Dear Dylan, many thanks for your great explanations and also thanks to the other users who contributed with their useful tips.Best greetings from Vienna 👋🏼
A small tip if you didn't know yet. Instead of dragging the audio loops from arranger to clip mode manually there is an easier way. You can choose what part you want to convert by selecting it with the loop button in arranger mode. Then right click the loop bar and select consolidate time to new scene. This will do the same thing and it is much less tedious and faster than dragging and dropping. ;)
The secret to using the Force and Ableton is resampling and using drum racks. If you add a resampled track, record your parts, then replace your track with a drum rack to load the loops, you encounter very few problem. It also helps if all your drums have a matching drum kit in the force.
@@labrdadada In ableton you have drum racks. It makes it where you can assign any sample to one of 16 pads. In Akai force, you have drum kits, same thing. If you use the drums racks/kits as your sample players, you never run into the "audio track" limit. You use a resampled track in Ableton (sample your sound, VST usually), load it in a drum rack, and then when you transfer, it's loaded up that way. You might need to adjust the BPM after you transfer from Ableton to the Force, but I can usually get it to work pretty good. And I never run into "audio" track issues. Quite frankly, I've never used an audio track on the force.
@@TheEveljesus I get it now! Good idea, especially when every sample pad in drum rack can have its own 4 plugins slots, just like audio track. Will try it out, thanks!
The force really needs the ability to perform follow actions like in Ableton. This would allow you to step into the next set of loops. The only way you can play your loops in a sequenced way is to record your launch actions into the arranger mode. To enter Arrange Mode, press Menu and then tap Arrange. It's best to watch the official Akai videos on how to do it. Funny thing before the arranger there was no way to sequence your loop events. This machine while more refined than when it was released still has a few things that need ironing out.
I know this kind of defeats the purpose of the whole ableton/force thing, but it would've been a lot easier to record each progression directly into the Force. You could set it to record 8 bars, assign each 8bar recording to a pad on a drum track, and call it a day. You'd also gain a lot of control as far as sequencing and effects go.
You know, instead of dragging and dropping the sections of the arrangement into session mode, you can set the loop locators to the sections, right- click the loop bar at the top of the arrange view, and select "consolidate time to new scene."
If you connect a controller to the force, create midi tracks, you could play into ableton and vst’s and return the audio to the force via usb interface. Would cut out a couple of manual steps.
It's possible to send midi by Ethernet or wifi. I do this using MPC ONE. In my case I have to use Ethernet cable. You have to open MPC midi software and select MPC or force by IP.
Thanks for the help and tips ...I have a question about The Force ....will it act as a digital interface and dac? If not can you recommend the one you are using and why thanks
I think I need more context to answer this question. I primarily use the Force in standalone where I can just plug my headphones directly into it. It also has dual XLR/Quarter Inch inputs w phantom power for recording. Are you talking about using it as a computer audio interface?
Exactly what I was thinking when I envisioned me using the Force with the band. But I'm having a hard time envisioning myself doing this for my band songs. Making those loops is quite a task. Especially in Reason (my DAW) that does not have the Ableton options. (like fading every loop) nor the 'export to the Force' option. (that makes a file the Force can import). So this is a very good example of what I had a hard time knowing if this would work for me (like work practically) Stupid question, but why don't you just use Ableton and a controller for launching clips? (it is something that I have not made up my mind about) And is there a way to make the Force 'auto play' the next scene? (row) So you don't have to select it? Cause I have my hands full :)
Not a stupid question at all! Right now I just have the surface pro 8 and I'm not sure I trust it for live music performance. My friend with an m1 MacBook air said he doesn't feel confident with Ableton onstage and he does more live stuff than anyone I know. But I am tempted to get a 14 inch MacBook pro with m1 pro or max. I think you can import the arrangement (linear view) from Ableton and just play the tracks back as a linear song, haven't tested cause I like the live hands on feel of scene launching
@@DylanParisMusic Thnx Well, I have no Ableton experience myself, but it feels like everybody I know that does something serious live is using Ableton(Live 😜) with a MacBook. So in theory there should be something good in that combination 🤣 I’m probably also not so confident about Windows on stage either, although they have improved drastically over the years. (Used Windows quite a few times live and it did not always work great) But a single Force is probably more easy to carry around than a MacBook, controller and interface. Although I wonder how often a Force will freeze (I read some complaining they seem to do that sometimes) Nothing is perfect I guess, but cost wise a Force is the ‘better’ option (if you don’t already own a M1 + Ableton)
Good video especially for Ableton & Force users! It would be cool to see you mix up DAWs sometime or nix them all together like you have in past videos. One of the biggest sell points of the Force for me is standalone working. I like the idea of having Force + a few other instruments or hardware to create without an internet connection. I've been considering Akai Force combined with Roland MC707 to make sequencing easier & have more colors to paint with.
Yeah I definitely focus mostly on gear by itself in my gear videos. This one was specific because I basically bought the force for this purpose. It was between the force, the octatrack, or an SP 404 MK2 to be able to take my stems into a live hardware environment.
You make well thought out tutorials, thank you , I'm new to this environment getting the Force soon , may I ask which DAW can I use to stem tracks from Akai Force ? I know this may sound very elementary to most of your listeners , I cant find an answer online . Thanks! and keep making your demos !
Thank you for watching! Most DAWs will let you import stems, my favorite DAW is Ableton :) Logic Pro, Cubase, Reason, and FL Studio are other popular options
@@DylanParisMusic thank you sir , Much appreciated. I have a new found respect for people using the Akai products and it will be a while before I get to stemming as I want to use the force to launch scenes to back up my songs I've already written as sa singsong writer . 3 string electric dulcimer , I have a few on RU-vid My fav, is 'Diesel fume Nebraska ' It made it to a late night cable show on Comcast. 5 of my 15 minutes of fame - lol Thanks again !
@@DylanParisMusic Thank you - I'm at the end of my career in music , I've opened for famous bands ,no ones heard of anymore .Crash Test Dummies was one , to go from that back to the clubs and bars was depressing , but in art , you accept the lifestyle no matter where it brings you , To quote Charles Bukowski - " Find something you love and let it kill you " There are multiple meanings in everything in life . Nice chatting with you ,good luck with your musical endeavors.
I’m not a Live user. The process of recording to audio tracks seemed very cumbersome to me. In Logic you can just Bounce midi instrument tracks (regions) straight to audio files ready for export to your hardware.
Yeah you can do normal audio freezing and exporting in live as well, the big issue is just how the Force reads the files. And because the Force uses a session view, although Logic does have a view like that now too. I don't think they coded the Force to import logic files.
17:00 I liked seeing the Force that high as I like to stand and groove and dance while creating beats and looping guitar/vocals. How stable is the stand at that height?
You actually cán select all clips in ableton at the same time and set them to 'loop' in the left bottom corner (there's a 'loop' button in the clip edit menu) when you have all of them selected, setting the one clip you can see in the editor to 'loop' will set all of the selected clips to loop at once. This works for other clip settings as well. (hold CTRL and click clips to make a custom selection or hold shift to select entire rows of clips at once) I have not tried if setting a clip to loop in Ableton will also translate to a Force project but it might just work ^^ @alec liegeois method of consolidating also auto loops the selected parts, but still it might come in handy to know you can change the settings of multiple clips at once if you just select them at the same time. Could be useful for things like warping/timestretching and transposition.
I just tried via “freeze” and “flatten” commands and exported… save all… moved “crop” and created a “recorded” folder - but the Force cannot read 90% of the samples. Maybe I need to try the realtime “resample” per track and go this route. What a SMOOOOVE in-between for AKAI and Ableton!😅
@@DylanParisMusic And the MPC sites say to just freeze/flatten… hilarious. I will try your method. I think one pass in realtime to resample ALL tracks at once via multiple recording lanes, combined with the shortcut in arranger to “capture and insert scene” for each different phase of the track, followed by your crop-all and then X,Y,Z - will work. Now to deal with the other Force bugs!
@@DylanParisMusic I did get the clips to load in the proper tracks, but at least my Kick track is clipping. I wonder if the “zero point” setting needs to be adjusted. It is strange, bc I do not believe this was an issue on other devices in my studio. Just the akai. Go figure. I did get them to sync up over ad-hoc network as well. Progress… but still very funny little quirks.
@@MrFullyCharged Yeah i believe they need to enable some sort of auto fade in feature for clips imported from ableton. Ableton has that feature built in but they don't seem to stay if you enable in ableton then export to the force.
It's awesome that you're making videos about using Ableton and the Force together in a meaningful way. I'm looking forward to more of this kind of content from your channel.👊 Also...is that rainwater on your window? What's that like?...asking for California
Hi m8 im also looking for an easy way to go from my DAW to Force...i found out that MPC 2 (the software, but not the MPC Beats version...its confusing) is compatible with Force. When you install MPC 2, it comes with a VST plugin you can load into Ableton. So when i produce, i sometimes creat basslines or leads in the MPC plugin. Then when i archive the MPC project with said basslines, leads etc, it loads into the Force!!! This is including ROUTIN, full effects + settings (like Motherducker) even the Q Links (get converted to Macros). It not really optimal, its not ment for Force but it works for me :) Try it, maybe you can expand on this and let me know!!! (MPC Beats is free and also works but missed extra plugins like Hype)
I ran into issues in the past due to VST compatibility but the method I tried in this video is not the most useful method. I might make a future video about this.
Hello! When I import my wav files from Ableton to Akai Force (the same BPM etc), I have a problem with the start of any loop. I don't understand why? File start from 0 on the Force, but looks somehow strechted out as the first note on the zero, but where the next synth stab in the wav file I supposed to start at the beginning of the next bar, it instead start a bit after it. It's very sad because I was ready to prepare a live set with 10/12 tracks in my project, but with this problem it's a drama. In Ableton every loop played in the correct mood. Someone can help me? Thanks.
After seeing all this I would say for me it would not be worth to get something good out of Live and put it into Force. Rather make something on the Force from the get go (if I ever own one). Thanks for showing us.
Totally! I will say I've found a simpler way to do this that I need to make a new video about soon. But yeah I deffffinitely use the Force more in standalone by itself now vs as a way to play ableton songs
it depends on the track but the load times are definitely not seamless. you could hypothetically build out a single project with a bunch of different audio clips from different songs, but that would lose some benefits you get of having different projects
The process of importing tracks is not simple and akai force has a limit of 8 audio tracks. They show that Force is an Ableton Hardware but it is not quite so
yeah would definitely love a simpler and more intuitive import process, one that could potentially import midi tracks and assign them to appropriate force plugins as well
Has anyone managed to pass projects from ableton in force? Is there anyone who can give me a hand? I want to replace Ableton live permanently with Force for my live performances
Fige le son via audio ça ne laisse plus de place aux changements ! Sur le mix et les effets ! Pour ma part autant créer des loops audio et les triturer ds le force ou l’inverse ! Et passer plus de temps à créer et bosser sur le sound design que passer son temps à ça
