5dee Tips and Tricks - APC40
Skip navigation

Tips and Tricks - APC40




The APC40 is the only controller designed specifically for Ableton Live, in partnership with Ableton. Because it was developed expressly for controlling Live, the APC40 comes pre-mapped and ready to play with the included Ableton Live Akai Pro APC40 Edition and the most recent standalone versions of Ableton Live 7 and 8.

The controller assignments on the APC40 were meticulously thought out for optimal use with Ableton Live’s features and most users will find them to be perfect. But that doesn’t mean you can’t customize every single button, knob, and fader for your own personal workflow and preferences. In this article, we will showcase some manual assignments you can apply to the APC40 to become a power user.

  • Manual MIDI Mapping
  • Single-Scroll Scene Selection
  • Footswitch Scene Launch
  • Precision Tempo Control with Range
  • Clip Scrub / Nudge
  • Tempo-Nudge Hold
  • Track Fader Dual Control
  • Clip Stacking Using Legato Mode and Manual Timing


MANUAL MIDI MAPPING


Assigning manual controls is easy in Ableton Live. Simply enter MIDI Map by pressing Apple + M on a Mac or CTRL + M on a PC. There is also a button in the top-right corner of Live that looks like Fig. 1.


Fig.1


SINGLE-SCROLL SCENE SELECTION


Using Scenes (the horizontal row selection and Scene Launch), you can trigger playback of an entire row of clips in Session View with one move. You’ll notice five Scene Launch buttons on the APC40 to the right of the Clip Launch / Session Overview buttons for this purpose.  

Once you have built your session to include lots of clips and scenes, you’ll likely find yourself using the APC40’s Bank Select buttons to navigate through scenes. The Bank Select buttons move your scene selection in Live up or down by five. By mapping an assignable knob to the Scene Select function, you can move by one row at a time without changing the highlighted scene. This is helpful for more exact control, particularly in live settings.

To assign an APC40 knob to Scene Select, first determine which knob you would like to use. We like the Cue Level knob for its location near the Scene Launch buttons, but you can use any knob you like.

  1. Select the knob bank you wish to assign to Scene Select. If you choose an assignable knob, you want to choose Bank 2 – 8 so that you don’t override the default Bank 1 knob behaviors  Press and hold Shift on the APC40 and press the desired Bank number (red numbers next to global and Device Control buttons on APC40)
  2. Enter MIDI Map mode in Live
  3. You will see a button in the Master Track now show a row of buttons associated with the Scenes.   Press the Scene Select button on the right (Circled in Fig. 2).
  4. Move the knob on the APC40
  5. If you make a mistake and move the wrong knob, just delete the assignment from the MIDI Mappings window on the left, while in MIDI Map mode by clicking on the mapping and pressing delete on your keyboard
  6. Exit MIDI Map
  7. You can now use this newly assigned knob to scroll through Scenes easily and individually without losing the current Scene highlight.

Fig.2


FOOTSWITCH SCENE SELECTION


Now that you have followed the steps for assigning individual scene-selection control, you can improve this by connecting a momentary (non-latching) footswitch to one of the two inputs on the back of the APC40. We’ll assign the footswitch to Scene Launch so that as soon as you find your specific scene, you can launch it with your foot.
  1. Enter MIDI Map
  2. Click on Scene Launch button (Circled in Fig. 3):
  3. Press the footswitch
  4. Exit MIDI Map
Note: Ableton Live Akai APC40 Edition is limited to 20 scenes.  If you are using Live 7 or Live 8 and you use more scenes than this, you may want to use the [Cue Level] knob for this assignment, as it is the only knob that will behave as a truly endless encoder on the APC40.

Fig.3


PRECISION TEMPO CONTROL WITH RANGE


If you are a Hip-Hop producer or DJ, you likely find yourself working between 70 and 120 BPM. If you are more into House, Electro, or Dance, you will probably work within 100 – 150 BPM. Some musicians drift no more than 2 – 10 BPM throughout their sets.
The APC40’s Tap Tempo and Tempo Nudge buttons are great for roughly setting tempo. Here’s a tip for controlling tempo with pinpoint accuracy.
  1. Enter the Bank of the knob(s) you wish to use for tempo control
  2. The fine tempo range is fixed at 2.56 – If this is enough of a range for you, you need only assign a knob to fine tempo control
  3. Enter MIDI Map mode
  4. Choose coarse or fine tempo. To choose the coarse tempo selection, click on the numbers before the decimal point. To choose the fine tempo selection, click on the numbers after the decimal point
  5. Move knob on the APC40
  6. To modify the range of the coarse tempo control, using your mouse, click on the Min and Max setting and drag it to desired BPMs. You can also click on the range and type exact numbers in using your keyboard’s number pad
  7. Exit MIDI Map

CLIP SCRUB / NUDGE


To jump within a playing clip in increments the size of the global quantization period, you can use the Nudge buttons in the Clip box or you can use the Clip Scrub Command for either MIDI or Audio Clips.

  1. Enter the desired bank of assignable knobs on the APC40 by holding Shift + Bank number
  2. Show Clip parameters by pressing Clip/Track
  3. Enter MIDI Map mode in Live
  4. You will now see the hidden Scrub command in between the Nudge commands. Click on the Scrub button (See Fig. 4)
  5. Move the desired knob on the APC40
  6. Exit MIDI Map mode
You can now scrub the clip using this newly assigned knob and set your quantization settings to adjust how Scrub mode performs for you. You may also want to assign the Nudge Buttons to two buttons on the APC40.


Fig.4


TEMPO-NUDGE HOLD


While you are playing the session, hold Nudge – or Nudge + to slow down or speed up the global tempo. When you find the tempo, press Tap Tempo before letting go of Nudge button. The new tempo will be set to the point where you enabled Tap Tempo.


TRACK FADER DUAL CONTROL



You can assign a fader to control the volume of two adjacent tracks and invert the range of one so that they crossfade each other. Here’s how to do it:
  1. Enter MIDI Map mode
  2. Click on Track Volume
  3. Move APC40 fader
  4. Click on second Track Volume
  5. Move the same APC40 fader
  6. Right-click anywhere in one of these MIDI mappings
  7. Choose “Invert Range” (See Fig. 5)
  8. Exit MIDI Map
You can now use this single fader as a crossfader for specific groups of tracks, which can free up the actual crossfader for other tasks or free up Crossfade Assign A + B for other tracks.
This same concept can also be applied to something like an EQ filter or the Mix controls of two or more audio effects so you can crossfade between sounds with a single fader.


Fig.5


CLIP STACKING USING LEGATO MODE AND MANUAL TIMING


Load a series of drum loops to a track and turn Legato triggering on. Disable quantize for the track for instant switching between loops without restarting the loop.
  1. Load multiple clips to a track. Try similar sounding drum loops for instance. (See Fig. 6)
  2. Select the first clip loaded and press Clip/Track button on APC40 to show Clip View. This can also be done double-clicking the clip. You can also press Shift + Tab
  3. Show Launch box by clicking “L” button below Clip box
  4. Enable Legato Mode in the Launch Box (See Fig. 7)
  5. Choose a responsive Quantization setting such as None or 1/32 for launch (See Fig. 8)
  6. Repeat the above steps for each individual clip loaded to the track
Now that Legato mode is enabled, you can switch between these clips while the session is playing without re-triggering the loop from the beginning.

Fig.6

Fig.7

Fig.8


That wraps up our tips for this month. Be sure to subscribe to our newsletter if you're not on the list already. Next month will bring exciting news from the Summer NAMM show!

test

0