APC40, note mode and Launchpad

[jfd6812]

I'm thinking about getting the APC 40 in order to enter the world of production in Abelton. 3 quick questions:

1. I read the DJTT review of the APC40 and the APC20, but am still a little unclear as to what "note mode" is. can anyone explain further? is it worth getting the 20 over the 40? (Since the 20 has it and the 40 does not) also-any word as to whether the 40 will get an update to incorporate note mode?

2. what about APC40 vs. Launchpad? any thoughts?

3. any other general thoughts on the 40, 40 vs. 20, etc.?

as always, thanks for any info.

[dodge]

they're just midi controllers, think of a midi keyboard, they're just the same except laid out in button/pads and not black & white keys. If its production you're looking to do these aren't gonna make your production any better, you just assign what you want to the buttons which is something you can do with any midi controller. They are not sound generators in any way, they are literally for controlling things in your software. These are really more designed for Djing & controllerism type shit but for production you could have a drum kit laid out on the pads for drumming rhythms or trigger samples, what ever. Personally i'd recommend getting a midi keyboard with a few rotary dials & pitch bend & mod wheel, you can still lay a drum kit out on it just as you can with the APC's and you can also play chords and melodies which I'd imagine would be quite tricky using an APC.
But yeah for production these won't make any difference to what you create

[jfd6812]

Dodge-thx for the input-you'll see my edit-my question re: note mode was pretty unclear before-

[dodge]

I'm guessing note mode means you can use the pads like a piano, so you can play chords, notes & drum hits etc within the matrix. you'll have different modes that coincide with ableton kinda by default. Launch mode is for launching clips & scenes, there'll be other modes that relate to ableton. Im guessing this all occurs upon installation of any drivers that come with the APC. If you just plug & play I'd imagine it'd all have to be mapped manually or it will just be seen as a regular midi keyboard. But with the drivers installed I'm guessing you could load say a synth & you can play it like a keyboard if in the note mode, then if you hit launch mode the APC will then be controlling the clips & scenes & as opposed to the synth. I'd imagine there's different modes so you can control ableton a lot quicker without constantly having to map shit.

[S4racen]

Hi there,

I have both and have pretty much hacked each to death now using max4live....

If you do a search on the ableton forum for hanz_petrov you'll find his new control_surface scripts that add note mode along with lots of other things to the APC40... Just what you're looking for....

As for versus each other, i wouldn't use the launchpad on it's own but if you have a decent soundcard that routes tracks out of ableton seperately to an external mixer then it's superb as a clip launcher, with two user banks you can also create some crazy mappings for controlling effects but i don't find the mixer functionality of it very useable as i'm used to knobs and faders.....

Cheers
D

[padi_04]

if you want note mode, drumpad and a few other things in the apc you should check http://remotescripts.blogspot.com/p/....html#APC40_22

[jfd6812]

Thanks again for the info, guys. good to hear that note mode is possible for the 40, which i think i will go with. even though its popularly being used as a "performance controller", it still seems like a great interface to stride boldly into the world of abelton production with...