Akai APC40

[bildcode]

Hi,

I consider using an APC40 as an input device for a little VJ application built with touch designer. Preferrably using the midi protocol. Has anyone here experience with this device in conjunction with TD?
I know it was built primarily to control ableton live but sends out a general midi signal as well.

• Are ALL knobs and switches sending out midi signals like note on and cc?
• Is a bidirectional communication possible using midi? I Would like to set e.g. the LED-rings with a midi-cc command to make the apc40 react to things like bank switches and preset changes possible.
• If the midi-way isn't working, is there a SDK available for the device?

cheers

[elburz]

I dont have an APC 40, but it shouldn't be a problem mapping it through TouchDesigner as long as you know how you want to everything. I'm not 100% sure how they create the more advanced APC mappings, but something simple shouldn't be too hard.

Resources:

Midi:
http://www.derivative.ca/wiki077/index.php?title=Midi

Device Mapper:
http://www.derivative.ca/wiki077/index. ... per_Dialog

[bildcode]

Thanks elburz. Well, I think the APC40 --> TD way works most likely.

But the very important thing I'm after is the way vice versa: TD --> APC40, to control LED-rings and Button-Colors with my application, using only midi.

So if somebody on this forum has used the device I'd really appreciate some feedback on this topic.

[ben]

We would love to get our hands on an APC-40 to make some MIDI mappings for it, but we don't have on here in the office. It is completely doable, we've had bi-directional MIDI working on a number of devices like the Behinger 2000 and CM Motormix, driving sliders and LEDs, etc.

You'll have to use the MIDI Out CHOP and/or the MIDI command to send the messages that the APC-40 is expecting. The APC-40 can utilize Max for Live to enable more advanced features, if you take a look at what the communication patch with Max for Live is doing you might see what's going on under the hood and get a head start, then port that into TouchDesigner.

Would love an APC-40...

[bildcode]

Got one this weekend and played with it a little. So now I can answer my questions as follows:

• All knobs and sliders send midi note on, note off or control change messages.
• Yes, the midi is bidirectional. If I send midi messages to the device, all LEDs react as expected. Even more: if you send certain control change values, you can have the clip button LEDs off, on or blinking in red, green or orange. Awesome!
• No SDK available, don't need it anyways, now that I know it works directly with TD.

Very nice look and feel, good quality. All in all just what i needed.

[elburz]

That's great to hear! Sounds like fun.

[theburn]

Hello,

I was trying to send my apc40 commands to turn up the leds which are on the button.
With max I was able to send raw midi messages to APC40.
When I try on TD for example first button on left is "90 35 - " When I try to send command from textport like " midi -g 90 35 02" (02 is on of the values that turns the led on the button) nothing happens. Is there a trick to send raw messages from TD.

For info APC40 is correctly set as input and output from the midi device mapper as device 1.

I also tried midi -i 1 -g 90 35 02 still no response. If you are still on the issue got any tips ?

Thanks

[bildcode]

Hi,

somehow, I missed your post, just found it accidentially, so my reply is kind of late.

Unless I got something wrong, you have to use decimal notation for the 3 raw bytes. I guess that's what "untranslated raw bytes" means (midi Command wiki).

If you want to send hex "90 35 02", you have to write "-112 53 02".

Code: Select all

-- green flashing upper right button
midi -g -112 53 02

-- turn off
midi -g -128 53 02


@everybody:
Is there a way to notate hex values directly in conjunction with the midi command?
(I mean apart from using convertbase())

[nonspacial]

Hello Forum,

I've re-mapped this extensively to multiple programs i'll be getting round to sorting a TD one soon but for those of you who want/need to know it's actually quite simple.

There are 3 modes that it comes with 1 when you turn it on 1 when ableton connects an 1 when ableton disconnects, the last 2 are practically the same with only really some sort of identifier for ableton to pick it up agian quickly or something. Anyway these are controlled by a Sys Ex String and using something like Bomes Midi Translator you can quite literally hotswap them.

This one Activates Ableton mode: F0 47 00 73 60 00 04 41 08 02 07 F7
This one the 1st mode: F0 47 00 73 60 00 04 40 08 02 07 F7
And the Last mode is this: F0 47 00 73 60 00 04 42 08 02 07 F7

the difference in bold. you can i'm sure easily send these codes from TD from a table i imagine.

The important thing here is how you want to use it.

When you turn it on it has pre configured Banks for the 9 Track Selection buttons that change the midi channel for the lowest 8 knobs and the buttons numbered below them. this is how i prefer to use it. All bank positions are resent across to the knobs when the track selects are changed and you will if you monitor it see 8 codes produced and if you change the knobs then you will start to see the 0-126 created in the last 2 bits.

In Ableton mode none of these buttons have anything but a midi code just like the rest and are assignable therefore by you to anything you desire but all LED feedback will need to be recorded and resent if you wish to recreate some sort of bank system out of them in this mode.

All the LED backlit buttons that make up the matrix are momentary. It is important to note that if you push any of these buttons and release an off code is sent by the APC to the button and so if you wish to have LED feedback then you will need to put it either post or on the off command and not the on. all buttons flash green when depressed.

The arm/solo etc buttons are all toggle buttons and can be translated to have momentary effect if you wish.

The only continous encoder is the Cue knob and it ouputs a varying speed of either 7F for up and 00 for down to +/- 3 of those for an accelarated twist. In my experience this can glitch and sometimes will skip 2 and not let me select the middle of 3 in a list about once eevery 127 clicks i think.

The LED rings have 3 states 50:50 up and down, 0-100% or the standard 1 or 2 lit blocks for position. they can be assigned on your midi out with the value being set to 01 or 02 for the 50:50 and 0-100% or anything else will give the standard 2 or 1 dot pattern.

The coloured matrix buttons have 7 states each again controlled by the value they are:

00 - off
01 - green
02 - green flashing
03 - red
04 - red flashing
05 - orange
06 - orange flashing
07-7f green

So there's one other trick here and that's that the LED Rings are +8 on their CC Value comin in to go back out, they have cleverly spaced the two 8 sets of rings 16 apart so that the feedback comes between the two sets.

This means that if CC16 is what i see when i turn the knob i must send out the information on CC24 and so on.

Examples for each of the types here then:

90 35 7F Note ON top left most button In
80 35 7F Note OFF top left most button In
90 35 01 Green Out
90 35 02 Green Flashing Out

91 35 7F Note ON Next button to the right
81 35 7F Note OFF Next button to the right
91 35 02 Red Out
91 35 03 Red Flashing Out

Notice the channel changes by 1 as you go along the rows, the note changes as you go down so 35 becomes 36 etc. and the outs are sent with the corresponding value you wish from the colour.

ARM/Solo

Same thing Channels correspond to columns.

Toggle function and no need to give LED feedback unless you need to (it will accept it)

90 32 7F In
80 32 7F In
90 32 7F On Out
90 32 00 Off Out

Knob LED Rings

B0 14 xx IN Device Control Knob 1
B0 1C xx OUT Device Control Knob 1

The buttons inside the Device Control Box (4) are toggle, and the 4 below are momentary
The pan and sends are toggle and the bank and loop sections are momentary.

All button feedback comes on the same midi note and is either 7F for on and 00 for off or a colour value for the matrrix. Clip stop and scene launch ahve only green and flashing green LEDs.

hope this helps someone.

i have an old thread on the bomes forum here:
http://www.bome.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=3634&p=9283#p9283

and a DJ tech tools one about traktor mapping which is where it all started for me:
http://forum.djtechtools.com/showthread.php?t=29817 the original thread

and the newer one:

http://forum.djtechtools.com/showthread.php?t=53026

only if you want to get to a lot of reading through the headache i went through!

all the best

Robbie