Pad aftertouch not working?

Hello,

Is anyone else having this problem?

In the prefs menu, I've got aftertouch showing in the pad response meter. I also have "record pad aftertouch events" checked in sequencer settings. Now I'm playing through a plug-in track and I have aftertouch assigned to pitch and I get nothing from the pads? I feel like every week I find out something doesn't work on this thing...

Anyone have advice?

Having the same issue. Aftertouch from the Force pads does not seem to work with the Hype and Tubesynth Aftertouch settings. Is this a known issue?

I will test whether aftertouch is being sent and received from the Force later. The playable pads is one of the big appeals of the Force. Aftertouch should work with internal sounds (and ideally have many more routing options).

Hello everyone,

Did this ever get fixed? I cannot seem to get aftertouch to work on my Force on plugins (such as Fabric and Hype) with the built-in pads. The settings 'aftertouch levels meter' is rather hard to control but the bar meter is registering changes when I adjust pressure on the pads. I'm on firmware 3.3 with Mockbamod.

When I connect an external Midi controller with aftertouch, it is working, and shows as 'channel pressure' but the pads on the Force don't provide aftertouch when playing.

Are you talking about aftertouch or channel pressure? These are often confused. Officially, theoretically, according to the MIDI specification, aftertouch is per MIDI note or keyboard key i.e. "polyphonic", and channel pressure is per MIDI channel, common for all notes like modulation CC or pitch bend. Very few keyboards and controllers send actual polyphonic aftertouch. Akai Force is able to generate poly aftertouch, so that each pad sends its own independent aftertouch, if you activate "Pads Generate Aftertouch". Nice, rare, expensive premium feature! Unfortunately, pretty much nothing inside the Force responds to it. The only thing I've found in Force that responds to actual aftertouch i.e. poly aftertouch is the Odyssey plugin. Use the KYBD FILTER slider.

If someone has more accurate insights, by all means post. I want to believe in this discontinued product.

This Roger Linn demo he says he used Tubesynth because it responds to PAT:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EvjdRw-x0_s?t=471

HouseWithoutMouse wrote:Are you talking about aftertouch or channel pressure? These are often confused. Officially, theoretically, according to the MIDI specification, aftertouch is per MIDI note or keyboard key i.e. "polyphonic", and channel pressure is per MIDI channel, common for all notes like modulation CC or pitch bend. Very few keyboards and controllers send actual polyphonic aftertouch. Akai Force is able to generate poly aftertouch, so that each pad sends its own independent aftertouch, if you activate "Pads Generate Aftertouch". Nice, rare, expensive premium feature! Unfortunately, pretty much nothing inside the Force responds to it. The only thing I've found in Force that responds to actual aftertouch i.e. poly aftertouch is the Odyssey plugin. Use the KYBD FILTER slider.


If someone has more accurate insights, by all means post. I want to believe in this discontinued product.

I connected an Arturia Keystep 37 to the Force and ran various plugins with so called 'aftertouch' in the settings pages (I have no idea currently whether these plugins respond to channel or per note aftertouch), such as Hype and Fabric, well these do respond to the KS37's channel aftertouch. e.g. I can configure these synths to perform pitch vibrato by applying pressure to the keybed post key strike. I haven't tried hooking up a poly aftertouch keybed such as a ASM Hydrasynth to the Force yet. I notice in the Midi list of the Force that they are recorded as 'channel pressure.'

But I can't get these same plugins to respond to the aftertouch or channel pressure when pressing down on the Force's pads. That's what I'm wondering - has anyone had success with having their Force's internal pads control these features on their plugins?

And this being said, does the Force transmit the poly aftertouch out of the pads through the midi out(s) (physical 5pin DIN or otherwise) to either soft-synths or a Hydrasynth, etc...that respond to poly aftertouch?

B-Wise wrote:This Roger Linn demo he says he used Tubesynth because it responds to PAT:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EvjdRw-x0_s?t=471

So you'd think that Tubesynth on a Force (instead of the Live 2) would also respond to poly AT using the Force's own pads? But I'm hoping someone using a Force can confirm this.

Yes, Tubesynth is another thing that responds to aftertouch. And you can send poly aftertouch from the pads to external MIDI devices. I tested this with an external MIDI loopback routing, from a MIDI track to external MIDI output, cable back to external MIDI input, routed to Tubesynth. The events are also shown in the MIDI monitor.

HouseWithoutMouse wrote:Yes, Tubesynth is another thing that responds to aftertouch. And you can send poly aftertouch from the pads to external MIDI devices. I tested this with an external MIDI loopback routing, from a MIDI track to external MIDI output, cable back to external MIDI input, routed to Tubesynth. The events are also shown in the MIDI monitor.

OK, that's a workaround. So physically wire a cable out from the midi output of the Force (DIN-out) and then back into the DIN-in port of the Force?

The loopback was only for verifying that the events are actually being sent.

Keygroups seem to respond to aftertouch as well, KIND OF, but it's unusable because there's a dumb poly/mono conversion which causes aftertouch events from ALL notes to be sent to ALL sounding notes. Or something. That's not the only way keygroups i.e. sample programs are broken - the mod wheel CC to pitch modulation setting is always reset to not-working state when loading a project.

Hello,

I discovered your messages, and I have the same problem with the aftertouch, and what is very strange is that in the "preferences" tab "Hardvare", I perceive on the aftertouch signal monitor bar that my pads send the signal very very badly or sometimes not at all, it is very chaotic what happens in this visual feedback.

I also tested playing the sounds of my Polybrute 12 by doing "Midi Dyn out Force" to "Midi Dyn IN Polybrute", which has presets programmed for "full touch" in order to test the quality of the aftertouch sent by the Force pads, and it works very strangely also like what I see on the screen of the "Preference/Hardware" page.

Sometimes even the aftertouch of the force stops working completely, I am forced to create a new track or open a new project for it to work and unfortunately always in a chaotic way. On your side, do you have any news about this problem? I wrote to AKAI a few days ago but still no answer.

I wanted to clarify that on my MPC Key 37, the pads themselves work perfectly well with the after touch both when I check it in the control monitor on the "Hardware" page in the "Preferences" and in the game.

So maybe AKAI will release an update for the Force to correct this in any case I hope so because it's really not cool for the moment to have a product that promises a function and that it does not work.

Musically,
Tsukaï

FWIW, I have the same problem right now, firmware 3.7, tried resetting preferences. Aftertouch from the pads only shows in the response setting meter in preferences, but it does not generate any events anywhere. Not hardware MIDI outputs, not plugins, not keygroups. Not shown in MIDI monitor or anything, aftertouch simply does not exist in any way, except in Preferences / Hardware / Padresponse / Aftertouch. Tried using Force pads, All MIDI inputs, as input, but nothing. Tried creating a new project etc. Nothing.

It’s really bizarre isn’t it? You’d think this is a relatively trivial issue to get working by a reputable, established company on a premium level product. It’s not a $100 midi controller, yeah?

Answering my own issue above. Press SHIFT + NOTE to enter NOTE CONFIG and

check [✓] Use Aftertouch.