Force with MPK mini plus full USB support

Hey Akai professionals and beats enjoyers !
very excited to tell ya smth
I have mpk mini plus and akai Force and finally, just now, after number of experimental attempts I married them!
Transport control (rec play stop), pads, knobs, all the stuff woks.
1) unplug your mpk mini plus from mpc/force usb
2) power on your device and load a project (better a new one)
3) then plug the keyboard into the usb port
4) press PLAY button on the keyboard as soon as it boots up!
5) if didnt work check midi settings and go steps 1-4 again.
Pref -> MIDI/sync -> all the modes on (global, control, track) near both mpk 1 and 2 midi inputs, sync, track near the first mpk midi output, recieve and send MIDI Clock, check send and recieve MMC. I also have FORCE virtual midi track and control enabled but no sync.

I also recommend you to create new program on the mini plus based on the MPC default program with the correct Pad note numbers and external tempo, then you can multiply it to cover more pad banks / midi chanels with this one keyboard.

P.S. for developers.
If you first press any other button than Play you will can get into some standard MPC screens like sequences and song mode.

P.P.S.
Happy to hear if anyone will have tested this on MPC X/One/Live with new v3 beta? I also responded to the similar topic in MPCs with the same but decided to create a new one with the manual separately at Force

Thanx for sharing, my LPK mini wireless worked right out of the box.

Even my Focusrite Scarlett 18i20 3rd gen audiointerface works with my force!

Hi, I used your technic in my Force, my MPC Xse (2.15) and my old Live (beta 3) It's don't work
Have you installed Mokba in your Force ?
If you can share your presets for the mpk mini plus, maybe it will work..
Thanks

insectula wrote:Hey Akai professionals and beats enjoyers !
very excited to tell ya smth
I have mpk mini plus and akai Force and finally, just now, after number of experimental attempts I married them!
Transport control (rec play stop), pads, knobs, all the stuff woks.
1) unplug your mpk mini plus from mpc/force usb
2) power on your device and load a project (better a new one)
3) then plug the keyboard into the usb port
4) press PLAY button on the keyboard as soon as it boots up!
5) if didnt work check midi settings and go steps 1-4 again.
Pref -> MIDI/sync -> all the modes on (global, control, track) near both mpk 1 and 2 midi inputs, sync, track near the first mpk midi output, recieve and send MIDI Clock, check send and recieve MMC. I also have FORCE virtual midi track and control enabled but no sync.

I also recommend you to create new program on the mini plus based on the MPC default program with the correct Pad note numbers and external tempo, then you can multiply it to cover more pad banks / midi chanels with this one keyboard.

P.S. for developers.
If you first press any other button than Play you will can get into some standard MPC screens like sequences and song mode.

P.P.S.
Happy to hear if anyone will have tested this on MPC X/One/Live with new v3 beta? I also responded to the similar topic in MPCs with the same but decided to create a new one with the manual separately at Force

Maldon wrote:Hi, I used your technic in my Force, my MPC Xse (2.15) and my old Live (beta 3) It's don't work
Have you installed Mokba in your Force ?
If you can share your presets for the mpk mini plus, maybe it will work..
Thanks

Nothing special installed, just Force, MPK in default mpc mode and an usb cable. I think its essential that you first press play button before anything else on the keyboard for to make transport control work.
And it may not work with projects where you already tried to connect the keyboard.

Is there something beyond what you can get with any controller that sends MIDI CC, clock and MMC?

I REALLY APPRECIATE you posting this but for some reason I can't get it to work. It's totally unresponsive and I rant through your steps 3 different times. Would you mind taking a look at my Force midi settings to see if this is exactly how you have it?

A few other questions, with the MPC PGM1, the knobs default to standard CC messages such as Filter (74 - already programmed to knob 4). Do these knobs work with the plugin instruments in the Force? For example, does the filter on lets say OPx4 all of a sudden work?

Do you have to do this funky 'press play as soon as it powers on' thing for every song or once you get it to work does it respond to new projects you create or old ones you load up?

Thanks in advance for being the pioneer with this. It boggles my mind that Akai hasn't made these things intuitive right out of the box.

These links are pics of my Force midi setup:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1D-3PE7Ymg9K0i6uKO5iGX36-twfcJqpx/view?usp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1UGEmXs8jkkk9kFjEWtoIeemWvAdiOXlx/view?usp=sharing

Sorry I ve been away for last months, here are my MIDI settings.
Again, I have MPC preset on keyboard, USB connection and I press the Rec button once the kb is connected.
I dont know I'ts really working unstable even now as I write the post. The more unstable the closer I am to this very place.

insectula wrote:and I press the Rec button once

Play button
Play button!

Also if something goes wrong changing usb port migt help. For me it does like 3 of 10 attempts and yet is very experimental, though once you get it - it will work until you disconnect a device.

Thanks so much for the follow up. I'll give it another shot. So funny (aka actually sad) that Akai doesn't make their equipment automatically and easily talk to each other.

I gave it a try because they say you can plug in any usb soundcard (I also tried with gaming usb mic with headphones out and it worked) and as I get it - Force is PlayStation in a DAW world, so its likely the computer with linux kernel. And in fact I posted here because I wish AKAI notice that occasionally it works fine and develop the bug fix.