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.
By djclintoris Fri Oct 29, 2021 3:51 am
Update 3.1.1 is rad. What features could be improved or added to the Akai Force? Any menu or button ideas?

1) Record to Clip: Show the track input levels around the Track Launch column or as a background to the whole column in Matrix. Levels are shown in the Sampler screen.

2) Master Volume: how am I not seeing this?
a. in the Matrix screen
b. in the Mixer screen


(Clip length and recording in next post...)
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By Koekepan Fri Oct 29, 2021 2:57 pm
Mouse support - especially because of the ergonomics related to the screen not rotating up the way that the screen on the X does.

Tempo automation - not critical, because one can just play more slowly or rapidly, but very useful for expressive music in the context of media composition. (Think: rubato)

Neither is critical, but they're both good quality-of-life improvements for working composer/producers.
By pitchblender Fri Oct 29, 2021 11:48 pm
Better MIDI control!

    System MIDI learn, for Force's own functions & controls, such as PLAY/STOP etc. MIDI Implementation Chart?
    MIDI-learned templates to be saved separately / exported so you don't have to program every project from scratch.
    MIDI LED feedback. I have several controllers with LED feedback built in but the Force does not offer that option. The controller LEDs remain unlit when pressed, which is confusing. The ability to send the same MIDI value back to the controller usually triggers the corresponding LED, sometimes with velocity value linked to colour.
    The option for external MIDI buttons to be used as SHIFT functions, so smaller controllers can have many more functions.
    Variable limits to the minimum/maximum values of MIDI learn parameters, like with macros.
    Options for jump/pickup modes when external pots & slider positions don't match their values on the Force, and there's a glitch or whatever as the value jumps to the detected value on the pot/slider as it is moved.
    MIDI-learned default templates without the full amount of tracks. For instance in a new project with 2 tracks, as soon as one more is added then the basics (volume, mute, solo..) would be mapped to the user-defined controller for track 3 & subsequent tracks.
    MIDI learn for MIDI track values, such as volume. I couldn't get this to work. May be me though...

Most of these ideas come from using Algoriddim DJay app. Their MIDI learn is the easiest and fastest I've used.

My main gripe is not being able to have default MIDI templates for external gear. I've had to set up Novation Launch Control XL sliders to the submixes, but we only get 8 of them. I want a custom default blank project ready to go with external MIDI already set up. All the past (and future!) projects need individual programming of the controllers and that's lots of wasted time...

Is that enough for now? :)
By pitchblender Tue Nov 02, 2021 1:01 am
There's no 'punch-in/out' on the Force!

In Arrangement View, when I try to re-record automation on one MIDI CC it flattens all of the other CCs to their next tweak value and overwrites the MIDI note data :x
Not sure if I'm missing something here as I want to overdub just one CC (or whatever combinations I choose to tweak) but in Automation Record mode for a single MIDI track it won't record anything with RECORD on *or* off until I arm the track, which is when it starts overwriting everything...

BTW there's punch-in/out on the Live/X so hopefully it's already in the pipeline.

Will start a separate thread in case it's just me re: automation-only recording...
By Pablo M. Tue Nov 02, 2021 5:52 pm
My list:

_Tempo automation
_Measures, not only 4/4, yes, i know i can change clip length, but any daw has different measures,even ipad cheap apps[/list]
_ROW LENGTH - Korg gadget has it very well implemented. after X loops, jump to the newxt row... this way you can focus in the sound and performance
_Midi learn mapping storage, for storing controls of different midi controllers
_Midi mapping for drums, and keygroup tracks, there is almost nothing to map.... random depth in drums, keygroup filter, envelopes and more are very interesting to be mapped in that tracks...

And for me: the most important one:
I am finishing my work template, very complete, for production, with midi mapping, fx, etc
But i have a very big problem. When i load a kit, or a keygroup, Force overrides my insert fx, and put it empty or another fx, and i loose also my midi mapping related to that insert fx, just for loading a different kit or keygroup....
This is very annoying.....

a suggestion for this could be a dialog that gives the chance for choosing 'Load track with Fx' or ?without fx' when loading
By darkinprg Tue Nov 02, 2021 8:58 pm
Hello all, thanks for the Force fueatures we have now!!!

But LFOs we need more destinations...
Like for sample amp/filter envelopes...
Great would be to have all the parameters.
So we can get more movement without a need to automate everything...

Or to have more Envelope followers in the makro section...
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MIDI CHANNELS need to have an option to OUTPUT to ALL
MIDI OUTPUT parameters to be accesible thru macro/crossfader/pad, so we could use only one midi track without need to acces I/O panel...
MIDI CLOCK needs latency compensation option...
By andreat668 Thu Nov 04, 2021 7:01 am
this machine for my needs is the best and most complete piece of music technology I ever owned, anyway i wish it had:
1 - more dedicated buttons, less shift+button
2 - eight outputs right from the bat, I now I can use a class compliant sound card but would be nice having them incorporated into the Force.
3 - software counterpart of Force os (like mpc os and mpc software)
4 - abit more developed Ableton Live support
By andreat668 Thu Nov 04, 2021 7:05 am
Also I would dump bassline synth for like a Model D clone and give hype more advance option and tweakbility.
Actually they should buy G force Minimonsta like they did with the arp2600 from wayoutware.
By misterflibble Sat Nov 20, 2021 4:39 pm
Glad to see this thread already running. I've had a MPC Live for two years, and just got my Force about two and a half weeks back. The 3.1 update piqued my interest. I have to say I am totally in love with the Force - the clip- and arrange-based workflow works so much better for me than MPC sequences.

I am 15 pages from the end of the manual and have been keeping a list of wishlist items together as I've used the device and things have occurred to me. I heard that Akai pays more attention to these forums than their own ticket queue, so I hope they see these. :)

1. Configure MUTE button behavior on a track so that it can either be audio mute or MIDI/event mute
I like the way that pad mute works on the MPC (I think in Track Mute?) by muting the midi notes and not the audio at the mixer, since this allows you to hear the tails of pads that were played before you muted, and prevents you from hearing the tails of pads that you are unmuting. It would be nice to be able to configure this option in the Force based on how you want MUTEs to behave.

2. Plugins and drum programs exist discretely from tracks, like on the MPC
I want to be able to have one plugin instance (since I get a max of eight on the device) and have multiple tracks drive the same program, just like I can do on the MPC. I can't see any reason why Force couldn't work this way too.

3. Apply localization to the created date in the file browser (uses EU-style mm/dd/yyyy currently)
This is a small one but would be nice to get US-based date formats from the browser. :)

4. Configurable option for PLAY button behavior in ARRANGE and CLIP
I don't understand why the PLAY button works like PLAY START on the MPC by default. I want it to work like PLAY on the MPC by default, where play happens from the playhead position and not from the beginning of the track. I'd then like to be able hit SHIFT+PLAY to play from the beginning of the track. I know people will have their own preference here so the behavior should be configurable in PREFERENCES.

5. Matrix and Arrange: ability to apply quantize to the "Back to Track/Back to Arrange" buttons
Right now, the return to the linear arrangement from a clip overdub happens as soon as you hit the "Back to Track" or "Back to Arrange" buttons. It would be nice if the behavior of these buttons was consistent with clips, where they can be quantized to kick in on-beat.

6. Matrix: ability to freeze the topmost scene row to the "Back to Track/Back to Arrange" row
When scrolling down through the scenes when navigating, I would like for the arrange launch pads to stay in the first row all the time.

7. Arrange: ability to apply all ARRANGE EDIT options (i.e. Insert Bars, Delete Bars, Transpose, etc.) to just one track by using the track header popup
There is no way that I can see to perform these operations on individual tracks, only on the arrangement as a whole.

8. Ability to move and reorder things
Akai seems to fall short on this all over the MPC and Force. I can insert and add and delete, but I can't move things around. To move tracks, I have to go through a copy/paste/clobber/delete dance instead of being given the option to insert or move a track when I drop a copy. There is no way I can see to specify a move operation for a range of notes on an arranged track, either: if I wanted to shorten a track, I would have to copy the notes I wanted to move, use the replace option for the target, and then go delete the excess notes at the end of the track.

9. Arrange: Reset Channel Strip for all track types, not just audio
Self-explanatory.

10. Clip Event Editor for audio: include all the audio processing functions from Sample Edit
It would be nice to be able to perform all the same kinds of operations on audio clips in the Clip Event Editor when working on an audio track, instead of having to go into sample edit and try to make the changes there. This is especially true since the Clip Event Editor has an easier workflow for dealing with audio on-beat than Sample Edit has.

11. Crossfade option for looped audio clips in the matrix, to avoid clicks and pops
When I record a MIDI clip for an external synth and get it how I want it, I will then record the audio from that synth to make an audio clip of what I recorded to MIDI. This allows me to fire off the audio clip when working on the Force after my external synth is turned off, or if I take my Force out of the studio to work with somewhere out of the house. However, when I bounce audio from the external synth to the audio clip, I like to capture the tail of the external synth's release / effects and so on, so that if I decide to play that recording as a one-shot I can hear the tail. The problem is with looping: if I loop that audio with the tail, then I get clipping artifacts at the end of the tail since the transition isn't smooth. If I could simply turn on a crossfade in the Clip editor to crossfade that audio at the end of the clip, there would be no clipping artifacts. I can work around this by cutting a clip-length sample out of the recording to match the length of a the loop, doing a crossfade in Sample Edit, setting up a drum program to fire off the crossfaded clip, but that's a lot of unnecessary work when a simply crossfade option within the Clip would achieve the same end result.

12. Set up project options so that all samples are streamed from a drive by default, instead of living in RAM
I would imagine everybody would want samples to stream from a drive by default to avoid hitting RAM limits.

13. Ability to use the COPY / EDIT / DELETE buttons to modify macros on the touch screen
Let me begin by saying that the macro capability in the Force is simply amazing. I totally love it. However, there is a small quality of life change that would improve it: right now, macros for the Q-Links can be copied, edited, and deleted by using the hardware buttons and tapping the knobs you want to modify. It would be really cool if you could use the same hardware buttons to specify the kind of change you want to make (copy a knob's macros, for example) but instead of hitting the hardware knob, be able to use the touch screen to specify the copy and paste targets. Likewise, if you could copy macro assignments from one control (say, a knob) and paste them into another kind of macro (say, a crossfader assignment) that would be awesome, instead of having to rebuild the macro from scratch.
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By Koekepan Sat Nov 20, 2021 5:02 pm
I'm pretty sure you can have your number 2 by just setting your plugin track to listen to a MIDI port, and then set up as many MIDI channels talking to that port as you like.
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By EnochLight Wed Dec 08, 2021 9:07 pm
I reaaaaaaaaaally want the ability to drag and drop/re-order effects on any of the effects chains. I also want to see the sample editor/program editor keep evolving and improving, as we are still missing key
features that were available on MPC's and Akai samplers from decades ago. Finally, I'd like to see some more time spent maturing the Arranger, especially seeing as how everyone is expecting it to show up on the MPC at some point. There are still things you can't do in Arranger that I'd love to have. *Bonus: I still want more standalone plugins, such as a dedicated FM synth, among other things.
By misterflibble Thu Dec 09, 2021 5:27 pm
EnochLight wrote:I reaaaaaaaaaally want the ability to drag and drop/re-order effects on any of the effects chains. I also want to see the sample editor/program editor keep evolving and improving, as we are still missing key
features that were available on MPC's and Akai samplers from decades ago. Finally, I'd like to see some more time spent maturing the Arranger, especially seeing as how everyone is expecting it to show up on the MPC at some point. There are still things you can't do in Arranger that I'd love to have. *Bonus: I still want more standalone plugins, such as a dedicated FM synth, among other things.


What sampler features are missing? All I’ve ever known is MPC Live so I’m curious.
By misterflibble Thu Dec 09, 2021 5:29 pm
Koekepan wrote:I'm pretty sure you can have your number 2 by just setting your plugin track to listen to a MIDI port, and then set up as many MIDI channels talking to that port as you like.


Thanks, I’ll try that out. It would still be nice IMO to treat the plug-ins like a virtual rack instead of marrying them to a track, since that’s a more accurate logical view of the device under the hood. But I could live with this as a workaround.