Akai Professional APC Mini MK2 - USB MIDI Pad Controller for Clip Launching with Ableton Live Lite, 64 RGB Pads, Drum and Note Mode and MIDI Mixer

There are a lot of reviews for this as a DAW. This isn't one of them. Welcome to my newest DJ Deck. My greatest love in this digital DJing world is the flexibility that DJs have with workflow. My greatest complaint is that everyone is still stuck in the thought processes that began with a two deck setup and a 3 band eq. It's time to move on from the hardware defined to the software mindset. This thing helps. It only took three days for me to custom map this to the two DJ programs I use; TRAKTOR and Virtual DJ. I can control stems, pitch, key, hot cues, transport pads, and a heck of a lot of effects. With all of them on the main page. Since then, I've had more time to work on my art due to it's size and portability, and having all my options on the main page means that I'm not flipping through pages, but just playing music and working my my sets. Being able to be software defined, it matters not that your use if different than mine, just program it for what you need. And the size is perfect to carry along - or just have near your desk so when the work day is done, you just move your keyboard out of the way... No big deck, No location change, No big deal. And performance? Let's be honest. Very few DJs need platters. I certainly don't. And neither does anyone else who isn't scratching, as long as you've got the nudge buttons, which I may add are trivial to map. I use this along my main deck for gigs to give me flexibility, but it would work just as well with a basic 2 or 4 channel mixer, and I wouldn't even need the mixer is someone, hint hint, would make an appropriately sized and priced 4x4 or 4x6 rotary encoder box. But if you want a new button or slider to bust out or cut a stem? It's right there! You want to set an instant double or loop? It can be right there! You have effects that are sick, but are a pain to set up and find in the menu? Program it! These can all be right there. There are 64 RGB pads, 17 led backlit buttons, and 9 sliders. The sliders aren't innofaders. (Duh) But they are consistent and smooth. And the pads are what you expect for $100. But they work every time, even if they are a bit more sensitive than I like. Programming was straightforward for my DJ software with no unexpected hiccups. Build quality is fine. I wouldn't want this for $300, but it is a super good value buy at $100. Especially considering the costs of it's competitors in this space. But the real benefit is the variety of pads and sliders. Depending upon your priorities, you can use 16 pads for 4 decks, 32 pads for 2 decks, or even 64 for one deck if you wanted. I use one row for common actions and loading. Two rows for effects, two for hot cues, one for loops/beatjumping, one for pitch/key (I do a lot of key mixing), and one for transport. The sliders run main volume, vocals, melody, and rhythm. There are still a few pads and a lot of buttons not in use. It is tools like this that make the age of digital DJing the magic that it is. I Highly Recommend this for anyone looking to try something different in their DJ skills, to move on to the next level, to get more mobile. After 3 weeks of use I'm already doing things I've never done, and sounding better and more entertaining that I've been in a while. You can do it. This can help.

While this is built for Ableton, I use the APC Mini MK2 specifically to control my lighting setup via SoundSwitch, and it works perfectly. Mapping the pads to my light shows, overrides, and static looks makes a huge difference during a live set. The pads are responsive and the RGB lighting on the controller itself helps me stay organized in a dark booth. The sliders are great for controlling master dimmers or the intensity of my Chauvet bars and moving heads on the fly. It’s compact enough to fit into my gig bag but feels sturdy enough for regular use. If you are a lighting tech or DJ using SoundSwitch, this is a game-changer for getting hands-on control of your show.

I love this machine. It's designed for Ableton, but I primarily use Reaper. I'm an atmospheric producer and have been programming it to have different "modes" so I have whatever feeling I need at my finger tips. Also I'm ND, and even though the colors aren't native when you use it in Reaper, you can program the colors into too, it just takes a little work.... and this pleases me greatly.

Great responsiveness and wonderful tactile feel to the buttons. Nice rubber pads and colorful lights that respond to coding in Ableton live. Wonderful hardware.

Most people will be buying this as an Ableton thingamajig. I bought it because I wanted a cheap grid-layout chromatic keyboard. It's well-constructed and it's a good size for my needs. The main annoyance was that it was kind of tricky to set up. It really wants to be an Ableton controller. The thing to know is that if Ableton is not running, the APC Mini will show up as two MIDI devices; the 2nd one is the Note Mode output, which is what I wanted. Note mode is fairly good as an isometric keyboard, since its layout is configurable right on the device. It's not velocity sensitive, but it's like a quarter the price of a Launchpad X, so that makes sense. I sometimes have to reset my MIDI settings a couple times or start Ableton once and then shut it down in order to get everything working; I haven't 100% percent figured it out yet, but it definitely works. The other annoying thing I should mention is the software that comes with it. Akai is now owned by inMusic, and so they want you to download the inMusic download manager, which wants you to buy virtual instruments and such through it. None of the software keys for Akai software worked (just the Ableton Live Lite key). Not sure what I'm missing out on if anything. But it certainly makes it feel cheaper.

Simple and Great

Se recibe lo que se espera en cuanto a la marca Akai, el mejor y compacto de su stock! Ligero problema con el embalaje de envío, pero afortunadamente no hubo daño en el hardware!

Buenisimo lo uso con ableton

AKAI have done well with this. It is cheap and yet feels a fraction more robust than the previous model. The sliders are a touch more "smooth" The RGB pads are also great so you do not get "Lost" in the 64 pad matrix. I was thinking of knocking off a star or two for two reasons (but then I remembered that most people will buy this for working with Ableton). I did try it quickly with Ableton and it is a great budget midi controller with super portability. However, we use MIDI controllers for many purposes and so the documentation is important. We have 8 of the old APC pro mini and they have served well, mainly as midi controllers for our lighting suite for small to medium events. We have had three failures on the old controllers (all USB connector problems). We have resoldered in one which is holding up. It is now pretty difficult to find NEW Mk1s and so we looked at many midi controllers from £50 to £1000. For our purpose there was really only this one that ticked the boxes we needed. We needed to paginate the controller, to have at least 8 rotaries or sliders and be able to map main pages that are 6 by 5 with extra pad control available. For around £100 with a case, these are great value. When I unboxed this one, it feels and looks a tad better than its predecessor. Sadly it is also a little bigger and so we have to get more cases but that is small beer. I "assumed" which was very silly of me that this would be a simple plug and play with the same basic coding to the previous model and that we could get the RGB colours sorted afterwards. Sadly this is not the case. The documentation is not complete and so you have to guess at some of the coding and we will be making a quick youtube and making a spreadsheet of eh coding available shortly. The main 64 pad centre has the same note keys and the sliders are 100% compatible to the Mk1. The bottom and right side small pads have different notes and so we had to remap those before starting. The default brightness is the dimmest and very much TOO dim for a normally lit workplace. The colours are a prescribed list of 127 and there is documentation on the RGB codes for each value but no help on teh actual colours. Unless you are well versed in reading RGB hex codes then you might need a side list to indicate roughly what each code represents as a colour. We do read HEX and RGB but even then the documentation was painful to go back and forth. We are fortunate in that we can fully control our midi control stream and feedback to the mid controller and so almost 24 hours later we can see how to get this controller to light up on bighter settings, but for those using it as plug and play they might have a bit more difficulty or they might simply not know that actually the pads are much brighter. One other worry is the USB connector. They are of course a weak point for portable equipment but they have been more problematic on the old controllers. It looks like the actual connector on the new boards is the same. An old school USB 4 connector that does not quite go in all the way. We will wait and see if my fears are out of place and of course we will be taking extra care of that bit. Overall, this a a great piece of kit and we will buy another 8 to upgrade all our MK1s. If you are considering it as an entry into using a midi controller with Ableton or some of the DJ software then it is stunning and you should be using it within seconds of unboxing. If you need to customize the MIDI then look for our documentation supplement as AKAIs is woeful. If you are upgrading from MK1 to MK2 note that you WILL have to remap the outer pads and do something about the velocity and value settings. Have fun and make music, lighting or whatever.

Worked well with ableton

Works very well on an Avolites lighting desk. Also usable on my PC with an Avolites T2 interface to control or design a light show.

What can I say, it works as it should.

Vraiment un bon produit. Je m`en sert comme contrôleur d`éclairage DMX. Répond vraiment bien, pas de latence dans le signal ou des boutons qui restent coincés ou s`enfonce mal. Les faders vont très bien aussi.