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.
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By dnkygirl Sat Jul 23, 2022 4:37 pm
I totally agree in-house is catching the critical stuff but whoever is in charge is not very logical in his thinking about public acceptance and product reputation. These things affect the marketing of the product thus making sales low. If you don’t take pride in the things your are creating… and are only focused on getting products out to market at the cost of losing public reputation there is something wrong. The things you release should do what you say they do period. There should not be big gaping holes in what is working.
By HouseWithoutMouse Sat Jul 23, 2022 4:58 pm
What sort of gaping holes are we talking about specifically? Well, the USB audio interface support doesn't really work as advertised, because it doesn't work with almost anything. But it doesn't seem to matter to anyone. I bought a Force even though I knew it wasn't going to work with the multichannel audio interface I have.
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By dnkygirl Tue Jul 26, 2022 1:05 pm
I think I covered most of them in an earlier post. While they made major progress with this unit it still needs a lot of work software wise. I think the idea behind this posting thou is a wishlist of things we would like to see in the next hardware version.
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By Koekepan Tue Jul 26, 2022 2:49 pm
Yup, my idea was hardware. Live I and Live II run the same software, but the hardware makes the difference.

The whole idea of a tilting screen made me think about the possibility of a laptop-format, clamshell Force design. That would be pretty cool for gigging musicians.
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By EnochLight Wed Jul 27, 2022 2:21 pm
My wants:

  • 4 GB of RAM like the MPC Key 61
  • Faster SoC CPU, so we can have double the plugin instances. 8 is nice, but 16 would be ideal.
  • Double the audio tracks. Again, 8 (stereo) is nice, but having 16 stereo audio tracks able to stream from disk would be even better. Of course, this is assuming the SoC's SATA-USB bandwidth can keep up with it... :lol:
  • As for a battery, unless the entire Force is redesigned and scaled down to be the size of an MPC Live II or smaller, then I see zero need. It's currently just too large to be portable, IMHO.
  • Tilting screen like the X. Regardless if we got a new form factor or not, having a tilting screen would grossly improve the experience, IMHO.

Aside from those things, for me Force is near perfect just the way it is. Everything else can be addressed via software/firmware updates.
By J-Fly Thu Jul 28, 2022 11:26 pm
What if Akai approaches the Force as one and done? Then you'll be in possession of a unicorn :smoker:
By nori Wed Aug 10, 2022 4:29 pm
I would love to see a Force mk2 with tilted screen and reorganized buttons (I hate that the transport buttons are so far away!).

But mainly I am hoping for a Force mk2 mini with 4x8 grid matrix. Something like a novation circuit with 8 oled knobs + touchscreen bolted to the top. Battery powered would be awesome or even usb c but with PD so any powerbank can be used.

I really enjoying using my Force but wished I could easily take it with me on train commutes/travels.
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By dnkygirl Thu Sep 08, 2022 1:33 am
Off topic:
NearTao wrote:Then you just need to buy a second Force to double your memory :D


Then I will be on a new quest to find a sequence/sampler that will allow me to have sort of the same experience and sell my current one... especially if it EOL's that means no updates.

Honestly I am looking at the 1010music blackbox right now. I'm using it as a guitar looper. If they add export of stems then it would be more than capable of performing the way I need it to in place of the force.
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By 64hz Thu Sep 08, 2022 6:45 am
Why do you think it’s EOL? There’s a new beta update as we speak.
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By Koekepan Thu Sep 08, 2022 5:44 pm
I think that she was just saying if it goes EOL (or presumably when it does), rather than suggesting that it already is.

(I'm still hold out hope for USB mouse support.)
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By dnkygirl Fri Sep 09, 2022 2:33 pm
64hz wrote:Why do you think it’s EOL? There’s a new beta update as we speak.


I wasn't saying it was.. I am holding out for many updates to the current unit honestly. The more I use it the more features I find that are missing or things that were listed as being available I find that they are not functioning as expected. I am happy that Akai did do the updates necessary to bring the product up to the standard they had set for it. I hate the way they did it and don't like this culture of making us beta testers. I have never bought any other musical product that had so many issues like this machine. All my other gear works like the manual says... and I am able to do exactly what it says it can do. I am able to see the limitations if there are any and decide to look at other things. It's a love/hate relationship and I don't like loving something that frustrates me at the same time... it kills my creativity. When I sit down at the keyboard I just want to feel good about what I am doing and what I am making. I don't want to have frustrations about how I am making music because of the gear I am using to do it. Let's hope the next version released that they have learned from all of this and it's vetted 100% by real people doing all kinds of music. Now If we can get the same type of changes to the keyboard workstations who's makers have been creating things labelled as "workstations" to fix their sequencers, sampling, and disk recording. We will all have a lot more choices. Slapping a label on something and calling it a workstation without it being a real workstation should be a crime.
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By 64hz Fri Sep 09, 2022 3:40 pm
Ah I get ya now. Have to agree I never had as many crashes with any gear then my force. Out of nowhere it crashes. Last time it was just right after I saved and went back to main menu. :fku:
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By mrmarbury Tue Sep 20, 2022 9:39 am
As an MPC X user who really should have bought the Force when it still sucked and not went with the X I have the following wishes for a mk2:

    - except for the pads make all other buttons more plasticky for better feel
    - put transport control and arrow keys to the bottom left or right for more convenience
    - more q-links (like 2x8)
    - tillable 10" or even 11" screen (don't make it too big though this is not a laptop)
    - more ram/CPU for more audio tracks but at least 32 -> too fully mix in this thing it needs to be able to handle more audio tracks
    - memory options + HDD/SSD expansion slot -> 64 to 500GB selectable internal memory to store some sh*t. 4GB or whatever is so '00
    - more I/O (would be happy with what the MPC X provides) -> but also wouldn't say no to 2 - 4 more audio ins to route more external audio through it for processing/send-return usage
    - Make it an audio interface like the MPC Live/X
    - working USB-AudioIF support without crackles and pops
    - Maybe do a collab with Ableton again to make the Force a native controller for Ableton so we can have something like MPC/MPC SW but for Force and Ableton

This will all make prices go up but I would be willing to pay 2k for a device like this. Don't need el cheapo but a true workhorse.