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 Timo Sat Jul 30, 2022 6:17 pm
Hi, I have two questions about my Akai Force:

(1) When I put the Force into Computer Mode, I can "see" the SD card drive of the Force in my Windows computer, but not the SSD drive that I have installed in my Force (which works just fine within the Force). How can I make that SSD drive accessible on my PC via USB when the Force is in Computer Mode?

(2) I have many projects that are just a collection long WAV files in Arranger Mode in the Force, and that I have transferred from my PC. I play them back on the Force using Disk Streaming (great feature by the way!). I often update those WAV files on the PC, but I can't figure out how to replace those files in the Force Arranger view, short of just creating a new project with those WAV files (which is very labor intensive). Is there a way to just update those WAV files, so that next time I load a project in the Force that uses them, the Force will just stream those updated WAV files?

Thanks,
Timo.
By HouseWithoutMouse Sat Jul 30, 2022 9:59 pm
I'm on Mac, and I can see both the SSD and the SD memory card just fine in computer mode. What format do you use on the SSD? I'm just thinking, could it be possible that the SSD is in a format that the Force understands, but Windows doesn't. I have the SSD in ExFAT format. Could it be possible that you've confused the SSD with the 16 GB "Internal" drive?

When you have the first problem solved and your PC can see the SSD, you can simply replace the WAV file by overwriting it in computer mode, and the next time you load the project in the Force, the contents are different. I tested it and it seems to work. If you've saved it on the SSD and not in the Internal drive where you should never save anything, the wave file is on the Force's SSD, in the project's ProjectData folder. For example if your project is hitsong.xpj, there's a corresponding data folder "hitsong_[ProjectData]", where you'll find your .WAV file.
By Timo Sun Jul 31, 2022 1:07 am
Thanks! I formatted the SSD with ExFAT, and Windows should be able to read ExFAT (I know it's a supported file system for Windows, and even if Windows didn't understand ExFAT, it should still show me the drive with an "unknown format" message). And no, it's not a mixup with the "internal" drive - I can't see either in Windows, and I'm not using the internal drive for anything (as most people on this forum are rightfully suggesting). I opened a Support ticket with Akai, hopefully they can solve the mystery of the missing drive in Windows.

And yes, I was thinking the same thing: Once I can see the SSD in Windows, I would just replace the WAV files, so it's reassuring to hear from you that that's what should work!
By Hoekschop Sun Jul 31, 2022 4:43 pm
Strange, Akai recommends using exFAT in the manual "as it is the most robust one supported by both Windows and macOS."

I just checked and my SSD is also formatted in exFAT. Never had a problem with accessing the files when in Computer Mode. Have you tried another computer?

Hope Akai Support can solve this one for you.
By Timo Thu Aug 04, 2022 4:12 pm
Thanks for all the advice, I will indeed check in disk manager to see if this ExFAT recognition issue in Windows is what I'm running into here. If that's the case, based on what I've read, it's subtle differences in the various ExFAT formatting algorithms that cause this. Does anybody have any advice on how to work around this, e.g. trying to do the ExFAT formatting from Windows after mounting the drive, will the Force still recognize that?

Or maybe picking a different file system (NTFS?) that both the Force and a Windows PC will recognize reliably (I don't care about Mac or Linux compatibility)? My preference would have been NTFS anyway, since it's a journaling file system and thus more resilient/robust than FAT-based file systems?
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By SnowMetal Fri Aug 05, 2022 8:23 pm
Timo wrote:My preference would have been NTFS anyway, since it's a journaling file system and thus more resilient/robust than FAT-based file systems?


Not to mention you'll be able to work with files larger than 4gb. I can walk you through the steps to convert it to NTFS without losing your data, but the drive needs a letter to work.
By Timo Fri Aug 05, 2022 11:34 pm
Really appreciate everybody's engagement and feedback!

@HouseWithoutMouse I meant compatibility with a Linux client device, I know that the Force is a Linux box inside :)

@HouseWithoutMouse The real world scenario is robustness when the Force crashes (which it has a habit of doing). From the Wikipedia entry on journaling file systems (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Journaling_file_system): "In the event of a system crash or power failure, such file systems can be brought back online more quickly with a lower likelihood of becoming corrupted"

@SnowMetal I'd love those instructions to convert it to NFTS without data loss!
By Timo Sat Aug 06, 2022 12:21 am
SnowMetal wrote:
Timo wrote:My preference would have been NTFS anyway, since it's a journaling file system and thus more resilient/robust than FAT-based file systems?


Not to mention you'll be able to work with files larger than 4gb. I can walk you through the steps to convert it to NTFS without losing your data, but the drive needs a letter to work.


I'd love those instructions to convert it to NFTS without data loss!
By Timo Sat Aug 06, 2022 12:21 am
HouseWithoutMouse wrote:What file size limit are you talking about? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ExFAT

In what sort of an actual real-world situation would journaling be needed with Akai Force?


The real world scenario is robustness when the Force crashes (which it has a habit of doing). From the Wikipedia entry on journaling file systems (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Journaling_file_system): "In the event of a system crash or power failure, such file systems can be brought back online more quickly with a lower likelihood of becoming corrupted"