Akai Force Forum: Everything relating to the Akai Force, the new 64 pad, clip-based standalone sampler/groovebox from Akai. While not an MPC, it shares many similar software features to the MPC X/MPC Live including the same underlying code-base.
User avatar
By Koekepan Tue Jun 01, 2021 1:40 am
This thread is content for a proposed article on what new Force owners can do once they get their baby.

Proposed items:

* Get a new 2.5 inch 2TB SATA laptop drive to expand capacity
* Format the drive before you insert it into the Force (otherwise the Force won't see it)
* Have a handy SDcard or three
* Try not to save things to the internal drive, because running out of space there is sad
* Have a nice powered USB hub
* Have a MIDI Thru box
* Have a good controller if you plan to play directly into it
* Have a mic if you want to record vocals into it
* Have a battery bank if you plan to play out or drop sick beats on the beach
* Be excellent to each other
By DokBrown Tue Jun 01, 2021 7:05 pm
Get a good book on this machine.
The manual is a good start but we could really use a FORCE BIBLE
By Synaptic Mon Jun 21, 2021 3:32 pm
DokBrown wrote:Get a good book on this machine.
The manual is a good start but we could really use a FORCE BIBLE


I got mine last week :) A force bible sounds amazing I'd but it.
User avatar
By EnochLight Tue Jun 22, 2021 8:52 pm
Koekepan wrote:This thread is content for a proposed article on what new Force owners can do once they get their baby.

Proposed items:

* Get a new 2.5 inch 2TB SATA laptop drive to expand capacity
* Format the drive before you insert it into the Force (otherwise the Force won't see it)
* Have a handy SDcard or three
* Try not to save things to the internal drive, because running out of space there is sad
* Have a nice powered USB hub
* Have a MIDI Thru box
* Have a good controller if you plan to play directly into it
* Have a mic if you want to record vocals into it
* Have a battery bank if you plan to play out or drop sick beats on the beach
* Be excellent to each other


Suggesting someone picks up a 2 TB SSD "laptop" drive is arbitrary and misleading, IMHO. Personally, I'd state something closer to: pick up a quality SATA SSD appropriately sized for your needs and install it for best performance.

I'd also state: under no circumstances, do not EVER save anything to the built-in storage!

Why are you recommending someone picks up SD cards (or three)? With an SSD installed, using SD cards isn't necessary. USB sticks are far more common and cheaper, so if anything - using a USB stick (say for instance, to quickly transfer samples or other items) would be a better investment IMHO. All computers have USB ports - many don't come with SD card readers.

I agree with the mic advice - but only if the user plans to record live vocals/sample, or live instruments. In such a case, are you going to give proper mic advice? 48 volt phantom powered large diaphragm cardioid or stage condenser? Both? Ribbon mic?
User avatar
By Koekepan Wed Jun 23, 2021 1:33 am
I'm open to anyone's suggestions for improvements.

The SATA SSD standard on the other hand - I'd have to require that it have a high net throughput rate, not merely low latency, in case Akai comes through with disc streaming. Not all SSDs are really up to the job.

Agreed on not using internal storage.

SD cards are cheap, portable, USB adapters are cheap and most laptops will read them directly anyhow. They're just a great convenience for transporting rendered results. But USB sticks work too, sure.

Mic advice: I'd actually delegate that question, rather saying: the Force will handle XLR or 1/4 inch on its combi jacks, and give you phantom power if you need it. Mics are a huge, specialised field, so go elsewhere for that dissertation. I mean, you don't know if someone wants to use a contact mic for sampling all sorts of weirdness, or just a big ol' diaphragm for those warm, lush vocals.
User avatar
By EnochLight Wed Jun 23, 2021 2:39 pm
Koekepan wrote:The SATA SSD standard on the other hand - I'd have to require that it have a high net throughput rate, not merely low latency, in case Akai comes through with disc streaming. Not all SSDs are really up to the job.


I would submit that even the slowest, poorly performing SSD currently will easily be able to handle disc-streaming, should it ever appear. We've been doing multi-track disc streaming on archaic mechanical hard drives for over two decades. ;) People seem to forget that.

Agreed on not using internal storage.


:nod: Yeah, this seems to be a common "noob" mistake. Any chance to point out that it shouldn't be used at all is a good thing.

SD cards are cheap, portable, USB adapters are cheap and most laptops will read them directly anyhow. They're just a great convenience for transporting rendered results. But USB sticks work too, sure.


Yeah, I'm not saying SD Cards are bad by any stretch - plenty of people use them. I'm just saying USB sticks are far more common, and almost every computer on the planet has USB ports. Built-in SD Card readers are far more rare (not everyone uses a laptop, and I would argue most "pro" users tend to lean towards a studio workstation tower versus a laptop anyway). Regardless of what angle you take, I would absolutely point out that users need to software "eject" their removable storage before pulling it out of the Force, and software/OS "eject" the Force when using it in Computer Mode before switching back to standalone, or the user will eventually corrupt their storage. This is also a common "noob" mistake that users end up paying for later with lost data.

Mic advice: I'd actually delegate that question, rather saying: the Force will handle XLR or 1/4 inch on its combi jacks, and give you phantom power if you need it. Mics are a huge, specialised field, so go elsewhere for that dissertation. I mean, you don't know if someone wants to use a contact mic for sampling all sorts of weirdness, or just a big ol' diaphragm for those warm, lush vocals.


100% agree.
User avatar
By Koekepan Thu Jun 24, 2021 3:11 pm
If you're talking about one stream, then most current SSDs should be able to handle that with low latency and adequate throughput.

If you start talking multiple high quality audio streams, some cheap SSDs aren't up to the job while even a 5400rpm laptop SATA drive will keep up. Also, owing to the way that SSDs handle bad blocks, their performance can significantly degrade over time. If we want this stuff in a new Force user's guide, we should establish some baseline performance metric that a purchaser could use. I grant you, the performance of SSDs has significantly improved in the last decade as more manufacturers got the memo about sustained activity performance but especially write performance is not great.

As far as SDcards are concerned, one argument in their favour is that more other pieces of music gear use SDcards than are USB hosts. For example, just looking around my own studio I have two keyboard workstations and a multitrack recorder that all take SDcards but none of which is a USB host, so for a hardware studio it could actually be the natural choice.
User avatar
By EnochLight Fri Jun 25, 2021 1:53 pm
It's cool - you do you. Any sort of guide at this point would be nice - lots of noobs that have never even seen a sampler IRL these days. A Force guide will definitely be handy.
By J-Fly Fri Jun 25, 2021 6:12 pm
What's next is: leave this website because you will not get help here due to the interest and support being low. I'm just being honest. Akai even gave up on their Force Academy YouTube videos so imo they no longer care about the device from a marketing perspective. I'm a beta tester so I can confirm more great features are coming. I would suggest the following in this order:

1. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... 8DMcaoE_Ek
2. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxYc0t ... TO8OO0KHAA
3. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... V13uOPb0ut

General discussion and tips:
https://gearspace.com/board/electronic- ... force.html

Have fun!
User avatar
By EnochLight Fri Jun 25, 2021 7:28 pm
J-Fly wrote:Akai even gave up on their Force Academy YouTube videos


To be fair, Akai also "gave up" on their MPC Academy YouTube videos... but that's because we don't see any new ones unless a new update comes out, which - as you know - takes time. ;) When 3.0.6 dropped, there was new Force content added by Akai showcasing Drum Synth, and when Arranger appeared in 3.0.5, there was a lot of Force content added. I can guarantee you when a new (big) update drops, you'll likely have plenty of content added by Akai as well. :)
User avatar
By Koekepan Fri Jun 25, 2021 7:36 pm
J-Fly: you do realise this isn't the official Akai forum right? Leaving this website isn't even a thing that Akai Professional will see unless they come poking around, and I doubt that they will. I'll stick around here. Sure, the beer isn't the best and the pool table has seen better days, but I kind of like the atmosphere - and the more crazy people like me stick around, the better the mutual assistance will be.

In particular, I think that it's a way better experience than anything you're likely to see on the-site-that-used-to-be-gearslutz, because of their legendarily bad attitude.

As for the next firmware drop, I'm looking forward to it, and I wouldn't be at all surprised if we see a Force revised review from guys like Sonicstate, because it is a very different beast from what it was at original release.
User avatar
By EnochLight Fri Jun 25, 2021 7:53 pm
Koekepan wrote:I wouldn't be at all surprised if we see a Force revised review from guys like Sonicstate, because it is a very different beast from what it was at original release.


I really wish Loopop would re-visit Force and do an updated review. He only featured it once when it launched at NAMM 2019, and it was in a hotel or someplace with Pete Goodliffe (Akai Director of Software Development) comparing it to Ableton Push 2 - barely.

Force isn't even recognizable since those times, and it really deserves a second look IMHO.
By J-Fly Fri Jun 25, 2021 9:48 pm
Koekepan wrote:J-Fly: you do realise this isn't the official Akai forum right? Leaving this website isn't even a thing that Akai Professional will see unless they come poking around, and I doubt that they will. I'll stick around here. Sure, the beer isn't the best and the pool table has seen better days, but I kind of like the atmosphere - and the more crazy people like me stick around, the better the mutual assistance will be.

In particular, I think that it's a way better experience than anything you're likely to see on the-site-that-used-to-be-gearslutz, because of their legendarily bad attitude.

As for the next firmware drop, I'm looking forward to it, and I wouldn't be at all surprised if we see a Force revised review from guys like Sonicstate, because it is a very different beast from what it was at original release.

If I'm a beta tester then obviously I know this isn't an Akai forum because the beta testing is done on the Akai forum. I'm just being honest with a newcomer. I admit I haven't visited the site in awhile but even a few months ago it was hella dead. Some visitors would post a question and got either no replies or a reply weeks later. There's just not enough activity (or maybe people are busy making music) and to be honest I think people started leaving the site when the mpc tutor guy decided not to make a Force bible and stated that he doesn't use the device. I know that's around the time when I stopped visiting regularly because I was desperately wanting that bible and checking the website for an official announcement which never happened. Gearspace does occasionally have some bozos but one was banned recently. I assumed that there would be updated reviews of the Force after the arranger was finally added but we haven't seen anything. I think it's because although there are a dedicated group of us who stuck it out and patiently waited for the updates, others including reviewers gave up on the Force and I can understand why with most of the main promised features coming about 15 months after the release. I love it and will definitely buy a version 2 if that happens.
User avatar
By Koekepan Fri Jun 25, 2021 10:20 pm
Well, that is cool, so let me ask you this: what would you add to the hypothetical newbie guide to the Force?

Personally, I live in hope that the Force will accept USB audio streams, because then I could directly use a USB-enabled mixer on it. Or some synths that will give you USB audio.
User avatar
By Koekepan Fri Jun 25, 2021 10:35 pm
I just realised: a Force Bible sounds like a book for jedi knights.

I'm going to jedi hell for this, aren't I?