The Fundamental Difference Between Akai Force and Maschine Plus 

When I was shopping for this device, my original intent and desire was to find a completely standalone piece of hardware that functioned in as near to the same manner as Ableton. I’ve centered my production workflow almost entirely around ableton for years, and have had the pleasure of experimenting with many different styles of workflow, and hardware additions, such as the Launchpad pro and touchable for iPad. I was introduced to the force while looking into various new and vintage MPC devices. Since my productions are a lot more stylistically similar to classical music / arrangement techniques; it became more and more apparent that a ‘beat maker’ might be the wrong direction for me. I experimented with a lot of different apps on the iPad to get more comfortable and familiar with the beat grid style of composing, but was constantly feeling drawn back to a midi arrangement / traditional staff style of composing. When I got the force, they already had released the major update with the SSD / keyboard / 30 channel interface support, so I feel really lucky for missing it’s seemingly immature and rushed release. (Clearly they had the updates in mind the whole time, otherwise it wouldn’t have always had the places to stick such peripherals. All things considered, the force was a perfect fit fro the start. I wanted something that could bridge the composition work I did in ableton with the sound design and processing that are made to such a satisfying level on an iPad Pro. I have the force connected to a focusrite 18i20 3rd gen, one (smaller but newer) iPad Pro with the usb-C connected to a presonus 1824c running into the force via analog and optician - exclusively for sound design in AUM/BM3/Keystage (just to mix it up and challenge me a bit), and an older gen iPad Pro 12.9” running touchable, Xequence, LK, One control pro, touchOSC, Lemur, custom midi/Osc server experiments, you name it! I’ve had it for many years, so it’s packed with a little bit of everything to make things more interesting between the Mac, iPads, midi gear, and the force. All of it is on its own separate subnet, provided by a TP-Link Omada ER605. Honestly, unless you REALLY want to learn advanced network administration, I’d just toss everything on a separate router that isn’t connected to your home network (for stability and security). Then just take the router with to performances. Thanks for sharing the video! Love to see what kind of trouble everyone else is getting into with these things!

Mashine+ and mashine Jam is a. match made in heaven. The issue with "cant do two things' is obliterated. With jam you can do Everything at the same time all the time. Its Magic! Love love love my mashine+ and jam with hardware synths setup. Dawless with ease and more!

So glad I watched this video. That little difference you noted is a huge deal breaker for me. I was going to buy this to accompany my Force.

I got a Force after seeing a bunch of vids on the 3.0+ firmwares, and I’ve been so surprised how much I’ve been loving it. There’s a real nice intersection of production and love jamming. It’s replaced the MPC for me.

its pretty obvious from your video, that its a no brainer that, the force is a force to be reckoned with. it can work with ableton link,in sync, and if like me, you have the push 2, the force, and the machine jam all linked, it's an awesome set up, when using ableton, or just using the force stand alone on its own, with external synths keyboards, you can record everything at once, you can't even record a full session on the M+ as far as i know. great video by the way letting people know the differences up front, is appreciated i am sure.

This is what I love about the 707. I can do quite a few things at once (if my brain cooperates 😂) and it has dedicated strips so you know where to reach. Nice video btw, really like the channel!

Thanks for your Force videos. I'm learning a lot.

Thanks for the clear explanation.

Great, great video! Please keep doing more of these. I own both plus the Maschine Jam. I got the Force out of frustration with the M+. I love NI products, but the M+ was sooo buggy, constantly crashing, that I decided to get the force. Soon after we've got an update on the M+ and now is much better, but I really like the Force. As people say here, you get more for what you pay. I have to say that the sounds of the M+ are superior to any AKAI product. But, if you can afford both, I think then you've got the best of both worlds. Keep up the good work.

finally found the answer I've been looking for, thanks man

thanks a lot for this video, it was fun to listen to!

Maschine Jam is an answer for this :) btw-great channel !

Great ! Thank You :)

Great video. I want to be able to plug into my 8 channel dj mixer. 4 channels if music , & 4 more for creativity.

Just so much more capability in the Force for live work in my opinion.

very useful, thanks! I have the maschine MK3 and love the workflow but use it exclusively for songwriting/composition/arrangement. For live sets (one day ....) I will probably use the maschine to run as a "backing track" with live keyboard/guitar/vocals on top. The Force looks a great device though...

WOW! I made the right choice!

Fully agree! You can do a lot with the M+, even perform in a limited capacity, but you need 15 fingers to do it well. You can do a lot with lock modes, macros and automation, but it’s essentially a production-centric Groovebox while the Force is performance-centric. Both good devices if you use them for their strengths. Realistically, price is a factor, and if you could only choose one, personally I feel the Force provides more bang for your buck. To get the performance features on the M+ you need the Komplete Kontrol S49, and that will only get you halfway there…

Thank you so much. I love the functionality of the force and love the sounds of the maschine. How can I get maschine sounds into the force ?

puedes usar la maschine jam con la maschine mk3 y puedes hacer lo mismo que en la akai e inclusive tienes el modo lock para programar escenas de una manera diferente que no tiene akai

My next less musically focused experiments would be to learn and start programming custom pure data, Apple Watch / wearable / movement driven, and other scripts just for the Force. If I get around to , bet on seeing a RU-vid channel I dedicate to it!

Great vid I have one question which one sounds best sonically though ? Thanks

Great point of view and tutorial! I have a question so at minute 3:35 when changed scene they waited till the loops get to the end and only after that the 2nd scene started! Does the Machine Plus also do that? Like schedule the next Scene? Hope you can help! Thanks

I’ve had both and sold the Maschine, Force is more adaptable and capable. Plus it has been vastly and consistently improved through firmware updates and the Maschine hasn’t. The Force evolved to offer an incredibly unique and powerful workflow. Maschine users are all saying the same thing, “where’s the updates?”

Even now when push 3 is out force is still probably the best device (maschine mk3 / push 2 user here)

Hi, do hou try machine jam contrôler ?

The Maschine+ has better sounding instuments and better pads, but that's where it ends... It''s instability and proprietary platform was the deal breaker for me... The Force is packed with so many more useful features...most notably the transition features that the Maschine+ doesn't have... The Force is a no-brainer between the two, IMO...

I acquired a Maschine Mk2 'by accident' (in a deal with a synth I wanted) and was surprised by its build quality and great interaction with the software. I keep wondering why I do not dive deeeper into it. But you make good points towards the Akai Force here. Still not sure whether to buy the Push 2 for my Ableton setup or go more into stand-alone mode with one of these boxes.

Can the Maschine Jam can do this when plugged into the M+? What are the pads like on the force? I’m not a huge fan of the mpc pads, but like the Machine ones/launchpad Mk3 ones? The jam ones are not velocity sensitive

Basically I want to perform live - neo soul type music - and I'd like to move between launching clips, scenes of synth bass and guitar bass, electronic drums and acoustic drums, synth pads and leads, and tweaking effects on them etc, and at other times over the top of that music, playing live piano / synth / organ, live guitar, live vocals and maybe even sampling and looping some of those live as well - if possible. Basically I want to be a live one woman band. Is the Force or the Maschine + better for this live workflow or should I have both ? Also - I have to say I do prefer the warmth and fatness of NI sounds vs Akais cool crisp sounds although having both would be awesome. I'm wondering if using auto sample, or software like sample robot and kitmaker, would easily get Native Instrument / Force sounds into either stand alone unit, thus negating the need to have both, or would it be a huge hassle and not worth it ? TIA xo

im making music with you know...different parts to it? i.e. verse chorus, bridge lol. i need a way to record my demos AWAY from the daw (i work in IT and the screen time is killing my creativity when working in a daw). i also like the idea of jamming out parts of my songs (without recording) before doing a take. i want to use my ears more than my eyes, and i'd be using different instruments. bass, guitar, voice, physical synths + vst synths. is it possible with the akai force to record different parts, or maybe 'loops' and then arrange them? or would the maschine be better for something like that? I have NI komplete i use on my computer which i love, but maschine looks very menu divey.

Hi, I purchased the force in the hope that I could use it to capture incoming audio. But when it was slaved to external clock it wouldn't record. Have you had this issue?

The combo of these devices with an iConnect4 connecting the audio might be cool? The M+ has amazing synths/fx/samplePacks/samplerWith > 4 levels of velocity as default. Combine that with the force sequencer, and it’s mpc chopping might be a lot of fun?

Does the jam and Maschine plus work well

Phew , I made the right choice for once !

Hey! Have you looked at Roland MC707?

I never tried this out but can this issue not just be mitigated by using the performance fx?

If I told you I own a Moog one and iridium keyboard and force, Would you marry me?

The biggest difference is that the Farce does not allow time signatures - you're stuck with either 2 or 4 on the floor. IMO this is an inexcusable omission from an otherwise excellent instrument, especially at this price and in this day and age. WTF was Akai thinking? Of dumbing down music in general? As an investment, Maschine+ is much wiser (not to mention that NI stomps all over Akai in terms of content.) If you must go with Akai's ecosystem, the Live 2 is a MUCH better investment.