Sat Jul 15, 2023 11:35 am
I have recently been given an AKAI APC Key 25 controller for my birthday. Checking on the Web for support with HW a questioner on Amazon asked the same question and was told that it is not compatible. Since I have one I wanted it to work and having spent a day on this getting it to work I thought I would share my experience for anyone else interested in this controller.
First off it Does Work!
When initially connecting to windows the controller is identified as having 2 ports.
1. APC Key 25
2. MIDIIN2 (APC key 25 mk2)
The controller is internally configures as 2 separate ports, 1. The keyboard itself and 2. All the control buttons et.
Akai state this is only intended to work with the Ableton lite software and this is somewhat complicated to use for me and was of no benefit anyway
In HW (only tried this with VIi) setup the midi ports to recognise both
To assign any button to a HW function, use the auto detect in the normal way. It will identify as port #2 above, however once detected the source needs to be changed to "Novation launchpad Midi noteon/off". All other settings remain. In the midi out tab ensure that the settings are set to use the midi in settings. The Novation lumination drop down will allow selection of the light colour for the button.
Caveat: colours can only be assigned to the 8x5 matrix and only those designated "mk2 Bright/dim xxx"
Whilst all but the Oct buttons are assignable the other buttons have fixed colours and brightness.
Note that each button is seen as a Note event
The 8 nobs are programmable but are actually Control change event type. Whilst these are accessable, I can't find a reasons for doing so when all I want is registration changes
The keys on the keyboard are also programmable and therefore assignable too but are via the other port indicated above as #1.
I have set mine up as above and it works just fine so I hope this is of some value to others.
Regards
Dave
First off it Does Work!
When initially connecting to windows the controller is identified as having 2 ports.
1. APC Key 25
2. MIDIIN2 (APC key 25 mk2)
The controller is internally configures as 2 separate ports, 1. The keyboard itself and 2. All the control buttons et.
Akai state this is only intended to work with the Ableton lite software and this is somewhat complicated to use for me and was of no benefit anyway
In HW (only tried this with VIi) setup the midi ports to recognise both
To assign any button to a HW function, use the auto detect in the normal way. It will identify as port #2 above, however once detected the source needs to be changed to "Novation launchpad Midi noteon/off". All other settings remain. In the midi out tab ensure that the settings are set to use the midi in settings. The Novation lumination drop down will allow selection of the light colour for the button.
Caveat: colours can only be assigned to the 8x5 matrix and only those designated "mk2 Bright/dim xxx"
Whilst all but the Oct buttons are assignable the other buttons have fixed colours and brightness.
Note that each button is seen as a Note event
The 8 nobs are programmable but are actually Control change event type. Whilst these are accessable, I can't find a reasons for doing so when all I want is registration changes
The keys on the keyboard are also programmable and therefore assignable too but are via the other port indicated above as #1.
I have set mine up as above and it works just fine so I hope this is of some value to others.
Regards
Dave