I’m just waiting for more financial stability before jumping on the Force bandwagon…
In the meantime, a couple of questions:
The force does not have MPC project structure. No sequences / songs, only tracks and clips (song mode is coming in an update later). So if you’re talking about having made a “mess” in MPC by reordering tracks or whatever inconsistency between different seqs, the same cannot happen on the force. Dunno how to move / reorder tracks though
sends are down to per pad as on the MPC. Returns, there are only 4 of them like on the MPC.
The mixer is pretty much the same as on MPC, except that audio tracks are shown alongside all the other tracks
Thanks for the answers!
Do you think that the octatrack is obsolete with respect to the akai force? or Is there still something the OT can do that the Force does not do?
Yes, scenes, i.e. mangeling your tracks with FX (and x-fade seamlessly between different settings over all channels.) NI Maschine can do that also - i belive the Force will support it maybe in future updates. Depends how maxed out the device is already. Also OT can stream from disc, which is also planned, but not there yet.
OT is very mature, and has sequencer probability trigs, which i really like. I will never sell it - but if i didnt have it already, choice would be hard. Sometimes the overview on the Octatrack sucks, because its harder to read what is actually going on right now.
Force has 2nd stereo out, maybe resampling it with OT, then feeding it again to the Force for recording - why not.
Im also interested in this… cant decide between OT and Force. I already have Mnm and MDuw, if that matters
It’s big! about the size of an XDJ/CDJ 1000. Longer than a push but narrower and taller. Quite heavy - I think the manual says 9lbs so that’ll really add up if you’re toting it around with other gear.
The touchscreen feels great and it seems like you kinda have to use a combo of it and the buttons. Not sure how you get by without both.
Got it hooked up to Ableton Link over WiFi without a hitch. Pretty dang intuitive machine so far and they give you a lot to work with to start making music immediately.
Certainly needs some OS love as tsutek pointed out. Not quite as seemless as i’d hoped in going from sequencing to recording to editing.
I think spending the time to setup templates would really, really be worth it
This is the first Akai box i’ve ever used and coming from Push and Maschine, it feels very good. Still using Push one with those super hard pads so the ones on the Force feel very nice
While I certainly get the appeal of Force or (maybe more so) MPC X, the OT is so far from obsolete, it’s silly
OT does what it does and the Force does A LOT
Nothing does sampling and sequencing the way the OT does and while it’s a super deep machine it feels more focused, to me than the Force. Force wants to be everything at once so you would have to navigate around the extra features if you wanted to use it like an OT. Both boxes are turning out, for me, to require a fair amount of work put into them in regards to setting up projects and templates to be used regularly and efficiently with the rest of my studio. I had an OT for awhile and sold it, now I have the Force - I thought it would be a straight up replacement but it’s not it’s something very different with some overlapping features. Now I kinda miss the octatrack and all its charm - easy to get unexpected results and and samples/mangles in a unique way. The Force is like using a DAW with your hands.
Anyways, that’s my 2 cents…
Well said. I just got the force in and am starting to use the octatrack too. Your thoughts are mirroring what I’m feeling so far…
Good to Know. I am delighted with the OT and that creative potential it brings.
yes, you hit the nail on the head with “going from sequencing to recording to editing”. It doesnt feel super effortless. But perhaps thats also partially a muscle memory thing at this point.
By the way, is it just me, or does the track volume always reset itself when loading a drum kit? Highly annoying if so
hmmm I haven’t paid enough attention too notice that yet - will investigate
Also hoping the effort in workflow is just a muscle memory thing I need to work out. Hopefully there will be some updates to help with this as well. Shouldn’t have to remember a bunch of button combos to do things like that on a “performance box”
Anyone try out the Auto-Sample feature yet? It is pretty amazing. Switched On, my local synth shop, gave me a demo auto-sampling the Moog Sirin - with a press of a button we got a virtual polyphonic Moog! Looking forward to doing this with some of my favorite Digitone patches
Can you set envelopes or at least fades (non destructively) on a per clip basis (audio of course not on drum programs)?
audio track regions can use fade in and out with a max lenght value of 99999
Sorry dunno if that is msec or what unit. But long enough for many cases.
I’m starting to get more comfortable with this thing. I have a feeling that writing on this thing will become a breeze once my muscle memory develops enough.
I still miss some MPC staple features like easy drum & keygroup switching and assignment, but perhaps this will be enhanced in future firmware versions. I find it quite bizarre that the only way to change track content is via the load menu… am I missing something?
The force needs a decksaver though! Hopefully one will be available soon.
so what do you guys think about using the force as a mostly hardware midi controller for doing techno live sets? i am guessing its pretty much mpc live in what it can do?
the force cannot be used as a midi controller yet, not natively anyway. Ableton native support is coming in the next few months.
But as a standalone instrument, it has pretty much the same limitations as the standalone MPCs. So plenty of tracks and boatload of fx can be ran simultaneously. Certainly enough for getting just about any techno stuff done. Big, multi-hour sets might be reaching the limit, but anything less than that should certainly be possible.
Now having said that, its still early days with the force development. I’d wait a few firmware updates before gigging with it, because bugs are still popping up here and there, even crash-level bugs have been reported by other users.
It’s funny how people slag Akai with new products. I remember running the mpc 1000 on OS 1.65 and the timing was noticeably horrible. It was a barebones OS without time stretch and chopping. I made due and made tunes all day with it. So hopefully you tough it out and keep making heat with the force too.
Im just trying to give an objective statement about the current status of the device. Its not exactly an impulse buy purchase, so I want to make sure people know what time it is.
I have been making some sketches with it so far, and I am really starting to enjoy the slick workflow… but running into bugs that stop you in your tracks kinda make it hard to keep going and send me right back to my MPC live or the elektrons.
I am personally going to just stick with it, but cannot recommend others do the same just yet, unless they love betatesting instead of actually making music. its not like we do not have alternatives at the moment.