Really great review for a long time user. I agree with almost everything you said. I've had mine since Oct. 2021, but my got it with a Decksaver & the skin is good. I hope they drop the Force & remake it as the MK2 as the MPC64 so it'll get more attention from users & Akai. I would like to know why your so sure something is new coming? I hope you're right & Akai keep its word about another update, but I know their busy with MPC3 which prepares MPC users to the Force OS. Now they are even requesting MIDI clip - lead to wanting a clip-matrix which is why the MPC64 as an MPC option makes sense in the future. The Force is the future, but it made Akai realize that they gotta take baby steps to get MPC users to change. PS. you we're the first Force user on YT back in 2021 when I was doing gear research to show that the Force can have more than 8 tracks & 8 clips! This helped to push me to get it. I'll share this. Thanks Wolfgang!
Translation: Akai took something everyone loved, and made it utter trash, and now are seriously confused about their product line/firmware/basically everything except releasing more crappy plugins that aren't vst or VST3 or CLAP that would work with all my other plugins, which of course are all superior to plugins I can only use on a "constantly-needing-to-be-authorized" walled garden plugin shitcosystem.
The main limitation for me with the Force has been (partly due to the size of my Livesets being almost 30gb in size) the fact that I can no longer load my liveset and have all my clips playing that were made by cutting up stems inside the force. It starts to dropout the audio, even if only playing 2 clips at a time. I had to redo my entire liveset by flattening every single clip into its own audio file, which fixed the issue.....but it takes 8mins to load my Livesets now. Makes waits while sound checking awkward...and also makes me a little nervous incase it does crash. Thankfully it's never crashed since I rebuild it this way as the machine is not constantly reading edits of clips anymore and just playing individual audio clips. It took me 18months of pain to figure out what was going on...thanks to Nicethings for checking my beta files.
That's why I bought two of them.. just like cdjs mixing project with other project. Also the plugins work on 3 different units, so it's convenient moneywise
I had the Force before trying an MPC. I was SO bummed when I realized it can't do odd time signatures... Got rid of it for that reason alone. Soom after I got rid of the MPC One and started using Ableton with a Push 2. And unfortunately, as much as I enjoy MPC 3.0 Beta, now that I got another MPC, they still haven't included odd time signatures for sequences... 2.15 and even older MPCs could do odd time signatures, including 8th note odd divisions like 5/8, 7/8, etc. Otherwise I enjoyed a LOT about Force. I waited for 2 years for them to include odd time signatures and it never happened. I have learned to enjoy the MPC a lot as a creative tool and if I didn't write so much music in odd time signatures and complex meters I would have kept the Force, but ultimately I don't like a LOT about how InMusic/"Akai" does business. Their instrument plugins are mostly $150 each and I find that to be overpriced, honestly.
That rubber coating really does suck, I did the same thing and bought a skin, before that I tried cleaning the sticky stuff off with goo gone and a rag, I got a lot of it off but it still looked ugly, it looks pretty good now though
I did see a video claiming that old plastic with anti slip coating could be restored by removing the coating using a strong solvent, like gasoline. I guess any printed labels would be lost too. It’s sad how many things gets tacky with time. I got a remote control that gone that route, why I looked it up.
@@eightsprites I have the korg minilogue and the knobs have also become really sticky over the years. So, I agree that it’s a common problem. The question is why do companies still use these materials?
And then you wonder why Akai discontinued the force unit 😢 if they implement oxi one, hapax features to it, euclidian sequencer and make it octatrack BOOOM unit 🎉 it's best akai unit so far...
Im too used to the ableton-like scenes workflow to move away from the Force. I also noticed that comparable products dont seem to have xlr mic inputs, like the Push. I know the keys 61 does as well as the mpcx, but i really like the scene launching of the force
@@acidicloop Same here. Started with NI Maschine back in 2010, but the workflow never really clicked with my way of creating music. The Force feels just natural to me.
Check out my Force demo on how to use the clip matrix to emulate Ableton. Maybe it can be useful: ua-cam.com/video/Ankzrt01JZ4/v-deo.htmlsi=mT9yZMGX4H2dlvOT Here a little from the description: "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 (the 2nd 1 represents seq#1) to keep some kind of order to the song. If I make 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."
I just looked up, mpcstuff seams to be cheaper than Styleflip theses days? mpcstuff suppose to fit better ? I saw that yours do not fit 100% at the pads / left?
@@eliaszerano3510 If you look through the comments, you can see that another person didn’t have the problems I experienced with styleflip. Quality obviously varies. If you live in the US, I’d probably go with MPCstuff.
@@eliaszerano3510 Yes, I did. But I only used a cloth with a bit of water to wipe off the dust. The skin sticks to the surface really well and I think it would do so without cleaning.
You applied the skin in the wrong way. I got mine from styleflip too. Followed the instructions and apart from minor (really minor) pad misalignment holes (we are talking fractions of mm) all is fine.
@@kdcr23 Then there seem to be variations in terms of accuracy of the skin. There was always left over material, no matter where I started, sooner or later I always ran into the same problems. I even had to use a scalpel to cut the skin that is applied on the air vents at the side of the Force because they were simply too long.
@ Not yet. Maybe I should. When the skin came, the thin stripes that go between the pads were already vaulted and stood up in the air before I even tried to remove the skin from the packaging. Plus, when I just put the overlay on the Force without stretching it, you could already see that the skin was too long.
And they CHARGED MPC users for stem separation. They are a bloody money harvesting operation introducing superior-looking tools that don't actually function like the other MPCs. Still no copy paste. Still no pinch to zoom. Arranger still broken. Looper is totally useless. Browser is awful. UI is ugly and unchangeable. No consistency across button functions. Totally unutilized beautiful WHOMP WHOMP WHOMP touchscreen that is totally unnecessary. Give me buttons next to the screen whose context can instantly change via firmware. Bluetooth not compatible with WIDI. Unexpandable RAM. Need I go on? I'm selling my Live2, DM me lol. I got a decksaver and all expansions and I still hate it
Have you tried the beta 3.0? I’m still on 2.15 because I actually love the UI once I got used to it. But the 3.0 is similar to the force arranger view. I have a MPC x se and the thing I love is inputs and outputs. It’s crazy how much I can connect in and out - ie hooking up guitar pedals and routing the bass and kick as mono. I’ve got a microcosm, pog, superego plus, uad compressor N delverb, muff, etc and route different things to different pedals. So much fun. The MPC plugins are so good, and you can get native instruments expansion packs integrated in MPC with kit maker or even Etsy are selling the packs for thirty bucks for 100s of them. While MPC is a terrible midi slave, it’s a great master. While Ive got a love affair with elektron and Roland - MPC can do it all. Especially if you have a Tascam model 12 and then everything opens up. And record on the mixer and finish it off in a daw. Maybe try the 3.0 before you sell it and just play with it. The effects are great like Delay Pro, flavor pro, and half time etc, so many good ones. Honestly although not perfect, but the competition has nothing on it. Get a ssd and start designing an organization method- and create your own programs and design your own synths/sounds in favorites. Subfactory is also one of my faves as is fabric xl. Even after years - I still uncover so many different things. Hooking up an iPad is also fun and using Zenbeats, koala, GarageBand etc to sample and make into key groups is a cinch. The stem separation is only $10 but native instruments is selling it for $50 so it’s not a huge money grab. Grab some vinyl and sample and have fun with it or create your own music from scratch. Or not. But if you spend some time relaxing into it I betcha you won’t regret it. Enjoy the journey not the destination
Great review Wolfgang! I think I share these thoughts with you. Great jam too, love the Rambo vibe 😁
@@Expectaz Thanx! I enjoy your Force vids, too.
Great video and demo of the existing features!
Really great review for a long time user. I agree with almost everything you said. I've had mine since Oct. 2021, but my got it with a Decksaver & the skin is good. I hope they drop the Force & remake it as the MK2 as the MPC64 so it'll get more attention from users & Akai. I would like to know why your so sure something is new coming? I hope you're right & Akai keep its word about another update, but I know their busy with MPC3 which prepares MPC users to the Force OS. Now they are even requesting MIDI clip - lead to wanting a clip-matrix which is why the MPC64 as an MPC option makes sense in the future. The Force is the future, but it made Akai realize that they gotta take baby steps to get MPC users to change.
PS. you we're the first Force user on YT back in 2021 when I was doing gear research to show that the Force can have more than 8 tracks & 8 clips! This helped to push me to get it. I'll share this. Thanks Wolfgang!
Translation: Akai took something everyone loved, and made it utter trash, and now are seriously confused about their product line/firmware/basically everything except releasing more crappy plugins that aren't vst or VST3 or CLAP that would work with all my other plugins, which of course are all superior to plugins I can only use on a "constantly-needing-to-be-authorized" walled garden plugin shitcosystem.
@@hardtakeoff Sell it & keep it moving. BYE!
The main limitation for me with the Force has been (partly due to the size of my Livesets being almost 30gb in size) the fact that I can no longer load my liveset and have all my clips playing that were made by cutting up stems inside the force. It starts to dropout the audio, even if only playing 2 clips at a time. I had to redo my entire liveset by flattening every single clip into its own audio file, which fixed the issue.....but it takes 8mins to load my Livesets now. Makes waits while sound checking awkward...and also makes me a little nervous incase it does crash. Thankfully it's never crashed since I rebuild it this way as the machine is not constantly reading edits of clips anymore and just playing individual audio clips. It took me 18months of pain to figure out what was going on...thanks to Nicethings for checking my beta files.
That's why I bought two of them.. just like cdjs mixing project with other project.
Also the plugins work on 3 different units, so it's convenient moneywise
Thx a lot. Very interesting.
I had the Force before trying an MPC. I was SO bummed when I realized it can't do odd time signatures... Got rid of it for that reason alone. Soom after I got rid of the MPC One and started using Ableton with a Push 2. And unfortunately, as much as I enjoy MPC 3.0 Beta, now that I got another MPC, they still haven't included odd time signatures for sequences... 2.15 and even older MPCs could do odd time signatures, including 8th note odd divisions like 5/8, 7/8, etc.
Otherwise I enjoyed a LOT about Force. I waited for 2 years for them to include odd time signatures and it never happened.
I have learned to enjoy the MPC a lot as a creative tool and if I didn't write so much music in odd time signatures and complex meters I would have kept the Force, but ultimately I don't like a LOT about how InMusic/"Akai" does business. Their instrument plugins are mostly $150 each and I find that to be overpriced, honestly.
I've found that warping within a drum track works and sounds better.
That rubber coating really does suck, I did the same thing and bought a skin, before that I tried cleaning the sticky stuff off with goo gone and a rag, I got a lot of it off but it still looked ugly, it looks pretty good now though
I did see a video claiming that old plastic with anti slip coating could be restored by removing the coating using a strong solvent, like gasoline. I guess any printed labels would be lost too. It’s sad how many things gets tacky with time. I got a remote control that gone that route, why I looked it up.
@@eightsprites I have the korg minilogue and the knobs have also become really sticky over the years. So, I agree that it’s a common problem. The question is why do companies still use these materials?
The lack of Drum Explode for export (just like the MPC) still annoys me.
And then you wonder why Akai discontinued the force unit 😢 if they implement oxi one, hapax features to it, euclidian sequencer and make it octatrack BOOOM unit 🎉 it's best akai unit so far...
Im too used to the ableton-like scenes workflow to move away from the Force. I also noticed that comparable products dont seem to have xlr mic inputs, like the Push. I know the keys 61 does as well as the mpcx, but i really like the scene launching of the force
@@acidicloop Same here. Started with NI Maschine back in 2010, but the workflow never really clicked with my way of creating music. The Force feels just natural to me.
Check out my Force demo on how to use the clip matrix to emulate Ableton. Maybe it can be useful:
ua-cam.com/video/Ankzrt01JZ4/v-deo.htmlsi=mT9yZMGX4H2dlvOT
Here a little from the description: "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 (the 2nd 1 represents seq#1) to keep some kind of order to the song. If I make 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."
I just looked up, mpcstuff seams to be cheaper than Styleflip theses days? mpcstuff suppose to fit better ? I saw that yours do not fit 100% at the pads / left?
@@eliaszerano3510 If you look through the comments, you can see that another person didn’t have the problems I experienced with styleflip. Quality obviously varies. If you live in the US, I’d probably go with MPCstuff.
@@wolfgang_grows germany here as well :)
do you cleaned it before putting on the skin?
@@eliaszerano3510 Yes, I did. But I only used a cloth with a bit of water to wipe off the dust. The skin sticks to the surface really well and I think it would do so without cleaning.
Did the encoders wear out and loose resistance after those 4 years ?
@@eliaszerano3510 Nope, they still have the same feel and resistance as on the first day.
@@wolfgang_grows awesome! The encoders of my NI Maschine Studio was broken after less than 3 years :) to much chopping /
You applied the skin in the wrong way. I got mine from styleflip too. Followed the instructions and apart from minor (really minor) pad misalignment holes (we are talking fractions of mm) all is fine.
@@kdcr23 Then there seem to be variations in terms of accuracy of the skin. There was always left over material, no matter where I started, sooner or later I always ran into the same problems. I even had to use a scalpel to cut the skin that is applied on the air vents at the side of the Force because they were simply too long.
@wolfgang_grows it seems like the way you applied it might have stretched it? Did you complain with styleflip?
@ Not yet. Maybe I should. When the skin came, the thin stripes that go between the pads were already vaulted and stood up in the air before I even tried to remove the skin from the packaging. Plus, when I just put the overlay on the Force without stretching it, you could already see that the skin was too long.
STILL no tempo changes lol what a joke
And they CHARGED MPC users for stem separation. They are a bloody money harvesting operation introducing superior-looking tools that don't actually function like the other MPCs. Still no copy paste. Still no pinch to zoom. Arranger still broken. Looper is totally useless. Browser is awful. UI is ugly and unchangeable. No consistency across button functions. Totally unutilized beautiful WHOMP WHOMP WHOMP touchscreen that is totally unnecessary. Give me buttons next to the screen whose context can instantly change via firmware. Bluetooth not compatible with WIDI. Unexpandable RAM. Need I go on? I'm selling my Live2, DM me lol. I got a decksaver and all expansions and I still hate it
Have you tried the beta 3.0? I’m still on 2.15 because I actually love the UI once I got used to it. But the 3.0 is similar to the force arranger view. I have a MPC x se and the thing I love is inputs and outputs. It’s crazy how much I can connect in and out - ie hooking up guitar pedals and routing the bass and kick as mono. I’ve got a microcosm, pog, superego plus, uad compressor N delverb, muff, etc and route different things to different pedals. So much fun. The MPC plugins are so good, and you can get native instruments expansion packs integrated in MPC with kit maker or even Etsy are selling the packs for thirty bucks for 100s of them. While MPC is a terrible midi slave, it’s a great master. While Ive got a love affair with elektron and Roland - MPC can do it all. Especially if you have a Tascam model 12 and then everything opens up. And record on the mixer and finish it off in a daw. Maybe try the 3.0 before you sell it and just play with it. The effects are great like Delay Pro, flavor pro, and half time etc, so many good ones. Honestly although not perfect, but the competition has nothing on it. Get a ssd and start designing an organization method- and create your own programs and design your own synths/sounds in favorites. Subfactory is also one of my faves as is fabric xl. Even after years - I still uncover so many different things. Hooking up an iPad is also fun and using Zenbeats, koala, GarageBand etc to sample and make into key groups is a cinch. The stem separation is only $10 but native instruments is selling it for $50 so it’s not a huge money grab. Grab some vinyl and sample and have fun with it or create your own music from scratch. Or not. But if you spend some time relaxing into it I betcha you won’t regret it. Enjoy the journey not the destination