Here is my mapping for the AKAI APC20. It is supposed to be a kind of universal mapping for use with or without a dj controller. It also tries to cover DJTT instant gratification mapping for all 4 decks.
Please tell me if you find any bugs or have suggestions about what else to map.
I hope you enjoy my mapping.
Jetfuel
This mapping is meant to be kind of a „universal“ mapping for the APC20. At the beginning it was designed to be just an addition to a Kontrol S2. Then I got the idea of creating several „pages“ to have an even wider range of control. By now there are three pages:
Page 1: Addition to Kontrol S2
Page 2: DJTT?s instant gratification for midi fighter mapping
Page 3: Control of Track Decks A and B
To change between the different pages you can choose one of two ways:
Hold the PAGE SHIFT button and turn the CUE LEVEL Knob. The ACTIVATOR row shows which page you are currently on. The one you?re on is NOT lit up. Alternatively you can Hold the PAGE SHIFT button and press the page you want to skip to.
To have full control of the LEDs it is necessary to set your APC20 into „Ableton Alternative Mode“, more commonly known as „DUMB MODE“. In order to acces this mode you have to turn your APC20 on, open Ableton Live (or a demo of it) and close it. You are in DUMB Mode when no button on the APC is lit up. Then you open Traktor.
Below every button is explained in detail. I also made a lot of small vector graphics which you can print on a self glueing transparency to label the buttons of your APC20. If you find any bugs in the mapping, feel free to comment.
Page 1:
Rows 1 + 2:
The first two rows consist of the Hotcues from 1 - 8 for deck A and B. They work like they do on the Kontrol S2. Press an empty one to store a new hotcue and press SHIFT + an existing one to delete it. They don‘t show differences between the various types of hotcues, but they light up green the moment you press them.
Row 3:
The Remix Deck The third row consists of slot 1 - 4 for remix deck C and D. Unfortunately it is presently only possible to map the first sample in each slot. If you want to change the sample you‘ll have to click on it with your mouse or touchpad. The buttons are mapped to retrigger the samples. That means they will jump back to their start every time you hit the button. This comes in handy when you want to play one-shot samples like drum samples. It allows you to play the samples as fast as you want and use the buttons like on a drum computer to play beats with it. To stop a sample press SHIFT+ SLOT X. Alternatively you can use the „Mute“ Buttons. They are lit up when the sample is not muted. With this method you can stop the sample without retriggering it. When a sample is muted and you retrigger it, the mute status is set to off.
Row 4:
Key Adjust: As I do a lot of harmonic mixing, it sometimes becomes necessary to do pitch corrections. For this reason I made two buttons for Deck A and B which allow you to shift the key in steps of one halftone. It gets bad if you forget to reset the pitch correction when you don‘t need it any more, so I did a special lighting for it. When the pitch is corrected to the negative side the left button changes. It‘s the same for a positive correction and the right button. It changes in the following way:
- 1 halftone: flashing yellow
- 2 halftones: yellow
- 3 halftones: flashing red
- 4 halftones: red
- Now you can see with just a glance how much the pitch is changed. If you want to reset the pitch hit SHIFT + one of the two keys. Effects: The second part of the fourth row is made for activation of effects 1 + 2 for deck C and D.
Row 5:
The SHIFT button should be self explanatory. It can be used to reach the second function of some buttons. The „+“ and „-“ stands for the zoom of the waveform. You can press ist several times or just hold the button to zoom in or out. SHIFT + one of the two buttons resets to default zoom.
The PLAY buttons is also self explanatory. It lights up green when the deck is playing. Otherwise it‘s red.
CLIP STOP row:
The first button activates „Browse Mode“. The second and the third button are used to shift the grid of deck A to the right or left. Hold SHIFT and push the buttons to shift in bigger steps. Button 6 and 7 do this for deck B. Button 4 and 8 are „TAP“ buttons for deck A and B. Press SHIFT and this button to send the deck‘s clock to your headphones. Buttons 5 activates full screen mode.
This row is flashing according to the beat of your track (if the beatgrid is set correctly). This way you can even see if your tracks are not in sync.
NAVIGATION/TRACK SELECTION row:
As already mentioned above you can use these buttons to mute the remix deck slots. Button number 9 resets the filter for deck D which can be changed with the „cue level“ knob below. It is unlit if the filter is not changed and lights up green if you make adjustments to it.
ACTIVATOR row:
The „SIZE +/-“ buttons change the loop size for decks C and D. With „ACTIVATE“ you set the loop and activate it. „LOAD C“ loads a remix deck into deck C. The same does „LOAD D“ for deck D.
SOLO/CUE row:
The first four buttons set deck A, B, C or D to Master. The other four buttons are the SYNC buttons for deck A to D.
RECORD ARM row:
With the first three buttons you can reset the EQ for deck C. The same do Buttons 6 - 8 for deck D. If there is a change made to the EQ the button is lighting up red. This way you can see when the slider is in neutral position. Buttons 4 and 5 activate CUE for deck C/D.
Sliders:
Sliders 1 - 3 control the EQ for deck C. From left to right: High - Mid - Low. Sliders 6 - 8 are for deck D. Left to right: Low - Mid - High. Sliders 4 and 5 control the volume of Deck C/D. Master Slider: Use the Master Slider to control the Master Volume. The Activator Row is used to show the Master Level.
SCENE LAUNCH column:
This part is used to control the Loop recorder. From top to bottom:
1. Record
- flashing when recording
2. Play
- lit up if active
3. UNDO (+ SHIFT: activate SNAP)
4. DELETE (+ SHIFT: activate QUANT)
5. change size of the loops
- lit up if there is sound material in the loop recorder
Page 2:
On this page I rebuilt DJTT?s Instant Gratification mapping for the midi fighter. Unfortunately I haven?t rebuilt all the super combos yet. But the one which is explained in the official DJTT video should work fine.
For more details on how to use the instant gratification mapping check out the official DJTT video:
Page 3:
If you?re not so lucky to own a Kontrol S2 this page might interest you. I tried to rebuilt the most important functions of the S2. Most of it works like explained for page 1. The rest should be self-explanatory if you look at the picture.