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 quiddam Wed Jun 22, 2022 8:46 am
Hi, I am new to the Force and I got it to replace my 1010 blackbox. The way I am using the blackbox now is basically a spinoff of the way Ansome is using it... I have a 4x4 grid in which in my first row I have 4 different sliced clips on the same choke group. Eg:

Kick 1
Kick 2
Kick 3
Kick 4

So when I play Kick 2 and Kick 1 is playing they basically swap.

From what I've seen Ansome uses different sounds on each clip of the same track. So by moving from Clip 1 to Clip 2, he is effectively doing a similar swap of Kick 1 to Kick 2.

Now I'm wondering:

1) in Akai Force terms, what sort of track type is best for this? A drum rack, an Audio track??
2) would I be able to have my sounds spliced this way (for more control)? or would I have to accept that if I have a 4 bar loop then it will always run the 4 bars thru?
3) are the clip changes quantized or can this be configured? So that it is possible to switch to the next clip 1 bar after clicking it instead of waiting the full 8 bar loop.
4)... any other considerations I haven't thought about?

Thanks a lot for your help.
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By Koekepan Wed Jun 22, 2022 1:53 pm
I don't think that you'll be able to exactly replicate what's going on there, but you should be able to get some things going.

In one drum track, you can set up mute groups. That gets you some of the way. I'm pretty sure that you can also mute individual drum sounds as a performance tool, I've just never wanted to do that.

A 4 bar loop can run 4 bars, but you can set quantisation on clip launch so that you can launch a different clip in the same track on the next bar regardless of where the currently running clip is.

Clip changes are generally quantised, but the bar quantisation is adjustable, so you can absolutely interrupt a running clip.

You may also want to fool around with what the fader can do for you in terms of layering tracks.
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By SnowMetal Fri Jun 24, 2022 7:18 am
There are two ways to go about this, actually.

First, in a drum track, you can set pads to however many Mute Groups (choke groups) you'd like in the Menu > Track Edit, Global settings. Then, you can split these samples (Kicks 1-4, in your example) across however many clips in the same track, and set your clips mode to Legato. Firing off these clips will cause the previous sample to cease, and the new sample to pick up right where the last one left off.

Secondly, you can put your samples and phrases into a Keygroup, where legato mode and Mute Groups are easily accessible, and make it happen from there. While this method seems more straightforward and practical, it requires you to have the Notes field open in that keygroup so you can do this triggering manually. It's kind of a hassle to not be in launch mode, in a performance situation.

I hope this helps. Hit me up if you need help.
By quiddam Fri Jun 24, 2022 7:41 am
SnowMetal wrote:There are two ways to go about this, actually.

First, in a drum track, you can set pads to however many Mute Groups (choke groups) you'd like in the Menu > Track Edit, Global settings. Then, you can split these samples (Kicks 1-4, in your example) across however many clips in the same track, and set your clips mode to Legato. Firing off these clips will cause the previous sample to cease, and the new sample to pick up right where the last one left off.

Secondly, you can put your samples and phrases into a Keygroup, where legato mode and Mute Groups are easily accessible, and make it happen from there. While this method seems more straightforward and practical, it requires you to have the Notes field open in that keygroup so you can do this triggering manually. It's kind of a hassle to not be in launch mode, in a performance situation.

I hope this helps. Hit me up if you need help.


Thanks a lot! I think I'm getting the hang of it. Something that is behaving a bit strangely is the Ableton project import. It seems like chokes aren't respected at all and I have to configure them on the Akai after importing. This is not such a big deal, but I do wonder what's a sane workflow? Say I have a master ableton project I want to keep in sync with the akai project. if I add any new sounds/clips in ableton and re-import Im gonna lose all the choke groups, changes from poly to mono on each sample, etc and have to re-apply them. Is there a way around this?
By quiddam Fri Jun 24, 2022 2:56 pm
also, is there a way to configure some samples in a drum rack to trigger only once and not loop?
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By Lampdog Fri Jun 24, 2022 3:54 pm
quiddam wrote:also, is there a way to configure some samples in a drum rack to trigger only once and not loop?



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