I have an MPC-X which is amazing , I still have doubts that Force will dethrone the X 
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itās not intend toā¦ different workflow, different usage, different users 
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Ok, so I decided to become an early adopter of the force as wellā¦ Figured I can use my MPC live until the OS is mature enough, and anyways makes sense to have both new Akais. Iām selling off my touch though, no need for that anymore in my rigsā¦
I will be getting the force soon, will let you know how it goes, especially wrt MPC 2.4 vs Force standalone usage.
On another note, I hope that force + OT will be a better match than MPC + OTā¦ Weāll see!
Had to cancel my minilogue xd preorderā¦ I guess I can live without one for now, and anyways better to get into that one when its been out long enough for a bigger multi engine content selection to become available. (yeah right blahblah excuses LOL)
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Tsutek do let us know how those pads are for long finger drumming sessions. Cheers.
Me too, i will be getting the Force soon, had the MPC Live, sold it a while ago, had the machine studio as well long before that. Sold it. Kept the Push 2 though since i learned how to use abletons many moons a ago Ive never looked back. i donāt know what it is about being able to make beats other than your studio, but I like it. last bit of kit i got was the CME Air 25 Bluetooth midi keyboard and use it with my Ipad air 2 and beat maker 3, the beats are coming out alright and can easily bounce them down, I guess I need something new to get the creative spirit racing, but been wanting a standalone device for a hot min.
Thanks for this - been looking everywhere for it.
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Iām very interested in your thoughts on the new box. Iām curious how big the thing is and what the flow is like.
ok so first hour inā¦ need to RTFM up, some features refused to show themselvesā¦
the pads feel to small and the feel reminds me of rytm mk I pads when they were new
sounds the same as MPC live except for the new timestretch (not listened via usual monitors Yet som YMMv)
I think its goofy how next to the pads the track selectors are. Feels awkward and can mess up as pads is small
Sounds were different, lots of club muzik stuffā¦ some hiphop kits but didnt find acoustic kits yet
guitar sounded aight thruough the DI inputā¦ running fx on the guitar didnt introduce heavy latencY
audio clip recording is straightforward, but recording MIDI realtine felt weird (Iām used to adjusting the TC via NOTE REPEAT, SHIFT + TC feels unusual)
It has potential but needs more OS love
If MPC live gets multitimbral MIDI input, this is going to be a way to use a humongous MPC seq as āarrange modeā for MIDI targets. Would be a crutch to the initial lack of arrangement mode but at least something
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really looking forward your feedback on embedded Synth and Effects from AIR instruments
Well aside from hype they are the same as on MPC live 2.4. Decent enough placeholders and I actually like some of the leads. But Air fx are great and give protools stock plugin like sculpting (theoretical comp/eq per sample pad!), pretty good!
with the new clip recorder, you can easily resample all MIDI clips to audio via hardware synths. After resampling you can apply eq/comp/treatment some moreā¦ A lot can be done. Feel more DAWey than the MPC somehow
no motherducker on my unit so need to upgrade OS
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Yes but programming sounds in standalone : do the synth doing well enough ? Raw sound, Loud Bass, Dub Stabs, crazy modulated leads : this king things ?
The thing is interesting for the outside creative breathe
Wish elektron would give their sequencer a shot in the arm with (among other things) ability to switch pattern āper trackā. The clip launching aspect of force is pretty enticingā¦ footprint and price too big for me though. If it had a few more oddball bells and whistles to separate it from ableton Iād be down thoughā¦
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Theyāre starting to show up on the demo shelves of Guitar Center. Mine has one. Played around a bit. Itās not small, thatās for sure. My main impression is that the screen should be tilt-able. But at least it has little tiny tilted screens above the encoders to display value. Of course itās Guitar Center, so it wasnāt hooked up to a speaker to actually make it useful to demo. Maybe Iāll bring headphones next time.
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You can always ask for test headphones too.
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ah, too early to answer that in-depth. These synths are not super tweakery ones, you have the basic functions. Now of course with automating all the parameters and resampling, lot of possibilities exist to get creative, especially when combined with the new fx
I have a heavy confirmation bias to vst plugins not sounding as good as my elektron boxes etc so I need to test quite a bit before I can say much about the soundā¦
Granted, the force is not smallā¦ its about the size of a CDJ deck. But then again, its pretty much all you need for gigging with a vocalist, with minimal plugging and teardown/setup. Just add a MIDI keyboard or bigger pads if needed (Did I say how much I hate the pads? LOL)
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What kind of track count/polyphony can these hit? Like with a few onboard synths, drum tracks, timestreched loops etc and a bunch of fx on each? Is there a safe hard limit so itās always rock solid or do things start sketching out when you push it too hard?
128 drum/midi/keygroup/cv tracks
8 VI tracks
8 Audio tracks
Not sure how much total polyphony
There is no hard limitation aside from theseā¦ but most of the things seem to use only a moderate amount of CPU
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AKAI may be criticized, at least they propose things, so itās not super aesthetic but the latest machines proposed seem to me to correspond to a certain expectation of standalone device. Then with embedded synthesizers better effects they would seem to listen to users. Iām curious to see what other brands are going to launch.
I want so bad the FX2 and the full list of fx plan from the beginning on the Toraiz SP-16 
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Yes, will be interesting to see the market reacting to these new standalone units. Ableton and NI might get on board the standalone ābandwagonā if Akai causes a big enough disruption in the force (pun intended).