Any midi controller will work with Ableton. The APCs, Launchpad and the new Push are purpose built for the job though, so if you aren't crazy big on custom mappings they're ideal.

Really, you need to figure out how you want to use Ableton in your sets and buy the controller which suits that workflow.

thanks that helps

I have an APC40 and love it but its not ideal. The bridge view shows you a clip bank 8x8 and the apc40 is 8x5. the extra 3 banks at the botton you cant launch without moving down are a real pain in the ass.

I would suggest the pust (i with it had volume faders though) or the launch pad. mainly because the both have 8x8 grids.

If i had a launch pad I would use it over my APC40 but I also dj with a MPD32 and I would map its 8 faders to volume on the 8 channels in ableton.

Also good thing todo is it edit your midi mapping so that when the faders are maxed they are at 0db and not +6db. Red is always bad but in ableton it is a killer.

I'd say it's worth looking into the Itch controllers.

Here's something I just saw...
www.youtube.com
I think it's really cool that Novation is responding to people who may want to use the controller for Ableton. I'd like to hear some feed back on how it works as an Ableton controller with The Bridge.

One of my main problems with it though, is that there's still no script to highlight available and active clips on the controller. Like the APC / Launch Pad and some others have.

I recently sold my Xone:DX, for example. I tried it out as an Ableton controller with The Bridge. You'd think it'd be Ableton bliss, but there were some issues with it discussed (by myself) here serato.com

BUT, the idea of a Midi controller / Sound Card is really appealing to me because it frees up the routing options you'll have in Ableton, allowing an Ableton cue mix if you have a spare channel on your mixer. serato.com

Anyway. After the Xone:DX fiasco I've come full circle and back to the basics.

At current I'm using a Trigger Finger for essential functions (Loop, Track Select, Effects, Etc) and a Launch Pad to trigger clips.

What I like about this set up is that every tool used is super common place. Trigger Fingers and Launch Pads are everywhere and are a dime a dozen. APCs are practically omnipresent as well. This is a good thing IMO. I think conformity is a good thing to consider when considering your DJ set up.

good advice cheers, what im looking to do with it is launch a few clips from abelton maybe 10 on a set, samples, clips, midi clips and effects ect over my set maybe bits of other tracks over my sets. theres so much im not sure what to go for?

the launch pad seems to get good feedback how about a Novation Nocturn with the launch pad to assign effects to the knobs.

or maybe the akai mpd 24 seems to be an all rounder with pads, knobs, faders everything just compact

I have a bunch of midi controllers: a launchpad, 2 nanokontrols, a BCF2000, padkontrol, nanokey, plus a collection of hardware drum machines and samplers.

My favorite controller for The Bridge is Maschine. It's the most flexible and fun.

With Maschine's Ableton template you can do all the normal clip and scene launch stuff from the controller, then you can easily toggle back to the full Maschine drum machine/sequencer and easily create a whole new track on the fly without looking at the laptop screen. The downside is you only have a 4x4 grid to work with, but moving the box around is easy enough.

My second choice would be the launchpad along with nativekontrol's LPC mapping for live remixing. You have a crazy amount of options with that but you're going to be looking at the screen a lot to keep up with what's going on. The same developer also put out a Push-emulator for the Launchpad.

Do you know Akai MPK Mini MK II ?
I can recommend you that one.
Good thing is that you can find it in a very good price (and you have perfect quality).
here you can have a look:  bestmidicontroller.co

You should definitely check out this article www.topmidikeyboards.com