Dull to Dynamic: Energize Your Repetitive Synth Clips on the Akai Force

[@joefilbrun]

This technique is borrowed from modular synthesis, and can be a surprisingly effective (yet easy!) way to keep synth clips from sounding repetitive.

[@BarelyVertical]

Just seeing some of your videos, great intermediate to advanced skills you are sharing. Perfect for where I am at with the Force right now. Thank you.

[@aikighost]

I'm such a noob to force I didn't even know these free assignment LFOs existed. Cheers :)

[@joefilbrun]

Hey aikighost, thanks for watching! Yep, they are really great for stuff like this.

[@jaixiviii]

Is that only on Force?

[@joefilbrun]

@@jaixiviii Yeah, unfortunately the envelope followers (and associated LFOs) are only on Force. I’m still looking for ways to do similar things on MPC. You can do this kind of stuff with OPx-4 using its built in modulation, regardless of platform.

[@jaixiviii]

@@joefilbrun Kinda sucks for Live, lol. I would want to do the same with the rest of the plugins suite. I need to deep into OP-X. Thank you Joe!

[@iswiu2bl]

Yeah, fingers crossed for Mpc Live update will have something similar! Thanks again!

[@domin2]

Your videos are the most valuable source of knowledge. Respect!

[@joefilbrun]

Hey Dominik - Thanks very much for that, and thanks for watching!!

[@joshuagardner894]

I did something similar with the plugin called Filter Sweep on the MPC. It really brought a track to life.

[@jaysire]

I've been googling "akai force lfo", trying to figure out how to add a periodically moving parameter change like you do on all others synths. I almost gave up on it, thinking that maybe LFOs are only in some specific instruments. Then I ran into your video and started watching... at some point I said "I hope he'll show us LFOs... YES, he's showing us LFOs" :) This was very educational and just what the doctor ordered. Thanks! There is an effect called filter sweep, but it's nowhere near as easy to dial in.

[@ShaunTudor]

This is incredible, thank you for this HUGE tip! Your videos are great 🙌🏻

[@wul01]

Useful. especially to someone with an Mpc one with Hakai firmware installed . Best of both worlds. Thanks.

[@joefilbrun]

Hey wul01! Oh, interesting. I remember hearing about the Hakai thing but haven’t tried it personally. I didn’t know the envelope follower stuff was in there. Sweet!

[@wul01]

@@joefilbrun yea. You can have the Mpc as normal , then plug a usb stick in which has a config file on, then it boots up as the force.

[@spindlenine]

Always enjoy your videos, keep it up.

[@joefilbrun]

Thanks spindlenine, and will do!

[@johnnylucid]

Good stuff as always Joe. Thanks for the excellent content. Be well.

[@joefilbrun]

Thanks Johnny Lucid - hope you stay well too!

[@roberto.a.cumsille]

Great videos Joe. Thank you !

[@joefilbrun]

Hey Roberto! Thanks for watching and glad you’re finding them helpful!

[@philippebackprotips]

I wish we had those env followers in the MPC

[@sederquest]

Yeah 😒

[@joefilbrun]

Hey philippeback - thanks for watching. Yep, me too!!

[@spindlenine]

I can’t understand why Akai hasn’t brought this over to MPC yet. I imagine it’ll show up sooner or later.

[@mattpocock8393]

Another really useful video Joe! I’ll definitely be using this. Many thanks.

[@joefilbrun]

Hey Matt - thanks for that! Definitely try it out. It’s useful, and also really fun IMO to dial it in just like you want it.

[@vertigev]

oh wow that's really cool! Thank you

[@joefilbrun]

Hey vertigev, thanks for watching! Hope you get some good use out of it.

[@channelz3363]

Massively useful and will really help improve my sound and enjoyment of the Force.

[@joefilbrun]

Hey Channel Z - I love getting comments like this one. If your knowledge of the Force is leveled up after watching, I feel like I did what I set out to do. Thanks as always for watching!

[@NabilRouissi]

Thank you 🙏

[@Noise-Conductor]

This was really helpful. Thanks!

[@joefilbrun]

Hey Poetic Noise - glad it was helpful. I really like doing stuff like this. Makes a big difference - yet so easy.

[@danieklerr]

Great technique. The LFO's are an integral part of my performance setup, but I haven't found a way to sync them to BPM at all, which is a bit wack. Of course, some maths make it easy to set the rate. Also, as mentioned, the assignments DO save with a project, but you have to go in and manually turn the LFO engines off and on again before starting your performance.

[@joefilbrun]

Thanks SnowMetal! Not sure if you’ve watched my video called Envelope Follower Magic. You can actually use and abuse a keygroup to get tempo synced LFOs (as well as envelopes) into the global macro assign space. Of course you can use math too, but the advantage of the EF and KG method is that you can easily switch the tempo division on the fly or even record automate it. I am wondering if those EFs reverting to the off position when you load a project back up is expected behavior. I’m thinking it’s not, but I could be wrong.

[@zoolhert3535]

Thanks 😎

[@joefilbrun]

Hey zool hert, you’re welcome and thanks for watching!

[@Drozas91]

Great job Joe. This is not new to me but I'm sure it would be useful to many force users. I personally like using random lfos with the granulator. I hope Akai makes a full granular plugin some time!

[@joefilbrun]

Thanks Drozas! I don’t think I’ve ever tried to modulate the Granulator effect. What parameters do you like to target?

[@Drozas91]

@@joefilbrun square wave (or some audio) to insert on. Random to linear. Those are the cookie cut, but what to target is very context sensitive, depends what the track is, you can go very wild very fast in the force.

[@pierrefitch]

Can you make a tutorial on how to setup a digitone and digitakt and syntakt with a Akai force what’s the best way to setup elektron with the force ..

[@joefilbrun]

Hey there Pierre. I don’t own any Elektron gear, so I couldn’t speak very intelligently about it. Have you looked through Maxipok’s videos to see if he has anything about that? Pretty sure he has one or more Elektron devices in his kit.

[@eddiexx]

Joe, some Drum Programs from MPC packs for the MPC (Rnb pack in my case) have no drums but single shots, stabs and sampled baseline phrases spread over the pad banks. How are we meant to alter the key of those programs? is the only way to do that in the Program Edit in global? Because the tracks Transpose feature doesn't work with them. And all of those samples have different pitches! So if you do that in global you still end up with a lot of different pitched notes/pads/samples. I find it really weird how they are supposed to work . Cheers

[@joefilbrun]

Hey Eddie - that seems weird. I thought for sure they could be transposed in the program settings. I’ll have a look when I’m back at the MPC.

[@eddiexx]

@@joefilbrun Thanks. I guess one can go in individually or make each a Keyboard program but that sounds not so useful. I must be missing something i guess, well see..

[@nilsgraf1682]

Thank you! How do u get as fast as this to plugin & knob/ global lfo settings? Whats the shortcut?

[@joefilbrun]

Hey Nils - thanks for watching! Shortcut to edit the plugin is either shift+clip to edit the currently selected track, or edit+whichever track button that has the plugin you want to edit. Fastest shortcut I’ve found to the macros is edit+touch any knob.

[@nilsgraf1682]

@@joefilbrun thank you:)

[@binarysun_]

Still have no clue why the MPC does not have that feature.

[@donthatethegame42]

I love the cat? Is it yours?

[@joefilbrun]

Thanks Don’t Hate the Game. I guess it’s everyone’s cat from now on!

[@mariomariocchi2908]

On mpc?

[@joefilbrun]

Unfortunately those envelope followers aren’t there on the MPC.

[@mariomariocchi2908]

@@joefilbrun I knew I had to buy the force 😑

[@gonzinigonz]

How you getting on with saving the envelope assignments in a project and reloading? Do they still work without having to turn off & on each one?

[@joefilbrun]

Hey gonzinigonz. You know I’ve been so busy making videos here lately that I’m not sure I’ve saved many projects with env follower assignments. I’ve got this on my list to test though and if I notice any problems I’ll bug report it for sure.

[@oooonek]

It doesnt save, it used to though , so . I'm sure its a bug they missed.. big bummer for me .. 😢 Please report it since im not part of the beta team anymore. Thanks!

[@gonzinigonz]

@@oooonek I found they do save but you have to turn each one off & back on again to get it happening.

[@oooonek]

@@gonzinigonz yes i know but thats freaking annoying and bor how its supposed to be

[@gonzinigonz]

@@oooonek It is, i started to create some new presets for the OPx-4 using the modulation possibilities with the envelopes and you don't want to have to re-enable the assignments each time you load a preset up...

[@dandman2k11]

the force is so cool but so expensive :(

[@joefilbrun]

Hey dandman2k11 - It has gotten expensive. Hard to believe how much it’s gone up since I got mine a few years ago.