#31

Thanks! I need a new controller for ableton and I was thinking it would be nice to also have something to play background tracks live.
I’ve used Ableton for a few years and my hope was for only a small adjustment in workflow.
:smiley_cat:

#32

I bit the bullet on one of these. Hopefully I’ll have some impressions to share once I’ve had some time with it.

I did have a question for anyone here who has one, as I can’t seem to confirm: Is there a way to “reamp” content from the unit through outboard gear? I want to be able to bounce stuff through my modular and record it back in real time, but it’s not super clear from my reading if that can be done.

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#33

I don’t have a force, but do have an MPC and can confirm that on MPC it’s straightforward. You make an audio track with inputs corresponding to your return audio inputs. You similarly route the audio you want to process to whatever outputs go to your processor (if you are processing the output of external devices controlled via midi or CV, you need to do this routing outside the box). You record arm your return track and master record, then when you hit play your audio to “reamp” will be output or otherwise triggered as the track plays and the input will be recorded to audio. I don’t know if this also applies to Force, but on MPC, audio tracks can only record 5 minutes in one take, so if what you want to process/rerecord is longer than that, you’ll have to do multiple takes with punch in (which worked reasonably well, assuming the result is consistent).

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#34

Thanks! I know the units are different, but they share enough under the hood that I imagine it should be quite similar. Glad to hear it should work. I’ve read that there isn’t currently a song mode, but there is a longer “arrange mode” in beta; I don’t know how/if that will change recording length. Will find out!

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#35

The arranger has been in beta forever. Akai are being very guarded about an eta for the update. I think a spanner was thrown in the works when Nick left. He seemed to really evangelise about the force as an instrument itself.

#36

Mmm. That’s unfortunate. I hope it makes it out the door eventually, given… /gestures everywhere

#37

For those who like adding randomness to your pieces, you can do some quasi-random tweaks to track length for individual clips.

Example, create a 2 measure clip with a note playing on each beat. Create a second track and create and identical 2 measure clip with a note playing on each beat. You can create as many tracks like this as you want.

Then select the clip in Track 1 and go into Clip editor. Tap on an option in the “Loop Length” settings and change. Example, tap the 3rd setting and change to “75”. In Track 2, make that setting “50”. In Track 3, make it “25”.

Now when you play the scene, the tracks will gradually become offset, firing theirs notes at differing times.

What’s interesting is that you can make adjust to each clip in a track. So Scene 1 can all play full 2 bar lengths. Scene 2 can be offset. Scene 3 can be offset in a completely different way.

Not precisely randomness, but this can produce some interesting results.

2 Likes
#38

Just took mine back to local Guitar Center for return and put more money into a proper ableton rig. Using external midi on the force is painful. Didn’t want to hold my breath for the arranger- I know it’s in beta, but it has been in beta for a very long time.

#39

Push2 is a little long in the tooth. But, no doubt, Ableton/Push2 is a very complete workstation if that’s what you’re looking for.

Ableton/Force is a pretty decent combo as well.

#40

Another thing that I was missing on the force- follow actions.

#42

I’ve spent a few hours digging into this.

Overall though, as someone who isn’t an Ableton user, after a short session of poking at a demo, and a long session of poking around a blank song, I was able to figure most of the things out.

My early issues:

  • I wish the Clip button had Track printed on it for shift, since the hot key for track edit seems to be shift + Clip. That took me an unnecessarily long time to discover, and it is super important if you want to make a lot of use of the plugin instruments. The alt modes for those top buttons in general shoudl have the shortcuts printed like the bottom buttons. :crazy_face: Mostly a new user issue, but still!
  • I need to mess with the record mode settings. The whole recording workflow for notes feels needlessly complicated with the default settings. If I hit record on while on a track that doesn’t have a clip or record enabled, please just do that for me. I hit record when I want to record. :stuck_out_tongue:
  • My initial impression of the piano roll is that working with it is pretty diffifcult. It’s the only thing I’ve wanted a mouse for so far. Selecting and transposing notes is hard! (Any tips? Maybe I am missing something.)
  • I get a little mixed-up by the buttons at the bottom somtimes.
  • I wish Hype had an advanced mode exposing more of it’s gubbins. It’s nice that there are an incredibly large number of presets, but I’d like to be able to have more control over their construction.
  • The length of the device makes working with it for a long periods of time tiresome on the back and shoulders.
  • I really really wish it had a spectrum view to aid in mixing.
  • It’s suppose to support bluetooth keyboards, but neither of mine will pair.
  • The inability to re-arrange the order of tracks and effects is maddening. I knew this going in. Some of it can be solved for by planning a good template, but it’s hard to make sense of why it works this way.

Stuff I like so far:

  • Bootup and shutdown are pretty quick.
  • After playing around for a bit, the devices to starts make sense without much memorization.
  • The gamut of effects and synth plugins all sound pretty damn good.
  • From my early tests, it seems like the device has ample CPU for what it’s built to do.
  • The shift combos are mostly intuitive.
  • That knob row is super dope. It is hard to communicate how luxurious those knobs are. They’re hyper smooth and touch sensitive, and the screen mapping feature is very well implimented. Almost every screen control is readily accessible within a tap of the knob button.
  • It also seems like there are a good set of options in the settings to adjust the defaults to match your preferences.
  • All of the input modes seem to work well, and aside from setting up recording, the actual input is pretty intuitive.

I haven’t tried to do anything especially complex yet, but it’s been a generally positive experience so far.

One other question: It seems like aftertouch isn’t mapped by default, and the guide is pretty vague about how to map it. Any tips on how to map it easily? I’d want to map it to the plugin instruments, but I’m not entirely sure how.

5 Likes
#43

Great review. I’m with you on many of the wants.

On the “record mode should auto-add a clip”, yes. Force should simply add a clip at the default length. I think it may not as you can set different clip lengths per clip. So, a couple more clicks to get a clip started.

The bottom buttons also got me. I then started using them more and now I pretty much can cue in on the colors and know what’s going on.

No clue on aftertouch mapping yet. I think MIDI mapping is not well addressed in current firmware. There’s no way yet to map an external controller (think “faders”) to the internal plugin parameters.

One thing you didn’t mention in your review is the ability to record parameter changes, i.e.: volume, pan, modulation, etc. Very simple. Hit “record” while a clip/track/tune is playing, week the knob or on-screen widget to control the parameter. Stop recording. It plays back just as you recorded. Can also go into the clip/track edit mode and make modifications to the recorded parameters.

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#44

Akai get round to releasing the next iteration of force firmware. At last the arranger has been made public. Among other updates.

New 3.0.5 firmware. Thats tonight sorted!

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#45

It’s a major move forward and pretty big update for Akai Live / Force line as a DAW (makes it even more interesting to me, quite a powerhouse).

2 Likes
#46

Looks like a great update, hope to see that arranger on my MPC soon!

#47

Looking forward to this. The arranger mode is great on it’s own, but everything else also seems like valuable additions.

#48

I’m quite excited by the midi routing. Should be able to connect a few synths hiccup free. :crossed_fingers:

#49

Hoping I can bounce material out to my modular and record it back in via arrange mode. Will have to see how well that works!

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#50

I finally pulled the Force off of my rarely used gear shelf now that the new update is out. I feel like a bit of a sucker for buying this thing at launch for full price, but this update seems to make it worth all of the waiting.

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#51

I let mine go, and then picked it up again when I got wind of the beta that was being tested. This is an enormous update with a lot of fantastic features, and I’m really looking forward to trying it out.

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