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APC40X MkII turns your APC40 mkII into a little studio: launch clips, program drums, play in key, sequence melodies, chop audio and watch your levels, all from the unit.
Play it in your browser ▶What it does
The 5×8 grid launches Live's clips in their own colours, with scenes on the right and an overview of the whole session one button away.
A step sequencer with 16 drum pads, 16 steps, a bar row and a velocity column. Press User on a Drum Rack track.
All 40 pads in Live's own scale, or a step sequencer for chords and melodies in the style of Novation's Circuit.
Your audio clip on the pads: move its markers and loop, add warp markers, and chop it live in PERFORM.
VU meters on the pads, a peek at your fader positions, the beat on the device buttons.
The tempo in big digits, the track's name when you hold its button, short messages for things you can't see, and a secret at the very end.
Every picture of the unit is drawn from what the script really lights in that situation. Buttons in the text look like Shift or User: the little light on the pill is the button's own LED colour.
Numbers like 1 match the numbered bubbles in the picture next to them.
You need Ableton Live 12.3 or later, on Windows or macOS, and an Akai APC40 mkII (not the first APC40). Every update is free, for every future version: apc40x.com · help: support@apc40x.com. An unofficial remote script for the Akai APC40 mkII and Ableton Live 12. Not affiliated with or endorsed by Akai Professional (inMusic) or Ableton.
Install in four steps
Unzip the APC40X MkII download and copy the APC40X_MkII folder (keep its name) into Live's User Library, in Remote Scripts. On Windows that is Documents\Ableton\User Library\Remote Scripts; on a Mac Music/Ableton/User Library/Remote Scripts. The PDF can go anywhere.
Live's own Preferences tell you where your User Library is: Library ▸ Location of User Library.
Live looks for scripts only when it starts: quit and open Live again after every update of the folder.
In Preferences ▸ Link, Tempo & MIDI: Control Surface APC40X_MkII, Input and Output APC40 mkII. Leave the port's Track / Sync / Remote switches as Live sets them.
About half a second after Live recognises the unit the Pan light comes on: the faders and knobs are live from then on. Press User on a MIDI track and play the pads.
Your first minute
- Press Pan: the pads show your session. Tap a pad to launch a clip.
- Press User: the pads play the selected track. Select another track and they follow it.
- Turn the Tempo knob: the pads show the tempo for a moment.
- Hold Shift and move a fader: the pads show all eight volumes.