Akai Professional APC Mini MK2 - USB MIDI Pad Controller for Clip Launching with Ableton Live Lite, 64 RGB Pads, Drum and Note Mode and MIDI Mixer

Wonderful 😊

AKAI have done well with this. It is cheap and yet feels a fraction more robust than the previous model. The sliders are a touch more "smooth" The RGB pads are also great so you do not get "Lost" in the 64 pad matrix. I was thinking of knocking off a star or two for two reasons (but then I remembered that most people will buy this for working with Ableton). I did try it quickly with Ableton and it is a great budget midi controller with super portability. However, we use MIDI controllers for many purposes and so the documentation is important. We have 8 of the old APC pro mini and they have served well, mainly as midi controllers for our lighting suite for small to medium events. We have had three failures on the old controllers (all USB connector problems). We have resoldered in one which is holding up. It is now pretty difficult to find NEW Mk1s and so we looked at many midi controllers from £50 to £1000. For our purpose there was really only this one that ticked the boxes we needed. We needed to paginate the controller, to have at least 8 rotaries or sliders and be able to map main pages that are 6 by 5 with extra pad control available. For around £100 with a case, these are great value. When I unboxed this one, it feels and looks a tad better than its predecessor. Sadly it is also a little bigger and so we have to get more cases but that is small beer. I "assumed" which was very silly of me that this would be a simple plug and play with the same basic coding to the previous model and that we could get the RGB colours sorted afterwards. Sadly this is not the case. The documentation is not complete and so you have to guess at some of the coding and we will be making a quick youtube and making a spreadsheet of eh coding available shortly. The main 64 pad centre has the same note keys and the sliders are 100% compatible to the Mk1. The bottom and right side small pads have different notes and so we had to remap those before starting. The default brightness is the dimmest and very much TOO dim for a normally lit workplace. The colours are a prescribed list of 127 and there is documentation on the RGB codes for each value but no help on teh actual colours. Unless you are well versed in reading RGB hex codes then you might need a side list to indicate roughly what each code represents as a colour. We do read HEX and RGB but even then the documentation was painful to go back and forth. We are fortunate in that we can fully control our midi control stream and feedback to the mid controller and so almost 24 hours later we can see how to get this controller to light up on bighter settings, but for those using it as plug and play they might have a bit more difficulty or they might simply not know that actually the pads are much brighter. One other worry is the USB connector. They are of course a weak point for portable equipment but they have been more problematic on the old controllers. It looks like the actual connector on the new boards is the same. An old school USB 4 connector that does not quite go in all the way. We will wait and see if my fears are out of place and of course we will be taking extra care of that bit. Overall, this a a great piece of kit and we will buy another 8 to upgrade all our MK1s. If you are considering it as an entry into using a midi controller with Ableton or some of the DJ software then it is stunning and you should be using it within seconds of unboxing. If you need to customize the MIDI then look for our documentation supplement as AKAIs is woeful. If you are upgrading from MK1 to MK2 note that you WILL have to remap the outer pads and do something about the velocity and value settings. Have fun and make music, lighting or whatever.

The Akai APC mini MK2 is designed to control Ableton Live music production software (Lite, intro, standard or suite, version 11.2.7 and above), primarily in Live’s ‘session view’. It is extremely portable and should fit into the side pocket of an average laptop bag. The device is truly ‘plug and play’ via the provided lead into a single USB socket. I plugged it in to my laptop, started Ableton Live and it worked. Simple. A coloured outline appears around the visible screen clip slots to confirm that the APC mini is working properly. A user guide is included in the box with the correct configuration settings, just in case. Full control over clip and scene launch is available as well as track solo, mute, stop, record and track select. The built-in manual faders (not motorised) can be used to control track volumes and Ableton Live’s devices. The pad colours reflect the ‘on screen’ clip colours, all hopefully making Ableton Live more user friendly. Also included is a ‘note mode’ for playing instruments (VSTs) and a ‘drum mode’ for finger drumming and beat creation. To be honest, I found ‘note mode’ a bit awkward. I prefer to play notes on a midi keyboard. Having said that, it’s still completely usable. If you don’t have Ableton Live, the included free ‘Lite’ version (download) provides 8 tracks (midi/audio) and 8 ‘scenes’ plus 2 send and return tracks (reverb and delay) and a master track. It also includes a shed load of instruments, samples, drum loops, effects etc. The APC mini Mk2 has to be registered on the Akai website first to generate an Ableton Live activation code. A card is included inside the box with the Akai website address. Note: The current version of Ableton Live is 12 (as of 16/04/2026). It’s advisable to check that your computer/laptop meets the correct operating requirements. These can be found on the Ableton website. Ableton Live 12 will not install if it doesn’t. In conclusion, The Akai APC mini is a fun device and is excellent for home use or playing ‘live’ gigs with Ableton Live and a laptop. IMO it provides great value at this price point.

Works well

For the price and footprint, this is a very powerful device. However, having tried it in combination with other MIDI controllers, things do get confusing, fast. . To be clear, this doesn't stop other tech from working. But in it's roundabout way it can do much of what you want. Though, like one or two other controllers I've tried, you really have to keep track of what you are doing with this (harder than it sounds in the heat of a performance), because everything on this does something different, depending on what else you have pressed. That's kind of the point, but it's not for everyone. . In short, if you are on an ultra tight budget, or have very little space, then this might be the Ableton controller for you. Otherwise, the functionalities of this overlap so much with other controllers that I prefer to put this away and use the more intuitive kit that I'm used to. .

Does what i need. Those mini faders really are perfect for me. One thing annoys me. The faders when pushed up are +6db in Ableton live so i need to add utility on every channel with -6db as default. Other than that it’s worth buying. I also like how I can switch the pads to drum rack or note very easily

Would of been 5 stars but was really hard to set up and get sound coming out,also listed as a sequencer but not really a sequencer ,although it is fun to use

I am going to be honest I don’t know much about these things, it was for my son at his request. The quality & design looks good, he found it easy to set up! He is 12