hmmmmm Apc40

[LesC]

dunc,

Thanks for the advice. It was worth a try but no joy for me. Cool tool from Korg though!!

[LesC]

dunc,

what kind of latency are you running on your system?

[EddieJ]

I get 14 ms latency with my APC 40, but I run no softsynths. I run hardware synths as external instruments and Simpler/Sampler instruments. So far, no trouble on my Vista machine.
My audio interface (MOTU 828 II) experiences pops and glitches if I leave the WiFi adapter on. Disconnecting from a network isn't enough, I have to completely disable the wireless card. I had the same problem on an earlier machine. I don't really see this as a limitation, since I don't use that PC for anything else.

[dunc]

LesC

Sorry it didn't work for you. I'm running 12.3 ms latency (24 ms overall) on an Intel Q6600 2.4Ghz quad with Windows XP SP2 and a RME Multiface card.

[williamhue]

This time with a bit of hastle i got live to recognise the apc. There is a conflict between the apc and my external soundcard so i have to use the onboard one. I set up a little set, had a little jam only running about 6 audio track, 2 midi and a few effects, all up about 15 clips was having a bit of fun for about half and hr then everything started to click and pop and now i have given up.... not happy really, Not sure if the problem is with my apc, the apc 40 in general or my setup. Am at a bit of a loss right now....

Thanks & Regards
Parii

Picture to Painting
Photo on Canvas

[LesC]

It seems to me there is definitely a design flaw in the device and/or the software that talks to it. I've tried on two very different machines in different configurations and the APC causes pops and clicks on both. After much troubleshooting I can only conclude that there is something about the communication between the APC 40 and Live that interferes with the audio stream. At higher latencies this seems to not affect the audible quality of the audio coming from Live. But at lower latencies audible glitches and hiccups occur when pressing certain buttons on the APC, even though Live is otherwise running without a hitch at those lower latencies and at low CPU consumption.

Ableton/Akai is apparently looking at this issue, but I have little confidence they will be able to properly resolve it. They used a standard USB Audio CODEC driver to communicate with the device instead of writing proprietary device-specific drivers. It seems to me an "Audio" driver and, even worse, an "Audio CODEC (compression/decompression)" driver is not what you need to efficiently communicate with what is essentially a non-Audio MIDI device. All of my other USB Midi devices come with drivers designed by the manufacturer of the device. And none of them cause audio glitches when in use.

For those considering the APC 40, I wouldnt say you should rule it out. Its a great tool conceptually and if you dont need ultra-low latency audio then you will be able to use it to great effect. Its only those of us monitoring live audio sources through Ableton or playing virtual instruments that need the lowest possible latency. And, unfortunately, low latency and the APC 40 dont play nice together.... at least not for me and several others that have posted here.

[Donnie]

Donnie---Are you running a PC or Mac?

PC

[Donnie]

It seems to me there is definitely a design flaw in the device and/or the software that talks to it. I've tried on two very different machines in different configurations and the APC causes pops and clicks on both. After much troubleshooting I can only conclude that there is something about the communication between the APC 40 and Live that interferes with the audio stream. At higher latencies this seems to not affect the audible quality of the audio coming from Live. But at lower latencies audible glitches and hiccups occur when pressing certain buttons on the APC, even though Live is otherwise running without a hitch at those lower latencies and at low CPU consumption.

Ableton/Akai is apparently looking at this issue, but I have little confidence they will be able to properly resolve it. They used a standard USB Audio CODEC driver to communicate with the device instead of writing proprietary device-specific drivers. It seems to me an "Audio" driver and, even worse, an "Audio CODEC (compression/decompression)" driver is not what you need to efficiently communicate with what is essentially a non-Audio MIDI device. All of my other USB Midi devices come with drivers designed by the manufacturer of the device. And none of them cause audio glitches when in use.

For those considering the APC 40, I wouldnt say you should rule it out. Its a great tool conceptually and if you dont need ultra-low latency audio then you will be able to use it to great effect. Its only those of us monitoring live audio sources through Ableton or playing virtual instruments that need the lowest possible latency. And, unfortunately, low latency and the APC 40 dont play nice together.... at least not for me and several others that have posted here.

My guess is that its a software issue with input devices in specific scenarios. I remember the aggravation and unexplained pops and clicks I had when I first got the device. Even just using the mouse to select scenes would cause pops and clicks. Just having the APC control surface setting enabled caused the problem, even with the device turned off, so that cant be anything else but software.

Once my problem was solved though everything has been rock solid at 8ms with plenty of live stuff going on, so there is at least hope for everyone still having the issue.

[pbajzek]

I was just "lucky" enough to obtain an APC40 and I'm having the same problems. On both my G5 iMac and my MacBook, using the APC for anything other than triggering clips and scenes causes playback to stutter and glitch. Raising latency helps a bit, but not completely (and is not an option, as I use Live to play softsynths). I trashed my prefs, but no improvement.

I will try contacting Akai support, but it seems most likely I'll be returning it to the store.

[aqua_tek]

Am I the only one who hasn't had ANY problems at all with my APC?

Seriously, the only weird thing I've found on mine is the fact that it doesn't do the cool LED snake thing on power up. I want it to do the snake.

[pbajzek]

Edit: Thought I had a solution, but after 5 minutes everything went back to crap.

[pbajzek]

OK, I have *a* solution, at least on my system. The problem seems to be related to MIDI bandwidth. I disabled all my MIDI ports in Live and re-enabled them one by one. It gets confusing because of my Remote SL; Novation has 7 million MIDI ports. Anyway, by re-RTFM and getting only the necessary ports activated, I've reduced the problem to only a rare hiccup if I hit too many buttons too fast.

[djwack]

Am I the only one who hasn't had ANY problems at all with my APC?

No. APC working nicely here too, latency at 2.45ms. Hmm, actually haven't tested yet with my audiointerface, gotta test that..

Seriously, the only weird thing I've found on mine is the fact that it doesn't do the cool LED snake thing on power up. I want it to do the snake.

I got the snake running by messing around with the knobs after powerup but before starting live. It's not _that_ cool looking IMO but a nice bonus nonetheless :p

[LesC]

pbajzek,

Yeah, after running the Korg tool to remove unused midi drivers it seems like I'm able to set my latency just a little lower than before. But its still not low enough for me. Thanks for chiming in on this issue. I really hope the Abes find a solution because otherwise I love this tool.

djwack,

No. APC working nicely here too, latency at 2.45ms. Hmm, actually haven't tested yet with my audiointerface, gotta test that..

Not understanding this statement. How do you run live without your audio interface? External midi instruments only?

[chuckbrown]

try some other fast usb ports (maybe 2.0) if it is still not working then i would suggest that instead of playing with it yourself contact the support.