Akai APC 40 - The ultimate Ableton controller?

...I wonder why the delay for some and not others.

The Monome actually sends its own proprietary data over serial and connects to a middle-ware application that then goes onto convert this data into Midi or OSC. OSC isn't supported by the APC which is kind of a let down because OSC is a far far better method of communication than the midi current is. That's not to say it shouldn't support midi either though because if it only supported OSC then it wouldn't be of much use in many programs because not as many programs support OSC as compared to midi.

To show off this difference lets consider a extreme example for a second - say that that you wanted to change every single light on the unit at once. I am pretty sure i remember reading somewhere that the APC-40 has somewhere around 350 lights. now, with the midi spec sending only 1000 messages only a second this will limit you changing 1 LED per every 1ms. In total it would take 350ms so it would take a third of a second from the first light on the unit changing to the last light on the unit to change. This is just one example of the problems that the midi specification has and why we need the HD midi spec yesterday not sometime in the random future. Admittedly 350ms might not be the exact number as i don't have the hardware to test with at this stage but what is important to understand is that this is just one of the big problems that the midi spec has

The problems that the industry is facing at the moment is summed up quite well in this article Ean Golden wrote in words that everyone can understand : http://www.djranking s.com/2009/05/0...-the-end-pt-2/

So as far as the software goes the Monome wins when it comes to sheer performance.