Akai Force Forum: Everything relating to the Akai Force, the iconic 64 pad, clip-based standalone sampler/groovebox from Akai.
By Timo Fri Nov 10, 2023 12:23 am
64hz wrote:You shouldn’t save on the internal this causes many problems…


I wasn't. I was storing my projects on a SSD that I had added.

I only tried the internal storage option out of desperation when the thing kept crashing. Didn't help one way or another.
By Timo Fri Nov 10, 2023 3:30 pm
HouseWithoutMouse wrote:If it's a project you just load and play, and eventually the Force crashes, then Akai should be interested in having the project. If they were interested.


Agreed. I did open a support case with them, so they're definitely aware of this.
By Stevejaz Sat Nov 11, 2023 11:26 am
For what it's worth, as a total beginner on Force, but with a bit of experience with this sort of thing, 2 days into owning a Force and with nothing but 2 audio tracks up, I had a crash today. Lost everything of course but then I'm just learning to use it. Did reinforce regular saving for me though. Not too much of a problem atm but it would be if playing live. This is a brand new machine with a 32 gig memory card and 2 audio tracks with a couple of effects on each. Sounds like software issue to me.
Is the MPC more stable when used Live?
Can't recall ever having my Live2 crash.
By Timo Sat Nov 11, 2023 4:56 pm
Yeah, like I said earlier in the thread, it's not just me who's experiencing these random crashes.

What blows my mind is the apathy I'm experiencing from Akai on this. I haven't gotten any reply from their Support after my latest email to them, and they do not seem to be monitoring this forum (which is a goldmine of customer feedback).

Anyway, I've switched to a solution that's rock solid, and will be taking that on stage tonight for a big show!
By Timo Sat Nov 11, 2023 5:33 pm
HouseWithoutMouse wrote:Their support was very successful, they managed to make you buy a second unit!


Ha, right :)

That second unit was promptly returned yesterday after it was just as crashy as the first one.

Being the eternal optimist, I'm keeping my first unit, with the hope that somehow, someday, they'll fix those crashes. Until then, the Force will be gathering dust in the storage room of my studio.
By B-Wise Sat Nov 11, 2023 6:25 pm
My most used Force button combo is Shift+Save - after I made any long samples stream from disk.

The makers of the Mockba Mod OS (an Force OS made by some super needs which all kind of features the official Akai OS don't have. I've never used it) talked some of these crashes being caused by the internal SD (not SSD) & the many Force users could benefit from re-flashing the card with this special file they've made that's separate from the hacked OS file, even if they don't install the hacked OS.

Sorry but I can't remember all the details but go to their Discord site for more info or just to ask for help for this problem there. I think they know the Force better than Akai :lol: & their support is way better from reading how responsive they are.
By Timo Sat Nov 11, 2023 6:46 pm
Oh, thank you, I wasn't aware of this!

While I'm happy to ask in their Discord for help/insight, I'm not going to void the warranty of my Force, as bad as my Akai Support experience has been.

Akai should just open-source their firmware. Clearly there's a community of capable coders out there that have the passion to do this work, and Akai could just QA and certify certain firmware drops as officially supported by them.
By Stevejaz Sat Nov 11, 2023 7:04 pm
HouseWithoutMouse wrote:Their support was very successful, they managed to make you buy a second unit!

LOL
Kind of reminds me of my experience with Ableton Live9
Only reason I upgraded from 8 was to buy Push. This was about the time Bitwig was introduced and people were deserting Live in droves. I ended up using Studio One for the last 10 years being more instrument and less electronic based.
Interesting thing is, 10 years later and with potential 'Live' integration, I opened up "Live9' for the first time in years and yep, just a crash fest. Tried the demo of 11 suite and it 's rock solid. Installed Live Lite11 but yet to use it. All this on a nearly 11 year old MBP.
Maybe Ableton learned something about reliable software and customer loyalty and maybe Akai could learn something from Ableton.
The good news is that all this is fixable, assuming that it is a software issue rather than a hardware issue, and Ableton seem to have won back customer trust.
By HouseWithoutMouse Sat Nov 11, 2023 9:20 pm
That's strange. I upgraded from Ableton Live 8 to 9 pretty much immediately when it came out, it has been completely awesome, I know it so well. Been using it on Mac and Windows, currently running 9.7 in Linux with Wine. I haven't been able to get latency as low as in Windows or Mac, but it's OK for electronic stuff. I've been thinking about getting native Bitwig for Linux, but it's still missing a pitch correction plugin. When that happens I'll buy.
By B-Wise Sun Nov 12, 2023 4:26 am
Timo wrote:Oh, thank you, I wasn't aware of this!

While I'm happy to ask in their Discord for help/insight, I'm not going to void the warranty of my Force, as bad as my Akai Support experience has been.

Akai should just open-source their firmware. Clearly there's a community of capable coders out there that have the passion to do this work, and Akai could just QA and certify certain firmware drops as officially supported by them.

They can't tell if you used the other OS.....unless maybe if it crashes & brick your unit, but l haven't heard that happen - yet. They even have a Facebook group for with even more info I heard. I don't use Facebook, but I might just for that info if I'd ever use their OS.
By Stevejaz Sun Nov 12, 2023 9:53 am
HouseWithoutMouse wrote:That's strange. I upgraded from Ableton Live 8 to 9 pretty much immediately when it came out, it has been completely awesome, I know it so well. Been using it on Mac and Windows, currently running 9.7 in Linux with Wine. I haven't been able to get latency as low as in Windows or Mac, but it's OK for electronic stuff. I've been thinking about getting native Bitwig for Linux, but it's still missing a pitch correction plugin. When that happens I'll buy.

I started using 'Live' nearly 20 years ago @ version 3. Was very happy with 8 and the only reason I upgraded to 9 was to use 'Push' which I bought the moment it became available. Along with a new MBP. I mostly record guitar etc, so it may be something to do with that. I remember at the time there was a huge outcry about crashing and 'Bitwig' did well out of it. I had to replace the motherboard 4 years ago and nothing changed so it wasn't that, or the particular download/installation. Also I can't believe just how stable Live11 Suite is on an 11 year old MBP. The same version 9 lasts 10 mins on a good day.
That seems to be the way of it with software issues though. They affect some people and not others.