Elektron Octatrack users made their boxes hubs, so the ability to do this intuitively on Force (and MPC) sure is compelling. You can dynamically route all your MIDI ins and outs in once place, including USB devices – so it’s easy to determine where tracks are routed, how stuff is synced, and what you want to play. MPC did this first, but it’s clearly essential for Force, too. (I was going to say what they said – “on the road” – but since there really is no on the road for most of us now, it is still appealing to have something that lets us get away from “That Infernal Machine On Which We’re Doing Zoom Calls Or Doomscrolling Terrible News.”) MIDI, USB, or CV, Force is ready – and now more MIDI powers, with the new MIDI Mults.

That’s I suspect a huge, huge part of this market, people wanting to play with Live sessions without their laptop. Obviously, you’re going to lose some details, but Akai say they handle basic conversion of Drum Racks, Simpler, Sampler, and Impulse instruments – so it isn’t just a matter of saving some MIDI clips and bouncing down all the audio. Already I’ve heard from some people playing with this who love it. Maybe just as appealing, you can bring sessions from Ableton Live ALS into the Force. Linear arrangement mode – at last!Ībleton Live import. Clearly, people do add vocals and such to their music and want to finish songs without having to switch tools. On some level, this also parallels what NI are doing with Maschine in finally adding Clips you can position anywhere.

That may or may not replace your DAW of choice, but it does mean you can finish a song’s arrangement on the device and complete your ideas. So yeah, now you can make a full linear arrangement in Force, rather than just piece together some blocks.

Akai force logic pro