For the sake of completeness & the archive:<br><br>The AKAI APC 40 works perfectly with Linux, it appears as a standard ALSA MIDI device. This is in line with the expectations since it is marked as a "standards complaint" MIDI device on Akai's homepage. There is a mention of a "proprietary handshake" there too, so I thought I'd clarify that: The handshake are special messages sent between the APC and Ableton's Live software. It has nothing to do with the MIDI compatibility of the device under any other circumstances.<br>
<br>As far as using the device goes, it is (IMO) quite brilliantly engineered, with some parameters remaining static, and other controllers having "banks" to switch between.<br>Eg: Master fader & crossfader stay static, while the lower right set of 8 endless encodes switches MIDI channel, while the CC's stay the same.<br>
The Grid works in a similar manner, with each button (horizontally) sending the same note on, but on a different channel. Working with the device due to this fact is very easy, as one can do like so:<br>parameterSetFunction( 144 - midiByte1, midiByte2, midiByte3 ); // first arg is the track you want to call on<br>
<br>The controller / grid LEDs respond to the same MIDI message they send, wether that be a Note on or CC. Note that one must use the right channel to write to the right "bank" on the device.<br><br>Hoping to post a quick demo video using it with Linux soon, -Harry<br>
<br>PS: On a side note, its built like a tank, and the feel of the knobs & faders is fantastic :)<br>