Afro Monk

Transitioning to Ableton and APC40.

I’ve only been doing this DJ thing since mid 2009. The first purchase I made was a Numark NS7. I believe it’s one of the best controllers out there. After the NS7 I finally made the plunge and picked up turntables. As of late November I’m a proud owner of the Akai APC40.

The APC stands for Abelton Performance Control. Ultimately what it means is that it’s mainly designed to be used with Ableton Live. It is layout so you can go out and use Albeton for live acts flawlessly.

I’m not going to lie; I’m no pro at DJing and mixing. Right now I’m pretty terrible at beat matching. Yet after really understanding what a standard DJ does I’m ok with not being the best at it or remotely good at it. The APC40 takes care of all that and yet introduces a new challenge, programming. Whereas a standard DJ with CDJs or Decks is limited in playing a track and slight control on a mixer the truth is all they are doing is popping in a CD or record and matching the beat and moving to the next track. Yes they do mess with the EQs but nothing too crazy. The APC gives you endless possibilities when using Ableton. The amount of things you can do is mind blowing.

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