Live, pattern generators, etc, have finally convinced me that I must get one. That, along with my delving into the experiences of Win8 touch implementation (not natural and inspiring).

I know that iOS is stable and every fiber of every app is intended for touch use.

It has been tempting to pick up an Air, I understand from phone experiences that the more processing you can get the more smoothly you'll be able to handle everything you throw at it.

The one very minute detail which has me waiting is the fingerprint reader.

I've taken it for granted so much on the 4s (vs a previous 4), that whenever I touch any other device, it takes me a moment to realize that I have to swipe. It is almost irritating :P

So I am impatiently holding out (probably Christmas season??), money in hand. For the Air 2 and whatever potential features it may hold!

beats me
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Re: APC40 mkII or Touchable?

Post by beats me » Thu Aug 21, 2014 2:47 pm

Sector

http://kymatica.com/Software/Sector

Another fun tool to play with. The demo video doesn’t really do it justice because it makes it look like a big glitch and chaos machine, and it can be, but it doesn’t have to be.

Basically drop in an audio loop and it chops it into 16 slices (or more or less). Then on each slice you can have it jump to any number of other slices in the loop as it plays and adjust the probability of which it will jump to or have it random.

To make it less chaotic you can also use the step sequencer to make sure it will always hit certain slices, like kick or snare, when you want them to in the pattern.

You can also assign a glitch, noise, or reverse effect to each slice and adjust the probability of how often that effect will happen when it hits that slice.

EPIC!

If you have like 10 minutes to kill use something like the DM1 drum machine app to create a drum pattern and then audio copy/paste it into Sector.

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