Exactly. I’m about to make the switch once I finish a project I’m working & will have the time & energy to learn a new OS. I also wanted a video like this breaking down the whole thing. The discord has a high degree of “the curse of knowledge” & is kinda all over the place.
Have you used it?
“mockba” is russian for Moscow. I’m wondering what the connection to Russia might be. *OTMK3confirmed?
Nope, I still have a lot to learn in the official firmware. Once I know it really well, I will switch to the mod. So in a few years lol.
Thanks for offering clarity. My dumb ass was thinking it was some Start Wars reference 
TIL.
You ain’t overestimating the time needed to learn the plain OS. Had my since October 2021 & their features I still really uses yet. So take your time. The Force is deep. It’s like the nerdy sister of the MPC. They say females are better at multitasking & the can do many different things at once even while in different screens, which can confuse/fustrate the shit out you, but ultimately bring you bliss…like a woman.
:dizzy:
The Mockba firmare is an absolute blast. As a guitarist and bass player I can compose clip-based accompaniments on the force and switch szenes either via automation or a Blackstar live logic foot controller. This is exactly what was missing for me. I am absolutely grateful for this firmware.
That’s great. Do you find it buggy or anything you don’t like about it?
The Akai Force showcase will feature artist that use the Force in their music that I like to listen to from around the web.
Found her channel at the end of 2023 & her music is great to me. So many other make this style of dark, glitchy, distorted music, but her is just better than most. She got about 52 beats made with the Force & many use the Tasty Chips: GR-1 which can get pretty nasty.
As a inside joke I told her if she painted her nails red I would post the video on different sites, Well she did & here we are… LOL. Hope you enjoy her music.
For more of Zoë’s music check this YouTube playlist that I made that currently has 52 of her songs or go to her YouTube page:
My list:https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLLXWW4gr4M1KXvGs-Ywi58dR8OF_r_E0l&si=ou_2HXo7sYqnVb81
Her YouTube channel:https://www.youtube.com/@zoenowak5132
What do you guys think of her music?
Hi everyone! I want to ask you if now it’s possible in step sequencing mode to press on step and to insert a chord or note from external keyboard.
Thanks a lot!
Nope, still not possible.
I do not find that firmware buggy. But I use it only for automation and foot pedal switching of scenes. My scenes are not very complicated and everything seems stable so far. What I really miss are good tutorials for all the additional functions. There are some read me’s and discussions on dischord but everything is a bit too nerdy and hardly comprehensible, at least for me.
OK, thanks that’s good to know. The video I posted is an overview that showed what the OS can do, but he mentioned that more tutorials are coming & that we should request topics that he could focus on in the future. So I would leave him your suggestions in the videos comment section.
Akai Force: How to Emulate the MPC Song Mode in the Clip-Matrix
Over on the MPC thread on Gearspace (I go by Wise Beats there) we got into the differences between the Force & MPC style of sequencing songs. I explained how the Force could be used to emulate the MPC song mode via the Clip-Matrix & the unique way I use it with something I call the “Clip-Bank Method” (CBM). This is 2 short videos I made to explain my points to them & may & be of interest to you guys.
This is a link to one of the members I was talking to that lead me make these videos: Gearspace - View Single Post - MPC Live
If you go there & read back some post I explained more about my method. I hope this clears up some confusing about the different styles of sequencers. The Force may still not be your thing & that’s cool.
If you don’t want to use the link here’s some quotes from the site, but the site has way more info:
[QUOTE=Leighty;16935837]Having come full circle back to the MPC world but now with a MPC 4000. I swapped my Push 3 for this last week. I’ve also owned the newer MPCs in the past and the Force.
I’ve come to realize as ‘fun’ as clips in Force/Push are to come up with ideas, it’s a hideous way to arrange a track. With only 8 scenes to view at a time, and a never ending combo of pad colours…try to actually piece together a 6 minute arrangement using scenes is so hard and messy to follow. Don’t get me wrong it’s totally doable but in practice it gets confusing. Push 3 is even worse in that you can’t set follow actions and tbh follow actions in controller take me ages to setup.
The MPC 4000 has reminded me how tried and tested the MPC workflow is for song writing. I like that you can build on a non-destructive arrangement in song mode based on your patterns and then print the song to a new pattern. Optimal approach I have is to setup each song to actually be a section e.g.
You can chizel away at your sections this via the underlying sequences, or very rapidly produce a simple set of seqs just using mute states. Then print each song section to a new pattern. Do more detailed edits in those, and then chain then to make a complete edited song.
It’s a really solid workflow, even if not super quick, it causes you to focus on sections and move forward in a linear way.
I love MPC sequences and song modes![/QUOTE]
[QUOTE=Wise Beats;16936940]What are you talking about? You can view all 128 tracks & 999 (if you have that many) scenes at once in the Navigate view. You can only view 8 tracks & 8 scenes in the Clip-Matrix which is like the main screen. How many sequences & tracks can you view in the MPC at once?
All tracks & pads can be set to the same color.
Akai Force: How to Emulate the MPC Song Mode in the Clip-Matrix
The first video I show how you could make the same MPC song structure you gave me in your post, tho you didn’t tell me how many tracks you used so to keep it simple I just kept it to 8 so everything could be seen at once. On track 8 which is blank, I used it to name the parts of the song. The first 4 clips are named Intro#1, Intro#2… . I made the intro part beforehand, with four 8 bar seqs. K1=Kick S1=Snare, H1=Hats.
Then I did the Drop section live by making each clip one by one. I forgot to renamed them to Drop#1, Drop#2, but as you can see, once you rename the track, all new clips will have that name & the Scene number it was created on.These are just dummy tracks & clips & normally you would make them as you grow the project & record into them. I could’ve did the rest of the songs sections but, hopefully you get the point of how you could recreate all them section in the Clip-Matrix"
I finish by showing how fast you can delete & copy clips by using the the 64 pads that not seen in the video.
Akai Force: Clip-Bank Method (Ruff Draft) --AKA Ableton Style Sequencing.
The second video is me roughly showing how my “Clip-Bank method” works to create a new song with just copying & pasting the clips in the Clip-Bank, which is all the clips above the blank row of clips on scene 8 using the Inset & Capture feature. I start by putting them on scene 11 keep some kind of order to the song. If I more than 11 clips in the the Clip-Bank I would start the song on Scene 21. I put a blank row of clips at the end of the song to signal that the song is over & if I want to make a new version of the song I would start any where below it. Remember there’s 999 Scenes/Clips.
Pay attention to the Launch scene numbers on the right side of the screen. Off screen I’m using button shortcuts to move around the clip-matrix super fast. I then show how the Navigate view can show you the whole Project at once & how you can use it to move around the clip-matrix. You can hold Shift+the top 8 pads or Shift+any of the Directional buttons to move by 8 tracks at once.
This Project is one of my custom templates & each of the different colors is for a different synth. The first 16 gray tracks is for the RS7000, next 16 Light Blue=Proteus 2500, Green=MC707, Dark Blue=Akai Plugins, Next Red=TR8S which really has 11 tracks but to keep it even with 8 I put the last 3 after the 8 Yellow Audio tracks. The rest is dummy tracks & the last red one is a Drum track.
Finally I show the Arranger that had data from an older project just to show what you can do with the “song” in the Clip-Matrix once you record into it"[/QUOTE]
I’ll make a more detailed video for the CBM later as its still a work in progress, but as is, its enough to give you an idea & how it works to help you make better compositions on the Force. Any questions or advice to improve it please let me know.
Hei! I had a Akai Force that i sold when Maschine plus came out - when they released the 3.0 beta - and now considering to buy one second hand, mainly out of curiosity, but also from a practical point standpoint.
I have a push 3 as a center fo a shrinked hardware setup and i am using it with controllers and loopers, mainly.
Can the akai force work with Push 3 Standalone as a controller. I was thinking that the Ableton controller mode for the force would be a great addon for live performances. And since that it seems that it can still act standalone at the same time it would be amazing.
Thanx in advance
Not about the Force but it kinda is. The dude energy is a little over the top, but the info is useful in showing how 4/4 time isn’t as limited as it may seem at first. Peace!
Ableton Live control integration.
In this video Akai says that you can control Ableton wirelessly or with ethernet. Is this also possible using the usb cable? I mean Pluging in the Akai force via usb to my Mac running Ableton and control it.
Thanx in advance
As far as I know Akai force doesn’t send midi over USB to a computer while in standalone mode hence their mention of wireless or ethernet. And unlike the MPCs the Force doesn’t have an Akai companion software app to interface with over USB.
I find it so silly they make a do almost anything device but it can’t send midi over USB without some other device inbetween. IIRC the new MPC key can do midi over usb while in standalone so who knows if it could be a FW update one day.
Can’t recall if the Mokba mod allowed for midi over USB while in standalone maybe worth a a look.
Either way good to realize the ableton control while functional is not going to rival what you could do with a Push. (probably quite some Push2s on the 2nd hand market now just sayin)
Thanx.
I got one yesterday and I tried and it didn’t seemed to work, and now I know it isn’t possible. I want it to work for a very specific use, and it might be a huge stretch.
I want to use the akai force to control the push 3 
.
This might seem stupid but here is my reasoning:
. Using a sort of 2 deck setup for seemingly transitions between ableton projects;
. You can use the akai force standalone and in controller mode, simultaneously;
. The akai force would be locked in the clip launcher when on controller mode, and use the knobs to control push parameters;
. This would allow me to have more hands on control over my als project in push, where it can for example controll a drum sequencer or play its mpe pads, control the mixer, and the Force the already mentioned session view and instruments parameters;
.When I want to transition to a new music I can change the Force to standalone control, and have a Force version of my P3 projects specially made for transitions, while I open a new project on push.
Using just this and a mixer I can have a way of really pushing the improvisation and fun of performing my P3 songs, without having the headache - and inflexibility - of making a live project with all my songs.
Without being able to use the akai force as a ableton controller for the push, it still might be possible by assign midi cc, etc except that I lose the very important control of the session view.
But maybe this will just be to complicated and I’m delusional
First video for my new YTC
“Harlem Groove” By Harlem-Instrumental
Yamaha RS7000 Beat from 2018-10-08
Recorded with the Akai Force on 2024-04-28
Camera Panasonic G9
This is beat was made on the Yamaha RS7000. I transferred the MIDI to the Akai Force & re-sequenced it there & used the Force’s crossfader to mess it the RS7000 filters. All sounds are coming from the RS7000 that’s not in the screen, but I had to first moved the MIDI data to the Squarp Pyramid because the Force & the RS won’t talk to each other via 5din MIDI - My Force is used & didn’t come with MIDI jack adapter so I got some Elektron ones & that may be why.
This is a basic beat that I never really developed & didn’t even have a name until I made this video, but the crossfader action gave it some life. It’s really just me jamming. I have an earlier version but there’s no video. I’ll leave a link to it. I used the Force Channel strip FX as on the overall mix. I named it “Harlem Groove” because that’s where I’m from & groove sounded unique - Harlemites be on some different shit! #NYC
Some may know me from different sites as B-Wise, Wise-Beats, & or Poetic-Noise (I recently found out multiple artist already used that name). So Harlem Instrumental it is. I like it because I don’t really want to make beats for rapper anymore, just dope Instrumental that’s interesting enough without a rapper. Also, most of my music goes over 5mins & up to 13mins so far.
I’m working on a 5 album series. Can’t really say about it now. 1 album of all the best beats for each of the 4 devices that I’ve used since 2002: Dr-202, SP-505, MPC-2500/Proteus2500, & the RS7000 & 1 sample album as vol.5 that I plan on releasing for free. It took me about 4 years just to move all the beats to the Force from Nov 2019 to March 2024, this is story all by itself. The Force as of now will be my main device that all the beats will be remade on with help from other gear. I don’t know how long this will take, but in the meantime I’ll just drop some jams, music tips & whatever.
Peace & dope beats!
Link to the version I did on 2024/03/03 :MPC Thread : MPC Live - MPC X - MPC One (Part 2) - #6795 by Poetic-Noise