Akai Force Longterm Thoughts and Review

I've had the Akai Force for a while now, thought it was about time I make a longer term thoughts and review type video.
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#akaiforce #mpc #dawless

[@banksideleopards2791]

I'm DAWless since 7 years now and the Force was a game changer for me. Now I can fully produce tracks on it and i can play live perf with, 2 in one...Just a perfect instrument

[@sean808080]

I just installed the HAKAI firmware on my mpc one so now it has FORCE functionality. Amazed at how it opens up even more on the mpc one. Interesting opinions, thanks for sharing. I was really looking forward to see if you had any specifics on the differences between the devices that inspire you versus not since that seems to be what is causing your Force to get dusty as you stated. Cheers and thanks again for sharing

[@bigbeardt98]

Great video. The force does so much. Its a sleeper for sure. You can literally use all 4 quadrants to have 4 different drink kits, instruments or sample chops all at the same time. Love it or hate great content you are making. Dive into when you can. You’ll be surprised how deep it is. 🙌🏾

[@DylanParisMusic]

Thank you for watching and for the kind words! The Force really is super deep. I want to understand the A/B slider more and doing live performance stuff with macros

[@synkuk]

Hey, I want access to those 'drink kits' :D:D

[@Amazinbeats]

Force is the best thing akai made in my opinion. It’s nothing like it on the market. Take a lot to get use to but once you learn and understand her may the force be with you

[@DylanParisMusic]

Yeah I got wayyy more into it after this video, it's an awesome device

[@RedlionProductions]

Yep. That sums up my current relationship with the Force. Great piece of gear still. I wonder how Akai is going to handle the update with the sounds. I’d buy a Force Key 61 over the MPC Keys though.

[@PoboyMusic]

Yeah that would be awesome

[@tronlady1]

Me too

[@microwavablegiants]

I love my Force. I use it for everything I do portable now. It's an absolute beast. I do like the size due to it having 64 velocity sensitive pads and it's heavy in my opinion for the live performance aspect of it. Especially since it's easy to hit a cord and knock things over doing it. I see this thing on Reverb going for used 650 which is insane for me. So far on the market imho this is the best and it's doing wonders for me. Great insightful video brother

[@microwavablegiants]

Only thing I would want besides more updates is a tilted screen. That would be my only big hardware gripe.

[@Noise-Conductor]

@@microwavablegiants There's a KZbin video showing how convert the into a tilt screen

[@daffycarter8390]

I love your videos man🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

[@DylanParisMusic]

Thank you! 🙏🙌😎

[@ndguardian]

It's funny, I'm going through something very similar with my MPC Live MK2 and my Akai Force. Actually getting ready to sell the MPC because the Force is the device that just works better for my use case. If only we both could have just traded. :D Anyway though good on you for letting the community know your thoughts. While obviously I like the Force better, I think it's good to hear these long term reviews so people who are similar can come to conclusions of their own.

[@DJREN2]

Had this bit of gear for about the same time as you. Amazing in my eyes. Takes a while to get into the fines bits of detail as its hidden in lots of menus. But has lots of possibilities and usability. It works a bit better with Ableton after resent updates. But could do with more integration. Gets a bit bogged down if memory is low. Or CPU usage is high.

[@SonicVibe]

Still waiting for the arranger mode to hit the mpc live 2 or one

[@DylanParisMusic]

That would be awesome, fully agree

[@elyad67]

If that happens it would be such an amazing little compact device, I was wondering between purchasing the force or live 2 as a beginner, after this video explaining how AKAI keeps adding wonderfull stuff in updates, i cannot pick the Force as I am not a live performer and just want to make fun music with a DS 88 and a smaller Arturia keystep. Thank you for making me pick the Live 2, the gold looks beautiful over the huge force

[@mrrafsk]

I’m still not finding m+ stable yet (lost a saved project last week). Vey tempted to get a force to cover what I get my deluge/live/LP mkIii to do. But perhaps like you I get feature gas envy and want it all. Worried I would miss the conditional probability of the deluge sequencer. Thanks for sharing.

[@DylanParisMusic]

I'm sorry to hear you're still having plus issues! Hopefully those get fully ironed out asap

[@mrrafsk]

@@DylanParisMusic worked out the so card was too full. Made some room on it, and was able to recover the project.

[@DanielIvan707]

The MPC and the force will eventually be the same except for pad layout. Don’t ya’ think?

[@DylanParisMusic]

Based on that new MPC update it seems like it!

[@sentokan]

I don t see what you see more upgrades in Mpc vs Force.. have them both

[@othelo989]

My Force was my 2nd akai device. I got a MPC live 2 retro about 2 months ago. Its great Im enjoying just finger drumming for hours on it. I'm watching actual real Drummer tutorials on yt to get the fundamentals of drumming. Not even making music atm. Looking back I wish I would've started with a MPC live. My Force is collecting dust too atm but what I dint understand before is a force is 75% MPC with Different Pads and clip launcher.. Force is better for playing out melodies Live is better for drumming. The deeper you under stand the MPC the deeper u understand the force. I'm gonna hold on to both for now. Force ait Selling for much anyways. IM actually looking for deals on Ancient MPCs just to see what that workflow is like perhaps a MPC 4000 or 2000xl. if I can find a Working one Ridiculously low. Fun Times!

[@AutisticCuriosity]

I think if your the kind of person who enjoys making music on a laptop & a DAW then I could understand why you wouldn’t need or use the Force. I see The Force as a musical instrument- much like a guitar or a keyboard., both of which are larger and have greater limitations. My approach expects limitations and attempts to accept those. Comparison is the killer of joy. Machine Plus will have its wonderful attributes and of course a M2 iMac Pro laptop will be capable of everything including reminding you of all those emails your ignoring, which is exactly what I don’t want my Classical Guitar or any other instrument to do. Limitations are a beautiful thing. The moment I compare The Force to Machine Plus or the latest MPC or Laptop I’m missing the point. Am I creating music? Am I continuing to grow learn and create? Or am I on a never ending cycle of getting the next thing because a guy on KZbin told me the thing he like works better for him… and we’ll his music is cool! The Force may not be right for you. Size is relative so are limitations. For me The Force is good enough and before I’ve entirely grasped it’s true potential they keep making it better. However if they never add another upgrade. If every other device does more and makes coffee and tells me how clever and handsome I am I will still continue to make music with it because it’s just excellent at doing exactly that. Thank you for a thought provoking video.

[@DylanParisMusic]

Appreciate your thoughtful response 🙏😎

[@hovermotion]

I use a Deluge and its tiny compaired to this monster..superb review .

[@DylanParisMusic]

Worddd, the Deluge seems to pack so much into a small frame

[@hovermotion]

@@DylanParisMusic Very true it takes some getting used to as it has no proper screen the Deluge .At the moment after a break from using all my kit (taking it out of storage) I am just using the Deluge on its own going into a L12 mixer to record etc..also linked with a SL1210mk2 turn table to sample from.. I Do like the Force its an amazing machine ...Akai make some unique kit... I may get the Live 2 just to try out as I like the look of the pads.. Great channel 👏 you have . Jim.

[@wylatron]

Got my force for $380us ($500 Canadian actually) and at that price, I was laughing all the way home. Given the population density is much lower up here, particularly on the west coast, we’re back to doing shows, and festivals. Just got home from one last weekend, good times. I use denon prime 4 decks, so this sits right beside it and works like a champ. Even if you aren’t comfy playing in packed rooms, I’d wager it’s time you put a couple of sets together and performed them live on your channel or a secondary channel. Because for one: we’d love to see it. And for two: it will help you decide in finality how you really feel moving forward about it. I know it’s not going to be for everyone and for everything, but like you said “it does do that thing” I’ve felt a fair amount of hesitation getting back out there, but the more I have returned, the more I’m glad I have. Living is good, and it wasn’t until I decided to take some precautions and do so that I realized how much I’d given up throughout the pandemic. Great bud bruv, really enjoyed it😊

[@healthyhappyhero]

Hey Dylan. I was so excited to get the force. Thought it was standalone perfection. Until I recorded audio from my guitar. The audio loop always has a click or pop sound at the start of the loop and I have to manually add a fade in to Every. Single. Audio. Track. Individually. Kills the workflow. That’s why I’m thinking of selling mine. And it’s a real shame because if Akai would fix this one issue it could be one of the best standalone devices. If only we had the option to automatically have a fade in on all audio tracks.

[@EnochLight]

Eh.. that’s a mild bug that will be fixed soon. Don’t sweat it. FORCE ROCKS!!

[@healthyhappyhero]

@@EnochLight I’ve been waiting a long time for a fix and I’m not optimistic that it will be. It’s not a minor bug if it kills the workflow. My MPC doesn’t have this issue.

[@healthyhappyhero]

Do you have any experience with this Dylan?

[@DylanParisMusic]

Yep, it's the biggest headache I have sending rendered audio loops from ableton tracks the Force. It's actually a pretty big issue for me and the Force has been around for a long time without fixing it

[@healthyhappyhero]

@@DylanParisMusic I know what you mean brother. Until this is fixed my Force will be collecting dust while I use my MPC daily.

[@johnmartinskyrie]

I would use it for my radio productions

[@Diplooo]

Did you get rid of your Push2 ?

[@DylanParisMusic]

I did, I miss it sometimes though

[@Diplooo]

​@@DylanParisMusic I asked that because I just bought my first GrooveBox (Maschine Plus) and it still on it's way, but i as see some cool stuff that pleople do with Push2 i started getting kinda worried, mostly because of the limited integration of the Maschine Plus with Ableton Live since Maschine software isn't a full capable DAW.

[@DylanParisMusic]

@@Diplooo I will say the hands on nature of the maschine platform is so much nicer for me than the push was. without using custom vst racks the push is really limited on third party software control whereas most plugins i use support the NKS format on maschine

[@Diplooo]

@@DylanParisMusic sounds great . Thanks ✌🏾✨

[@CharlesLouisRosario]

If you want to work live with it, reformat your songs to clips you can mix on the fly.

[@synkuk]

Must admit , I kinda went to opposite way .. once I got the Force I stopped using my Maschine MK3 really much after about a month .. have replaced the Maschine in the studio as the thing I pull everything into

[@DylanParisMusic]

That's awesome! I'm glad it's working for you, that sounds like a rad setup!

[@synkuk]

@@DylanParisMusic one question I do have for you .. why the three grooveboxes ? myself ended up getting mixer, interfaces and synths

[@DylanParisMusic]

@@synkuk Cause I run a youtube channel and variety allows me to make videos on different topics. That said I try to balance that with my actual non youtube music stuff and that's where it becomes more of a con than a pro to have the 3

[@synkuk]

@@DylanParisMusic ah ok that makes sense

[@krakapoww]

Just lookin at the ergonomic lay out makes my Neck hurt. If i didnt have a Ton of gear i would probly Get one

[@DylanParisMusic]

Yeah I forgot to mention you basically can't use it flat because of that haha

[@othelo989]

They kinda designed it like your Steve AKoI standing over it in a DJ booth next to your turn tables and serato setup. Pumping your fist with a 200 ft projector behind you.

[@heffe4257]

The force is huge. I have no clue how I never realized that until now.

[@DylanParisMusic]

Right?? I realized I needed to show that cause it's hard to tell without seeing in real life

[@heffe4257]

@@DylanParisMusic Yea man, I always knew it was bigger, but I thought it was the same size as the push 2.

[@EnochLight]

OMG IT’S BIGGER THAN MY SHITTY ANDROID PHONE LMAO OMG LOL - 🙄🙄🙄

[@heffe4257]

@@EnochLight Imagine getting this upset over a brand/product. Consoomer.

[@DylanParisMusic]

Also not for nothing but this is like the best android phone on the market haha

[@davidallred991]

The Force really shines as the brain for a multiple hardware synths setup and audio clip loops. I prefer it so much more over using Ableton with hardware synths for messing around and jamming out. The synth plugins from Akai are not very good in my opinion, mediocre at best. I don't even use them. The Akai is just a great performance piece of gear. I have an MPC Live II also, but the workflow just isn't as smooth for what I do.

[@DylanParisMusic]

Appreciate the insight here and sharing your workflows!

[@synkuk]

Totally agree with the integration .. cannot imagine trying any of the nonsense I do with anything else except a full machine and DAW .. which I got away from .. and thats the Force that made that happen .. a really deep piece of gear and very rewarding

[@davidallred991]

@@synkuk Same here, I originally used 2 keystep pros as the brain but that is fairly limited in what you can do with them. I would use Ableton also but I always found this would take me out of the jamming mode and I would spend too much time in Ableton. I then tried with the MPC Live II because it got audio interface support first and without interface support both the MPCs and Force were worthless to me. I love the MPC Live as a piece of gear and think it is great but it just didn't do what I was hoping it would. This was mainly a workflow issue because you can't have clips, instruments, etc playing at different bar lengths. If I wanted to add in a longer variation of something I would have to adjust what was going on with everything else. Once the Force got audio interface support I picked one up and love it. There are plenty of things I would like to see improved but overall it does what I was looking for more than anything else currently on the market. The mix of it being able to do very in-depth midi control and record audio at any length simultaneously is great for a hardware synth workflow. I Iove how easy I can set up scenes for my entire setup with program changes. It is really great to setup program changes on a per clip basis, Press one button and all of my synths and effects pedals have changed. I even have clips saved for on/off for all of my effects pedals. I just select a clip for an effects pedal midi track, click load, and select either the on/off clip for that effects pedal. Then in the clip select program change for the preset I want. The saving clips part is important because every effects pedal is a bit different in what midi message turns them on/off. Now I don't need to think about that. With my saved template loaded I can just turn on the Force and my entire studio is up and running. I can control every piece of gear through a pre setup midi track or I can record audio to its pre setup audio track. So I can mess around with every piece of gear until I find something I like. It then only takes me about 5 minutes to save everything to a scene with program changes and I can then return anytime to to that exact setup with just the press of one button. For anyone with an extensive hardware setup you know how awesome this is. I used to make stuff and then just move on because it was too much of pain to record everything or save everything. Now I save everything. Currently the biggest improvement I would like to see is to remove the 8 audio track limit. Because of the way I use the Force with hardware synths and effects pedals even when I have everything playing at once in a scene I am still only using 15-20% of the CPU. This is with 8 audio tracks, and 16 midi tracks. If I want to add in audio clips/samples, I either need to place them into a synth audio track that is not playing for that scene, or I need to load them into midi drum tracks as samples. I wish the Force would just let me do what I want and when I max out the CPU that is my cue I went too far. Seems arbitrary to have the 8 audio track limit especially now with disk streaming. Anyways, long post but maybe it will help someone thinking about the Force.

[@synkuk]

@@davidallred991 we have a lot in common :) to get round the 8 audio channel limit I'm investing in a more serious mixer , allowing me to merge and also record the audio and insert as samples as I need

[@davidallred991]

@@synkuk yeah they really need to remove that limit especially since I am not anywhere near pushing the CPU. Another bit of work around for when I am jamming out live is to have a clip playing in the audio track, but merged with the live synth sound, this way I can get two different audios out of the same audio track. Have to mess with the volumes a bit though because the audio clips play much louder than synths. I really hope on the next update they remove this, but I am not very hopeful.

[@giacomorml]

I have recently bought both one used Force and a Maschine+. After 20+ years with DAWs I have really clear view about which are my needs. And sorry but Maschine+, even after several updates, is still very buggy and laggy. Its software has been created to work with a DaW, and NI has only tried to adapt it. But the hardware is weak. Furthermore most of the plugins are not completely editable from the maschine itself. Akai force is stable, reliable, has much more editing power. From my point of view there is a big difference between these two groove boxes and the winner is clearly Akai Force

[@DylanParisMusic]

Fair points! I really love the Force, made some videos after this one, it really grew on me.

[@samanderson806]

I dont feel safe guys...haha. There might be gluten and dairy waiting for me out there!

[@DylanParisMusic]

I’m sorry bud, u got this

[@EnochLight]

Horses for courses, and all that. I find Maschine+ about as inspiring as a wet fart. Akai Force, with its “Ableton Live-like” clip based approach just speaks to me and works. Much more inspiring. And when I don’t work on my Force, I’m on my Akai Live II. The complaints about the Force’s size is laughable - it’s not meant to be carried around and taken to the park. Have you never worked on an actual professional workstation before??! Those are massive compared to the Force. These are devices professionals use. But if it doesn’t work for you, it doesn’t work for you. Best to sell it, STAT.

[@DylanParisMusic]

Cool

[@tricks-and-tips]

Thanks for the update and reality check. The sound quality is the main reason to not get it (at least for me) although it ticks so many boxes, it should be a no brainer

[@DylanParisMusic]

Yeah sound quality is the biggest loss for me as well, if it sounded like the maschine plus it would probably be my most used device. Especially if the ableton integration was tighter and it actually worked like a Push

[@EnochLight]

@@DylanParisMusic - LMAO - Maschine+ doesn’t sound any better at all. You all are smoking crack.

[@peterk.9927]

I wonder why you buy so much equipment. If you really understand a device, you can achieve so much. The Force is a great device. But you don't need Live and Force and Push and Maschine and Komplete and IPad and, and, and...! Better a device and some music school and you can have a lot of fun.

[@DylanParisMusic]

Because I love trying new things and tech and talking about them. And I promise I make kick ass music as well, this channel is primarily for practice and sharing my thoughts with interested people. If your setup is working for you that's awesome :)

[@kevinbirge2130]

I dust mine with a paintbrush.

[@DylanParisMusic]

Nice! Hadn’t thought of that, I just use a deck saver but I’ll try that at some point

[@palimo3653]

I’m waiting until a redesign to get the Force. Had one and returned it the design is very awkward. A flip up screen like on the MPC X is what this needs

[@milk_bath]

Nailed it.

[@othelo989]

I keep mashing the buttons on bottom accidentally.

[@heffe4257]

Honestly, their synths are just so bad. I feel the same exact way as you dude. They’re just not inspiring. Even the limited synths like massive and fm8 decade + old synths, the sounds are just so much better. And I absolutely love the live II.

[@Claidheambmor]

Oh god those edits. 🤮

[@DylanParisMusic]

🤣🤣🤣🤣💀