Akai APC mini mk2

[Anzound]

Dear Zynthian community,

is there a chance that the Akai APC mini mk2 will be supported with Zynthian OS Vangelis? It is a great controler and I think it would work just perfect with ZynSeq. Someone was working on it in 2024, but it seems the project was not continued.

Best regards,

Anzound

[tunagenes]

I don’t know what the chances are that someone will write a Control-Driver for the Akai APC mini mk2.

Are you aware of the support for the Akai MPK mini MK3?

Supported plug & play MIDI controllers - ZynthianWiki

and the Akai APC Key25 MK2:

Supported plug & play MIDI controllers - ZynthianWiki

[Anzound]

Yes, I do know that these controlers are supported. I saw that eif was working on it:

Trying to add support for Akai APC mini

Hey, I’m new to Zynthian, and am interested in adding some midi controller support for the Akai APC mini mk2 (and next MPD 218 if I can figure this one out). I had seen support for the APC Key25, and thought that this wouldn’t be much of a stretch. I’ve follwed the instructions on the wiki, found the APC Key25 driver, copied that, tweaked it with the correct button assignments, updated the __init__.py, and deleted the python cache file. I restarted both the zynthian process, as well as rebootin…

But I think the apc mini mk2 is still not supported. I’m not a programmer so I don’t know how difficult it is to change the driver from the akai apc key25.

[oscaracena]

The major problem here is that the developer needs to have access to that specific device. Otherwise, while may be posible, is far more complicated, cumbersome and prone to be a source of frustration, if not a waste of time.

What I mean is that we need a developer with that device and also the time and desire to do it.

[Anzound]

Thank you for your reply. I understand that it is necessary to have the device to make a driver. Would it somehow be possible to use the drivenbymoss driver which is available for Bitwig and Reaper in Linux?

The Site Of Jürgen Moßgraber - Software - DrivenByMoss 4 Reaper

Best regards.

[oscaracena]

That driver is made with Java, and for other, very different platform. It could be a source of relevant information, but porting it would mean more work than adapting an existing Zynthian driver.

[Anzound]

Since the wishlist ist not continued ist there another way to promote the idea of an akai apc mini mk2 driver?

[riban]

We love the idea of providing integration with as many devices as we can but there is a technical challenge to design, build and test integration with a device we don’t possess. There is a time challenge to do this when other commitments are more urgent. There is an enthusiasm challenge where the author is not the beneficiary. These developments tend to happen when someone has the device and the skills, time and enthusiasm to do it.

[Anzound]

Hi Riban, I do understand. Thank you for the explanation. I was maybe naively thinking that the driver for the Akai APC key might with some easy tweaking be able to run the APC mini MK2 as well. But I’m not an prorgrammer. So I might have understimated the complexity. Thank you for the work you put otherwise in Zynthian