Beginner, confusion has set in...

If your home stereo has an AUX in/Line in link, it'll work fine with the correct cable.

The trap here is that most home stereos use speakers that aren't monitor speakers, and will tend to sharpen your highs and boost your lows, thereby making your final mix sound off. If you are doing this only for personal pleasure, who cares? However, if you're selling your music or streaming it online, I would recommend getting at least a decent set of monitors or monitoring headphones. You can get an entry level set of monitoring speakers pretty affordably, and while they'll make the cool kids sneer, they'll be a country mile better for the purpose than a stereo system.

On the other hand - use what you got if it revs your smile motor!

Thanks. I have a Pioneer Elite VSX-LX104 and going to be using 2x Polk Audio S60 speakers

I can use the Phono RCA Inputs correct?

Koekepan wrote:Figured I'd chime in.

You can absolutely do classical music on this, but the easiest way might be to just use a single scene with really long clips. Maybe a scene per movement in a multi-movement piece like a grand sonata or symphony.

[…]

As a prospective Force owner I am glad to read this, but I am also a bit confused as (based on other threads I read in this forum) it sounds like the Akai Force would quickly run out of memory if the above was attempted with even a few full-symphony length audio recorded instruments. I mean, with no audio streaming from disk capability (yet, anyway) and only about 1.1GB of memory (or about 20 to 60 minutes of audio) it sounds like memory would get depleted rather quickly unless everything was completely midi-based.

It would be great to hear that I am missing something, so please correct me if I am wrong.

I am still very interested in the Force, but just wondering if audio streaming is ever going to get implemented (to me, even if it was limited to requiring installing an SSD and only being able to stream to/from there… it would be great).

similar to the mpc live/x/one… I suspect you will run out of memory at about the 60 minute mark for total stereo sample time.

So you're saying that the project doesn't save to the added SSD while putting a piece together?

I'm assuming this is what the "streaming" jargon is all about...

NearTao wrote:similar to the mpc live/x/one… I suspect you will run out of memory at about the 60 minute mark for total stereo sample time.

60 minutes is actually not too bad… provided the undo issue does not quickly soak up memory due to retakes..which has been reported in some threads.

Certainly not enough for an AUDIO based symphony, unless of course Akai adds Disk-streaming in which case 60 mins per take is plenty for even an audio-based symphony (provided there is enough CPU power to handle a good number of audio tracks).

Of course multiple instruments (like the various instruments of a String Section) would require overdubbing so the entire strings section would be one audio file (aka. one audio file per orchestral section)… but you’d kinda want that anyway to limit tracks and to work out one section at a time… of course all this would require disk-streaming… which Force does not have (yet).

Summary TLDR;
In general, 60 minutes of stereo recording compares well with most other samplers that are limited by RAM… However nowadays more and more of them can do direct-to-disc writing and streaming, so I hope this comes out for the Force (soon) as it would definitely boost it’s usability, longevity and market appeal.

garikfox wrote:So you're saying that the project doesn't save to the added SSD while putting a piece together?

I'm assuming this is what the "streaming" jargon is all about...

Saving a project to the SSD is definitely supported as far as I have read.

Streaming is basically about NOT limiting the size or amount of AUDIO recordings (or samples in a project) to the size of the internal ram. With streaming the size and amount of AUDIO recordings would be limited ONLY by the size of disk storage (be it an SSD, SD card or flash drive). The Force has about 1.1GB of free RAM (or approx. 60 minutes of AUDIO sampling) so that can be a problem for recording long sessions live instruments… but with Streaming support you could have many GBs of AUDIO on even a cheap SD card… with an SSD your talking hundreds (or even thousands) of GB of AUDIO storage… so this would allow ENORMOUS lengths (or takes/tracks) of AUDIO recording since memory is not used as the AUDIO is “streamed” from the disk.

Usually with streaming the only RAM limitation is that any given AUDIO take might then be limited to the RAM size (but that’s not an issue since it is saved to disk and the next AUDIO can use the max available RAM again. The reason for this (minor) limitation is because writing is always slower than reading (which is blazingly fast). So recording is done to RAM temporarily to keep latency to a minimum and also to allow the easier application of effects. Then it is stored and read from disk thus freeing up all the RAM for other purposes.


Notice that I uppercased AUDIO everywhere, since disc streaming is not needed for MIDI info since midi data is tiny compared to AUDIO data and thus does not even remotely need to be streamed from disk


Everything in a project MIDI, AUDIO, etc, is stored on the disk with the project, but streaming means the AUDIO does not need to be loaded into RAM to be played…it can be streamed directly from disk during playback… thus making many audio tracks (or takes) available for simultaneous playback without impacting memory usage.

The Force dies not have this yet, but it is rumored to be coming (though no one knows for sure except Akai, and they are probably not going to comment until it is actually released).

Hopefully it is a priority since other devices, like the Octatrack, can already do this…and the Octatrack was released 10 years ago… which means there is absolutely no reason this should not be available with hardware that is only two years old). The Force REALLY needs streaming to be a serious player in this Ableton-in-a-box space that they are trying to create. Personally I think it should have been included at release 2 years ago, but now/soon is better than never.

I understand, thanks!

garikfox wrote:Hey guys, can the force be hooked up to my pioneer home stereo as Master Out?

Reason I'm asking is the manual says to use 1/4 to 1/4 TRS cable to monitor speakers, but mentions nothing about home stereos.

A home stereo input is a fundamentally outputting to a set of powered/amplified speakers (the home stereo is the amp).

Thanks! Well I FINALLY ordered my Force. After weeks of debating, studying, watching videos, reading, etc..

Here's what else I ordered to go along with my new Force


https://www.mpc-samples.com/product.php ... o-edition/ (my new orchestral instruments!)

https://www.mpc-samples.com/product.php ... expansion/ (my new piano!)

https://www.amazon.com/Sony-MDR7506-Pro ... B000AJIF4E (my new headphones)

https://www.amazon.com/SK-hynix-Gold-NA ... 07SNHB4RC/ (internal SSD)

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004NCYVY2/ (main output cable to my pioneer tuner)

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B009RUCWT6/ (stereo line in cable for my iPhone)

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07VM6HVDL/ (cover)

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4738392 (i'll be printing my own stand)

Thank's again guys!!

Congratulations!

One thing that you may also consider is if you later get something like (for example) an electric piano with MIDI capability, it might be a good way of entering MIDI data to the Force, as well as a good sound module in its own right.

garikfox wrote:Thanks! Well I FINALLY ordered my Force. After weeks of debating, studying, watching videos, reading, etc..

Here's what else I ordered to go along with my new Force


https://www.mpc-samples.com/product.php ... o-edition/ (my new orchestral instruments!)

https://www.mpc-samples.com/product.php ... expansion/ (my new piano!)

https://www.amazon.com/Sony-MDR7506-Pro ... B000AJIF4E (my new headphones)

https://www.amazon.com/SK-hynix-Gold-NA ... 07SNHB4RC/ (internal SSD)

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004NCYVY2/ (main output cable to my pioneer tuner)

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B009RUCWT6/ (stereo line in cable for my iPhone)

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07VM6HVDL/ (cover)

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4738392 (i'll be printing my own stand)

Thank's again guys!!

Nice; congrats! Definitely recommend a proper MIDI controller keyboard like a Nektar Impact GX61 or similar to go along with it. Makes playing piano much more natural, especially for orchestral work.

*EDIT: that Impact has synth action keys, so maybe look for one with semi-weighted or weighted if you’re looking for a proper piano feel.

Thanks guys!

I really wasn't going to get a real type keyboard because i can't play it. Should i still get a MIDI keyboard anyway?

Thanks,
-Garik

No I sure don't. I'll get one soon though. Thanks