Akai Force Tutorial - Send Pattern / Scene Changes to External Hardware

In this video I show you how to send pattern or scene changes to external hardware, such as drum machines and samplers. This allows you to play through a performance with Force as your main sequencing brain, and keeps one hand free for performance tweaking. This method works on most drum machines, although there is a caveat when it comes to Elektron devices, which I describe in the video.
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[@Skechmeister]

OMG this has been bugging me for months. Thank you...LIST VIEW FTW!

[@mango4two101]

So useful, exactly what I needed. Thank you!

[@impossiblemusicforce]

Great! I didn't update to 3.1.1, this is cool! But there are still issues in using controllers for a live performance!It only works with the DAW software,but its important forthehardware, like the MPC Live

[@tanguypaschal6657]

Fantastic !

[@MaxipokMusic]

Thanks! 🙂

[@FenixSongMusic]

Very helpful. I suspected as much on the Elektron devices. Synthstrom Deluge would fall into a similar predicament...it allows midi learn to map midi notes to scene changes but can't turn off the launch quantization afaik...so you'd use that method of putting change toward end of pattern. It's still a flawed system... But companies aren't really interested in seemless coordination with other brands.

[@MaxipokMusic]

Yeah it’s infuriating to be honest. I’d have my Digitone permanently connected to the Force if it wasn’t for this issue 😬

[@beats4trips]

This maschine looks tempting. I need to stop thinking about new hardware. Anyway, as elektron digitakt user, I do not use program change in midi clips at all. I'm a bit jealous that other sequencers can do this. Pretty awesome stuff.

[@MaxipokMusic]

Yeah I agree about the Elektron PC thing, I would use my Digitone with the Force a lot more if I could trigger patterns on it like the Maschine. The M+ internal synths sound so good that I’m actually thinking about selling the Digitone now…

[@HelicopterRidesForCommunists]

@@MaxipokMusic I’ve never thought of using those together, but it makes sense. Im new to Elektron, I just got the Syntakt and I could of sworn that used program change.

[@MaxipokMusic]

@@HelicopterRidesForCommunists The Elektron boxes do accept program changes, they just respond in a different way to pretty much everything else which makes them a pain to sync with non-Elektron gear in that way, I explain the details in the video. I haven’t played with a Syntakt yet so don’t know about effects routing info afraid.

[@simonc8265]

Thankyou for putting up. I have an mc707 and keen to link it up.

[@MaxipokMusic]

That will be a killer combination! Have fun 🙂

[@simonc8265]

@@MaxipokMusic ok I was working to 2am yesterday. Still waiting to give this a go... No real experience with midi - so if this sounds daft, please forgive me... Is there a way to use midi to turn the sliders on the mc707 into a channel mixer for tracks playing on the force?. I was at bearded theory last week and watching some great sets has really got me humming.

[@MaxipokMusic]

@@simonc8265 I don’t know the answer to that! The way to check it would be to connect the two then use midi learn on the Force and move the fader on the MC707 to see if it is transmitting a cc value. Just a depends whether the 707 is configured to do that, if it is the Force will respond to it. Of course if it works you would also be adjusting the 707 tracks at the same time, which might be a problem. A better fit might be to pick up an Akai MidiMix to control the Force’s faders.

[@soltec6704]

Is the program change sent at the start of each loop, or is there a way to make that message a one-shot? Sometimes the LFO or envelopes will get reset if a program change is received.

[@HelicopterRidesForCommunists]

Do you know how to route external effects through an Elektron Syntakt?

[@brianvanlijf6007]

My tr8s changes kit to 001 instead of ones mapped on it after a program change/clip launch Ofx thats unpractical. Any way of bypassing that?

[@MarianoPerez]

Oh man, i cant make my mind up as far as which of these to get to compose full songs. Which do you think is best for composing songs from trance to pop/jazz with vocals? I dont mind the size of each much, I want to sit in bed or the sofa to just make music. Im used to big sizes of electronics, im always using my 14" tablet on the sofa.

[@MaxipokMusic]

If you want to make full tracks and record vocals on top, Force is the much better choice. It’s has proper audio tracks and basically a DAW built in, which is perfect for this. Recording vocals onto clips on Maschine is clunky.

[@zandtussenjetenen]

Hi there.. Nice vid.. Dont know what do with it but well see.. Can you in this method use the maschine as a controller for the force? I have a lot of packs for the force but want to be able to play them with maschine. Is that also possible? Sorry im a noob.. Best wishes for 2024. 🎉🎉🎉

[@MaxipokMusic]

Yeah it’s possible for sure, just a case of hooking the M+ up to the Force in the same way you would with a midi keyboard. However it’s worth checking out the Kitmaker app. I don’t know for sure it works with MPC > Maschine, but I’ve used it the other way and it worked great. Essentially it converts expansions from one format to another. Not free, but if you’ve got lots of packs it’s worth a few bucks.

[@zandtussenjetenen]

​@@MaxipokMusicoké thanks. I dont mean to convert the pack but only use the machine mk3 to drum the beats etc instead of the force with the small buttons.. Regards and thanks in advance.. Greetings

[@PavelKabelik]

Hi, I tried to send pattern / scene changes to Digitone (based on your recommendation for switching on 3rd bar of previous pattern) and also to MC-101, but with same result: It always takes few seconds of new pattern/scene to start or even to change sound from the actual scene/pattern. Please, is there some way how to recall JUST specific sound from DN / MC-101 from Akai Force or it is bound to scene or pattern? Thank you!

[@MaxipokMusic]

Hi. I probably didn’t describe that very well in the video, when I said 3rd bar I was assuming a pattern length of 4 bars but didn’t explicitly say that. The PC message to the Digitone needs to to be sent 1 bar before you want the change to happen, so for example if your patterns are 8 bars, the message goes on 7.0.1. As far as I know you can’t trigger presets from the Digitone, so you would need to create a new pattern that has the sound you want applied, and trigger that. I don’t have an MC101 to test, but I think you can send Bank Select type messages to that to recall sounds. If you check its midi implementation chart it will tell you.

[@PavelKabelik]

@@MaxipokMusic Hi, no, your description was OK, but my DN acts differently :) I decided to use DN and MC-101 just as sound modules, so turning off transport control on both devices helped. At least, I can try do more with midi clips on Force (probability and ratcheting). Anyway, thanks for your videos!

[@MaxipokMusic]

@@PavelKabelik Yeah that’s what I ended up doing eventually. Glad you found a useable solution!

[@scelecky]

Is it possible to change scene in akai force by midi controller? I would like to use some foot controller to have my hands for playing guitar :)

[@MaxipokMusic]

Hi! No I’m afraid not at the moment, at least not with the official firmware. There is a modded firmware that allows this, but there are obvious risks involved. If you have a look in the Akai Force Users Facebook group, you will find some info about it.

[@scelecky]

@@MaxipokMusic thank you!

[@abasicillness]

I've just gotten my Akai force and, my "my MIDI/Sync page doesn't have sync/tack option next to the top two choices. I can't, for the life of me, get my arp. on my Roland Vsynth to play. I can trigger notes but when I turn on the ARP>..... nothing happens

[@MaxipokMusic]

I don’t know why the sync/track buttons would be missing, never seen that. Are you looking at the output port section? As for the arp, I don’t know that synth but sometimes they won’t play if the synth’s clock isn’t running, so you might need to go into its settings and switch on ‘rx start / stop’ so that the Force’s sync will start the synth’s clock, which will allow the arp to work.

[@abasicillness]

@Maxipok Music I feel really stupid the Global sync track buttons are there. For some reason I thought that section was only to rename. Yours is the first tutorial to show this. Thank you

[@MaxipokMusic]

@@abasicillness No problem, happy to be of help!

[@abasicillness]

@Maxipok Music I literally have everything checked off and clicked in the midi/ sync section Arp won't work on Vsynth The crazy thing is it works perfectly with my MC505 groove Box? I. Don't understand Oh wow this has been driving me nuts for days

[@MaxipokMusic]

@@abasicillness Have you tried pressing play on the Force so it’s sending sync, and then trying the arp? The Hydrasynth is like that, the arp won’t work when it’s in ‘slave’ mode unless the host sequencer is running.