I'm building a playable music visualizer using Processing, and until recently I've been using the keyboard to control it. The application runs at a given speed (not tied into the music, but set by me), and then I toggle effects and change settings along to the music.

Anyway, I recently got my hands on an Akai APC40 (Midi controller normally used with Ableton music software), and after some research and testing I was able to use the RWMidi library to turn the knobs and some of the buttons into controls (which was awesome). However, on the mapping of Midi notes / CC knobs on the APC40, you can see that each row of buttons has the same note, but are on different channels. Right now, I have only been using one button from each row, which is restricting functionality. I don't know a lot about Midi programming, so I'm not sure how to tell what channel a note is coming from.

I've done a lot of searching and can't find anything too helpful, so if anyone has any inspiration it would be greatly appreciated. Also, I haven't been able to figure out how to control lighting of the buttons, so if you've worked with any Midi controllers and can help me out I would again appreciate the input.