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 B-Wise Sat Feb 04, 2023 10:48 pm
fmq75 wrote:Patchnotes already available?

Force 3.2.2 Firmware Update

Stability and reliability
• Stability when using external audio interfaces via USB has been improved
• MPC projects will no longer fail to import

Known issues for this release
• We are aware of and investigating remaining audio stability issues when using certain third party audio interfaces with Force
• Adjusting arrange Loop Start/End can cause audio glitches or dropouts
• Using Scene Launch with MIDI clips can fail to play back correct note length

BTW it located in your AkaiPro/Inmusic account under the Force software downloads.
By B-Wise Sat Feb 04, 2023 11:02 pm
HouseWithoutMouse wrote:People are buying audio interfaces specifically for Akai devices, but without testing them thoroughly or at all. I did that too! I took an MPC One to a store and tested if it works with Focusrite Scarlett 18i20 3rd gen. Yeah, it seemed to work! So I bought the Focusrite. Bzzzzzt, mistake. There is a short dropout every 30-40 seconds, as if there was an audio clock synchronization problem. You probably won't notice it in a short test. No such dropouts with Windows or Mac. Focusrite support blamed Akai and Akai support blamed Focusrite. And they of course blamed me, the USB cable (try it with a ferrite bead!? that was one suggestion from support), and anything imaginable. When I mentioned that I had ALSO tested with the 18i20 synced to another device via coax SPDIF, then they suggested the problem was caused by a bad RCA cable. Anyway, problem solved, because something was answered to me. Hand waving and shrugs. A "list of working/non-working devices" thead on this forum, containing incredible amounts of bad, incorrect, imprecise, unreliable or outright false information from people who don't know what they're doing. The only useful result from that thread is, the Behringer UMC 1820 seems to work.

But the Focusrite 18i20... I wanted to test it with Linux as well. I installed Linux Mint 20, and the Scarlett seemed to be very problematic, even much worse than with Akai. I eventually got it working perfectly, but I had to build a new kernel from source, and when studying that stuff I realized that the kernel contains lots of device-specific "quirks" or whatever they're called. A lot of special case code is needed specifically for the Scarlett boxes, and even for each "gen" version... How can that be if they're class compliant?

It turns out that even though there is supposedly a "standard" and the devices supposedly comply with it, the truth is much more complicated. The devil is in the details. There are lots of very specific situations where the host and audio interface do something slightly incompatible, even though both might claim to be working according to the specification. So what happens in reality is that audio interface manufacturers test their devices with a set of host devices such as iPads and Macs, and tweak things until it works with those. And that's why they sometimes say seemingly absurd things like "Mac class compliant". It means it works without drivers with Macs. What comes to other hosts, nothing is promised. Doesn't work with Akai? That's your problem. Go fix that Akai then.

Akai didn't code all of their USB audio support from scratch themselves, they got it from the Linux kernel, and it is a big and evolving thing. There may be device-specific fixes available in newer kernels than whatever Akai is using. But Akai are going to actually fix it, they'll have to incorporate those fixes to their products and make it work one by one by testing and tweaking. They have to have skilled coders with good tools and testing facilities, and time and other resources allocated to it. Dedication from management. And they need to actually have all the audio interfaces they want to make their boxes work with! ALL of them really, because they can be slightly different, and the interface manufacturers probably only test with Macs and iPads. Or maybe Akai just take newer or different kernel versions, throw it in a software update and hope for the best?

The guy who writes the Focusrite Scarlett compatibility code for Linux, has most of the Scarlett boxes, some donated to him I guess.


Damn that's deep.
Hopefully now that InMusic is selling gear directly from it's site or whatever that email was talking about, they will make their own audio-interface built for the the Force/MPC's. All this playing Sherlock Holmes to find clues to what works ain't cool
By voonta Mon Feb 06, 2023 10:59 am
Surprise, surprise the latest release is broken again. Thanks Akai!
By B-Wise Mon Feb 06, 2023 6:23 pm
voonta wrote:Surprise, surprise the latest release is broken again. Thanks Akai!

What happen?
User avatar
By Koekepan Mon Feb 06, 2023 11:06 pm
Everything's always broken in the software world. The relevant question is whether you can work around the breakage.

So far, for me the answer is: yes. 3.2.2 brings a couple of quality-of-life features that I like, and it's pretty stable. I'm making music with it.
By mcv Thu Feb 09, 2023 2:45 pm
So I got my hands on UMC1820, and it indeed works with 3.2.2, but the freezing issue remains.

Just a note - I checked that - two UMC1820s can't be connected with ADAT or S/PDIF (but I heard it can be expanded with Behringer ADA8000 or ADA8200). So I have only 8 real inputs now.

Anyway, I'll keep my Studio Capture and fingers crossed that new kernel/update will fix it.
By mcv Sat Feb 11, 2023 9:27 am
Aaaand 3.2.3 came out and Roland Studio Capture works again!
By B-Wise Sat Feb 11, 2023 2:13 pm
mcv wrote:Aaaand 3.2.3 came out and Roland Studio Capture works again!

Just for you, so I hope you feel special :-D
By mcv Sun Feb 12, 2023 10:23 am
B-Wise wrote:Just for you, so I hope you feel special :-D

❤️
By Ramon88 Wed Feb 15, 2023 11:45 am
Hi all,

Since updating to 3.2.2 audio from certain tracks is missing from Arrangement when rendered to Wav. Audio box is there in Arrangement but contains no audio even though I jammed it out from the clip view into Arrangement. Checked mixer IO and everything is on auto so no issues there. Anybody else have this problem or a possible fix? No issues on previous firmware version .
By mario-g Thu Feb 16, 2023 1:52 pm
Koekepan wrote:Everything's always broken in the software world. The relevant question is whether you can work around the breakage.

So far, for me the answer is: yes. 3.2.2 brings a couple of quality-of-life features that I like, and it's pretty stable. I'm making music with it.


Hang on. This is not software, it's software plus hardware. They have control on what's going on from start to finish. They just released a buggy product.
User avatar
By EnochLight Thu Feb 16, 2023 8:47 pm
Ramon88 wrote:Hi all,

Since updating to 3.2.2....


Update to 3.2.3, as that's the latest version with bug fixes...
By HouseWithoutMouse Thu Feb 16, 2023 9:27 pm
3.2.3 seemed to fix even my Focusrite Scarlett audio dropout problem. It would be really interesting to hear what they actually did, what code from where - was that just the regular stuff available in newer Linux kernels or what.
User avatar
By EnochLight Fri Feb 17, 2023 7:16 pm
HouseWithoutMouse wrote:3.2.3 seemed to fix even my Focusrite Scarlett audio dropout problem. It would be really interesting to hear what they actually did, what code from where - was that just the regular stuff available in newer Linux kernels or what.


I'd wager it was more than just a simple fix, taking into consideration my Roland MX-1 now works as an audio interface as of 3.2.3, and works really REALLY well. :worthy: