Opening Ableton Projects On Akai Force: How Does It Work? 

Thanks for this video. I've never tried but I always wondered how it would go. After seeing that and if my goal is to play a track on the force live. I would resample everything except the lead sound I want to play live and recreate it on the force. Or better, do everything on live except for the lead played with the force as an instrument then get the midi of the lead when imported (so I just have to reassign the midi clips to the correct preset)

Great to see how this works. Can’t say I was surprised at all - Ableton doesn’t know that it’s exporting for Force so it wouldn’t provide any hints to the Force to reconstitute plugins etc. So it went for the lowest common denominator which is midi and audio. It was a little surprising that it didn’t put the fade ins / outs on the exported samples automatically. They’d have been rendered permanently into the audio but at least it would give you what Live was producing by default.

great breakdown.

Hi. I've just purchased an Akai Force and found this video useful. I did manage to download the Akai Force full manual which is quite a big read, and to be fair it does state that third party VSTs will be converted into just midi files when imported into Force. Force does not support the VST format. The stock sounds and drum kits that come with Ableton Live (including some packs) seem to import OK by using the 'Collect All and Save' method (with all the boxes highlighted). I've tried this with a couple of piano sounds (.adg) and an 808 saved as an Ableton project then imported into Force. I then just added some of the Force's Plug-ins to the project. I haven't noticed any audible 'clicks' on clips but maybe my headphones/speakers aren't as good as yours. Once again, thanks for the video. 🙂

So basically you need to just bounce the audio clips to the Force to get the same sounds, then add onto it with whatever the Force can do. I would be surprised if Ableton would make it easy for Akai to let people export out the same Air presets, effects or anything, because that makes it way too attractive as a Push 3 replacement. I'm actually kinda surprised it's possible to load .als into the Force at all. But I do hope your wishes come true - I much prefer my Force to any of the Pushes. All it needs is the Midimix or something else with knobs and sliders per track and you really have a ton of live performance power in just those 2 devices.

Really good job, I prefere the Ableton version

I have just started to learn Live so I am green with the software... I have a Force though but I am not a power user... question. Is there a cheat sheet or manual showing the compatibility between Force and Live that spells out all the limitations when switching between the two work spaces?.. Something that covers track type limits? Is there a Live template that you can use that will be 100% compatible with the Force?.... My impression is that you are probably best developing an idea on the Force and finishing the track on Ableton were you have no limitations... only caveat would be if you wanted to live play an Ableton project but then I guess you'd just mix your track down to wav and just play clips?

Are you using Live 11? I had trouble with midi and 11 transferring both ways so I gave up on it over a year ago. Worked on 10 but I preferred using each with what they do best. I do sometimes use the wifi midi to sample in to the force.

On converting midi tracks to plugins: can you just press LOAD when the midi track is selected and choose a plugin, or select a plugin from the new fancy Sounds grid?

Yeah, I already have try that before transfer my Ableton projects to Force and the only thing I can say, its a JOKE... I read then somewhere you need to freeze in Ableton everything, then you have Audio Files from all tracks and that would work. The big Problem there is then Force has only 8 tracks Audio, if you also had a 20 Tracks Projects in Ableton it will not work just doing Audio Tracks from everything. Otherwise : Its clear Plugins cannot be transferred cause Force has complete other stuff than Ableton inside. Force cannot replace it, what it sould also ? If you not have an OPx4 inside like me it cannot replace the Operator. Sure for ANALOG could take the TUBE synth but the sound would anyway not match cause complete other Parameters and sound behaviour.. This would really only work with a freezed sample from the sound. And then set it as a keygroup instrument like a sampled synth.. But FORCE dont do that what I basically expected it would.. But it were then also very static I think. All the synths modeling analog behaviour over time were in a Sample just played stacato not hearable, always same. Then we are in Sample synths terretory from the 90s.. No thanks.. I expect more from my sound in 2023.... What I was dissapointed is that I found myself rearrange all sound sources with Forces Plugins I have to recreate my songs, wich work sure quite well, but its horrable work to do. I needed 2 days for a song is only 5 Minutes long.. And I have Songs are 15 Minutes, I done yet one of them I needed almost one week to match everything sounds like I want. scene per scence , track per track, 50 scenes a 30 tracks, not all full but you can imagine... control every step if sound right, always find mistakes still, cause changes in transpose a synth part 1 octave later in my arrangment with automation I used in Ableton are not matched as well in Force. Ahh yes thats also a point... no automation transferred even Force has Automation... WHY THIS ?? Another dissapointing thing was I had one song a Guitar intro in Ableton, that one is in Ableton Tempo warped as well. You go crazy that in Force to fix it. I will new record that... And further, no effects at all. And what I not understood at all was that I could not load in Force the big MultiMic Session Drum Programs from Ableton, no one of them, Force said me too much Data, even I have Disk Streaming activate and a 4 TB SSID inside there.... NOT WORK at all. So generally what I can say is, transfer can good be done only Midi Data and Samples itself. But more is only with a lot of afterworks really usable. Force brings you really all clips even its 30 Tracks and 50 Scenes, all no problem. Thats really cool. But no Sound, no effects , no automation and at least no tempo changes, you can forget anyway.. BUT, and BIG BUT, if I done finally i have to say, my songs i did yet in Force are sound more good in FORCE. In Ableton they sound so smooth somehow , while in Force they sound quite punchy, even with less things I set in the Master.. I dont know why that is. Maybe technical aspect...My interface for the Laptop is a presonus not bad one. But I think the FORCE has a better output signal generally... listen then to same way over Behringer Mixer and EQ treatment to M-Audio Speakers like the Laptop also going, there are worlds between. WOW just wow.. I try now to find a solution works for me bring my old songs from Ableton somehow in Force.. But 100% I am yet not happy with it. Wich is bit frustrating , I expected more from what they promised... Maybe some things I need complete new record again... Anyway I like my FORCE, I have updated yet the newest Version and got more Plugin stuff like the Mini, Organ, E Pianos and acoustic as well, and the JURA, beside Solina Odysee and Mellotron already was there with 3.1. Beside the internal stuff Force has. And I have to say they sound amazing and for me as need progressive rock sound source its absolutely amazing have all this basic progressive Rock Instruments now all in ONE BOX. Its something Ableton itself has not to offer, the Plugins in Ableton are not really all very interesting, sounds not really what I need, best there for me is ANALOG... All more you only get with external Plugins, sure some are free, some costs a horrable amount. I am in Ableton also not yet on the 11, too much costs again for things I not really need and even the PUSH 3 were interesting, but the costs, jesus crist... my wife would kill me... haha Anyway... With all this in Force now I could even give up the whole Arturia stuff Plugins. Saved much money as well. For that the Force is sure a better complete solution now for me .. And future Songs I will now complete also first record in Force... This transfer thing is not yet what i want to do and what is usful..

Ah, but can you move a project from the force back to Abelton?

I don’t like the fact that you have to fix the clips once you bring them into the force. The whole idea is that you want to be able to build a performance without a lot of hassle. More work is needed on this. The reverse from the force to Ableton we need to be able to split the drums. Not have them all be on a single audio track.

So just stick to making music on force or ableton. Dont try and combine the two.

Akai Should've include MPC2 software with Force soo you'll be able to open Force's projects in Ableton using MPC2 sofware as plugin for built in Force's synths...