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 John Doe Maar Tue Sep 20, 2022 10:54 am
Hi guys!

I saw some videos on Youtube where people just drop some audio loops into Force, and somehow it sounds very good when played at a different tempo.

I can not get good results...i can only use loops that are exactly the same tempo as the projects or the timestretch algorythms gives crackles, noise, etc

Also the onboard demo stuff can be used at different tempos, and still sound good.
With good i mean Cubase\Logic\DAW good, so no audible clicks and noises.

Is there a trick to this?
Is there a way to get loops (like a drum loop, kick loop, bassline loop etc) to sound good?

Ive tried the different algo's from the Akai Force but they all sound bad.
It would be a great option to just timestretch on the fly like 'tape' or 'vinyl' so the pitch would change, so at least drumloops would sound good...this would not be hard for the cpu too

Any advice please :)
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By SnowMetal Tue Sep 20, 2022 2:48 pm
The "just drop and go" is the warp engine, not the time stretch. Synth material sounds much better with this than drums, but is still unusable, in my opinion. If you saw someone load a loop and it sounded perfect, it was probably in the same tempo as the project and they had "auto warp" turned off in Preferences.

That said, if you know the original tempo of any loop, you can load it into the pool, then go to Menu > Sample Edit. In the bottom tabs, you'll find Process. In there, you can scroll to Time Stretch, enter start and target tempo, then press Do It! You'll get much better-sounding results, but the tempo of the loop will be permanently changed.

I hope this was useful.
By HouseWithoutMouse Tue Sep 20, 2022 3:09 pm
This is not what you mean, but the Force's arranger has a "Flatten Track Elastique" offline function, which uses a better algorithm. It's very slow, doesn't work in realtime, and doesn't exist outside the arranger.

From what I can see, the Force doesn't really have warping in the sense that the word is used elsewhere. The "warping" that the manual talks about, is more like a simple time-stretch. From what I can see, it doesn't try to find transient-based warp markers, it's just a time stretch.

For non-bad sounding tempo adjusting, use sample slicing. The MPC way. It works for some types of material.
By John Doe Maar Fri Sep 23, 2022 6:56 am
yes i use the slicing for drums for sure, and a lot of drum/key groups to keep everything tight, thanks for the tip

its just a lot of work to convert from my DAW, loops would be (a lot) easier

i dont think there is a way to set the warp to some kind of vinyl/tape mode, right?
that would solve a lot of glitch problems and cpu i guess

and yes, videos give more questions :)