The New APC Mini Mk2 and APC Key 25 Mk2 have just been released by AKAI Professional. The company’s controllers for Ableton Live seem just like its predecessors, with the exception of some new designs and features.
Akai APC Mini Mk2
It contains nine faders for controlling volume, pan, sends, and, of course, Ableton Live devices. It also has all the helpful features of the original generation. Four buttons, now visible above the faders, allowing you to quickly change the fader assignment. The pads now also have a more squared shape, and AKAI says they’re “new”.
To the right of the grid, you’ll find the familiar line of eight Scene Launch buttons, which do double duty for activating the Clip Stop, Solo, Record Arm, Mute, and Select modes.
It also features a drum mode that allows you to control Drum Racks in Ableton Live. In this mode, a 4×4 section of the grid is repurposed for drums, while you can still use the rest of the matrix for something else. In addition, the pads can also now be used as a chromatic keyboard with a variety of scales to choose from.
Akai APC Key 25
Larger pads and a redesigned, more contemporary look are features of the APC Key 25. The Mk1 generation’s fundamental operations remain unchanged. It includes a velocity-sensitive keyboard with 25 thin keys, with sustain and octave buttons. The matrix only has five rows of RGB pads instead of eight, The Scene Launch and Navigation buttons, however, are identical to those on the APC Mini Mk2.
The APC Key 25 Mk2 offers eight rotary knobs for volume, pan, send, or Device parameter control in place of faders. Additionally, it is practical to assign them directly to the controller.
The new APC MIDI controllers only support a traditional USB-B connection rather than USB-C. This provides the controller with power, also known as bus power, and transfers the data to the computer. Additionally, both controllers have a copy of Ableton Live Lite and have Live pre-mapped to them.
