For the sake of completeness &amp; 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 &quot;standards complaint&quot; MIDI device on Akai&#39;s homepage. There is a mention of a &quot;proprietary handshake&quot; there too, so I thought I&#39;d clarify that: The handshake are special messages sent between the APC and Ableton&#39;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 &quot;banks&quot; to switch between.<br>Eg: Master fader &amp; crossfader stay static, while the lower right set of 8 endless encodes switches MIDI channel, while the CC&#39;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 &quot;bank&quot; 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 &amp; faders is fantastic :)<br>