Granted, the UI “enhancement” (having the many turn into 1) is missing, but doesn’t the ability to send any number of tracks to one instrument track already exist?
We are Elektronauts, and as such, really expect change patch per step when we want to. Has Akai lost focus in 2023?
Because we literally only get 8 total plugin instances, and some of the newer plugins allow even less instances due to RAM limitations (Studio Strings and Fabric XL are notorious; there may be others). So you only get 8 choices of plugin sounds/presets regardless of whether your entire Project is 8 tracks or 80 tracks.
If we could send Program Change messages per-track, then those 8 tracks could have a limitless amount of presets/sounds per-plugin instance, as we could change the preset for a given track with any number of vertical rows Clips. Some plugins would work well with this - OPx-4, Tubesynth, and other DSP-only based plugins change presets almost instantly. Plugins that are sample based would require a blank Clip in between changes, or at least a lengthy enough MIDI pattern to allow time for the samples to load (Studio Strings, Fabric XL, etc).
Ah I see. I don’t use the plugins, just my own samples or audio files. I forgot about that limitation, I guess I can understand why it would not be possible to change plug-in per clip, but I’d have thought presets within a particular plugin should be possible to implement using program change as you say.
Is there an easy way to create a multisample kit of a drum VST for exporting it to the Force? Ideally, with free tools.
Not tried this, but surely you could use the Force auto sampler for this?
Midi out from Force -> device running the Drum VST
Audio from VST device back into Force
Set levels, choose velocity levels and notes to sample, having chosen notes appropriately to trigger the required drum sounds.
I’ll have a go at it myself later and see if that would do it as I want to sample some hardware devices and the flow would be the same I suspect. Let me know if you get any success!
It’s not free… but not much in life is that’s of value… Atlas Argonaut does this really well.
I could, but it’s a laptop with no proper audio interface. Still doable, of course, but I doing things completely in the digital realm would be a better option in this case.
Use Live to make your drum program.
Collect all and save, load the .als into Force.
Drum racks, Simpler, and up to 8 audio tracks can be opened in this way, so it’s quite handy to use .als as a go-between container.
Since Live Lite is included with Force, does that fit the “free” stipulation?
AutoSampler works great, but it produces Keygroups only. I wish it had a “drum program” mode or something like that.
There is a bit of fudging you can do editing the script on a computer to have Force/MPC to read a Keygroup as a Drum program, but I have yet to try it.
Force users - do you know if it’s possible to save/recall presets (knob positions) in the same or similar way to Func+No in Elektron boxes?
For example, I want to have delay and other FX added to a track, manipulate parameters with Force knobs it real time, and return to the original saved state when I’m done mangling, ideally by pressing just one button or combination of buttons
Yes there is a feature where you can save a launch snapshot. But better than this there is also the macro feature which allows min, max and momentary settings, so for example you could have a knob mapped to filter, and set it up so that when you release it the value returns to normal, or you can say set up a pad to be like a send scene or whatever, it is very flexible and powerful - but admittedly a little time consuming to set up at first.
Great, thank you. I can see now it has been added in 3.2 update
A little heads up for Force / MPC users who are using Akai’s official instrument plugins:
If your Forces’ Wi-Fi / Ethernet port is on and the Akai plugin licensing server is down you can not use your bought and activated plugins! 
This happened to me last night as I sat down for a Sat evening noodling session
If I had been getting ready to play live to an audience I would have been seriously screwed because once the licensing servers can’t be reached your projects will no longer work as expected
The licensing servers seem to be back up this AM and I was able to reactivate all my plugins but I was miffed that I couldn’t edit my projects last night
The solution seems to be to keep WiFI / Networking off all together. Moving ahead, my Force will only get internet access when I’m doing a firmware update.
Overall I love my Force and I’m actually digging quite a few of the plugins – the Stage Pianos and Model D emulator are cool. But this little incident makes me wary of buying Akai plugins in the future.
Which firmware are you on? I remember this being a bug in an earlier release but thought this was fixed.
This is on FW 3.2.3
anyone know of a way to input steps on the melodic step sequencer and change their length? just switched out my Push 2 with a Force for a bit and doesn’t seem like this is possible (on Push 2 you can push one step, hold and then push the second end to set the step length)
am trying to program in some ties for sequencing a TB-3 over midi
seems like the only way is to manually draw them in on the touch screen
also is there still no easy way to copy a page of a step sequence?
I know you can double the pattern but I really miss the Push 2 duplicate page
seems only thing to do is go out to the piano roll and use the selector tool to manually select specific notes to copy paste to an enlarged pattern on the touch screen, feels clunky
Editing note and per step automation is a horrible experience on the Force/MPCs.
In Clip mode, change the clip setting so it shows Nudge Start End along the bottom of screen. Then press the hardware Select button and the pad you want to extend. Then select on screen End and use the big knob to adjust the length.
In one of the settings in Clip mode, when you hold Shift the first option at bottom of screen becomes Select All.
It’s my biggest gripe with the Mpc environment
Me too. I hope they revisit the step sequencer and improve the workflow someday soon.
I have two problems wih Force 3.2.3.
Are these known issues with Force?
I got the OpX4 over the weekend St. Patrick’s Day sale.
I call it the “BudgetTone”.
SCG