New Akai Pro APC MINI MK2 initial LED mapping summary

Akaipro released a new APC Mini Controller last week. Like the old one, there was little documentation on the MIDI mapping. I think they expect people to just use as plug and play with Ableton Live but I know of many users that use it for other things so I thought I’d document a bit of my findings after I received mine yesterday.

Due to the implementation of this controller I think it will be a prime candidate for using Bome MIDI Translator Pro to get the colors and behavior that most users will want (if not using with Ableton Live).

The new unit now has full RGB LED control.

The matrix LED note numbers are the same as the original APC MINI but the MIDI channel indicates how bright you want the LED. For full brightness send same note-on number message that the controller sends, but on MIDI channel 7. MIDI channels larger than 7 will create various blink rates.

The bottom row (mute buttons) are notes 100-107 (left to right). The buttons on the right (top to bottom are notes 113-119. The shift is note 122 but doesn’t seem to have an LED. There are many colors but these are the ones that are most identifiable to me. Use this decimal velocity for the color. Again MIDI CH 7 will be brightest so Bright red would be 96 00 48 for bottom left of the matrix. That is Note on MIDI channel 7 velocity 72

For the bottom and side buttons, use MIDI CH 1. They are not RGB. The bottom row produce red for a velocity greater than 0 and off for velocity 0.
For a velocity of 2, they flash.
The side buttons follow the same strategy except the are green for on.

The shift button does not have and LED so it will always be off.

Color Velocity


Red 72 (48 Hex)
Green 87
Blue 41
Yellow 74
Cyan 78
Orange 61
Purple 67
Brown 83
Off 0
White 93
Pink 95
Amber 96
Turqoise 33

There are two other modes; Note Mode, and Drum Mode, but I’m not documenting them here yet. Maybe later or someone can add that.

I’m starting some templates so if people need help. Please feel free to reach out.

Steve Caldwell
Bome Customer Care


Also available for paid consulting services: bome@sniz.biz
3 Likes

Amazing work Steve, thank you :+1:

You are welcome. I wasn’t able to find anything out there so decided to get the ball rolling with this new controller. I’m glad to have been of help!

Steve Caldwell
Bome Customer Care


Also available for paid consulting services: bome@sniz.biz

I can imagine that other users of the laser control software that I use would find it useful. If I spot a question about mapping this, is it ok to point them to this thread?

I was expecting akai to have done the same as with the Fire to be honest, as they purposely target Ableton.

Of course!

1 Like

Thanks :+1:

hey @SteveC Great work. I have a question.

I am new to bome, using it to translate between mydmx3.0 and my controllers (Apc 40MK2, Novation Launch Pad, and recently purchased APC Mini MK2) . I’ve figured out the faders and buttons on all devices, I even have LED feedback on the APC40 MK2. However I can’t seem to get the LEDS on the mini to work. If I go straight from the mini to mydmx and set the channel to 7 it works, however I can’t get it through bome.

Can you shed some light on this please?

Regards
Aldrin

Hi and welcome to the Bome community!

Hi, I replied to you via private message which you also sent me and attached my reply here.

First of all, I recommend you use aliases as describe in this tutorial. In the long run, it will make your life easier if you need to move your equipment around. Just reassign the aliases as opposed to making changes to multiple translators.

Secondly, again for the reason of making your project easier to manage, I suggest you organize your presets by input and outputs as described in this tutorial. Changing a few presets will be less work than lots of translators.

Finally, I’ve used the same concepts above to create this project file.

There are 4 aliases as follows. Your alias assignment may be different depending on the physical device your OS reports.

image

There are two presets. The first one handles everything from the APC MINI to the Application. The other handles everything from the Application back to the APC MINI.

From APC MINI to application I convert all outgoing messages to MIDI CH 7. I have 2 translators. One for note on and one for note-off

From Application, I have 4 translators. The first two handle sending the right color to the pads in the matrix so I always send on MIDI CH 7. I adjust the velocity in the rules to the color I want.
The second two handle the non-matrix buttons and I convert back from MIDI CH7 to MIDI CH 1 which the APC MINI needs.

APC-MINI-MK2-Example.bmtp (4.3 KB)

Hey @SteveC for some reason it still doesn’t work.

It worked perfectly for me. Perhaps you can show me:

  1. How you have your aliases set up on your computers
  2. Open the log window and send some messages to your application by pushing some buttons and then seeing how the application responds.

In the bottom area of the log window, check Incoming, Outgoing, MIDI IN and MIDI OUT as shown below.

image

Steve Caldwell
Bome Customer Care


Also available for paid consulting services: bome@sniz.biz

you guys seem to be the right folks to ask this question too,

How would I go about doing this and setting it up…I have two MIDI Controllers that I want to use with a lighting console. When I plug both of them into my computer they both send the same Signal output and act as a pair, this is where I’m hoping I can offset the midi translation into different midis signals so that two devices will work together or have them independently as MIDI1 and MIDI2

I would really appreciate if someone would be able to clearly show me step by step for this or point in the best direction to achieve this query , as I can’t seem to find any tutorials or setup instructions for this . I believe this is the program that will work but I want to ask is it possible before I purchase

thanks so much for you attention
much appreciate have a lovely day

Irish friend Shane from the west of Ireland on Cold Saturday :sweat_smile:

@Shaneey

Hopefully we will get this figured out for you in this thread.

Steve Caldwell
Bome Customer Care


Also available for paid consulting services: bome@sniz.biz

A post was split to a new topic: APC-40 with Arkaos Media Master

i made this helpful graphic a while ago, i hope you can find it useful.

Yes, this could be most helpful. Thanks!

Steve Caldwell
Bome Customer Care


Also available for paid consulting services: bome@sniz.biz

4 posts were split to a new topic: Sending LED colors to APC-MINI MK2 using System Exclusive (SysEx)

A post was split to a new topic: How to change APC-MINI MK2 Lights