The Ultimate Music Production Tool

[dual citizen]

If it were me I'd get an APC 40 ($300) and an Oxygen 25 keyboard ($100).

APC 40 integrates so nicely with Ableton Live. I mean that's why it was built. Plus, it gives you knobs and continuous rotary encoders with LEDs, something the Launchpad doesn't have. I own a Launchpad, and while they're awesome, I still can't help but wonder how much better my life would be with an APC 40.



The Oxygen 25 keyboard is nothing fancy, but it does the job well of having to enter notes. It's fun to work with. I'm not a really good keyboard player though. I'm coming from a guitar background. If you are a trained pianist you might want something larger and with weighted keys.

[Good Samaritan]

I just started drooling while looking at the APC 40. It's perfect. Do you have one?

[Xonetacular]

Call me crazy but I think the APC40 is incredibly overrated. It's huge, requires external power, and you're going to have to draw in automation anyway so it's not that useful in a studio.

I sold it and switched to an ipad/touchable setup and never looked back and you can get a used ipad for the same price. Yeah, I know, people say no tactile feedback blah blah blah. I much prefer it to any controller setup and it is so much better integrated and comprehensive than anything else out there. The apc40 doesn't feel that great anyway and touchable is 10x more useful.

touchable can also be run on multiple ipads- I have two.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2eZND...layer_embedded

Lemur/mu, griid, touchosc and other ipad apps have nothing on it for an all in one ableton solution.

[space monkey]

refurb is a great way to go /thumbs up

[Good Samaritan]

I guess it's hard to justify buying a piece of hardware like the APC40, when you can literally emulate anything you want on the iPad.

[J5k]

I'm going to have to check out touchable. My reasoning for going lemur is that my end goal is to control traktor and ableton with a custom template. Currently I'm syncing live to traktor's clock. I have a cue points and fx controls page (traktor), and then two more pages for live, one with a 4x4 drum pad wired to a drum rack and the second a virtual keyboard tied to a synth. I still have quite a ways to go to get where I want to be though.

Xonetacular - how customizable is touchable?

[Xonetacular]

Xonetacular - how customizable is touchable?

It's not customizable- it just controls ableton perfectly with zero hassle or tweaking better than lemur/mu does. That said it controls nearly every part of ableton you could possibly want and does a lot of things better than mu. That's the beauty of it.

Mu is a pain in comparison but is customizable and when I tried it it just felt very hacked together and I didn't like it.

[botstein]

Xonetacular's idea of buying a refurbished iPad is an amazing suggestion and totally perfect for your budget.

I do have to disagree when it comes to the APC40. I'm an Ableton guy and love my APC 40, which is the tool to have for Live. It IS the session view.

[Steve Zorilow]

Touchscreen is not for everyone... or you like... or you hate, no gray zone.

Apc40 is really fine.

[Rukks]

It all depends whta your working on, but just to clarify, refurbished units in my opinion are usually better than retail units, some with argue with me but I have bought refurbished for a while and the reason I do that is because I have seen that every refurbished unit goes through testing so you are gauranteed to get a working unit.

I just bought an APC20 that should arrive...I feel that for launching clips I like the tactile feeling of buttons, don't need to double take at a control surface once you've located your clip.