Akai ProfessionalFORCE – Standalone Music Production, MIDI Sequencer and DJ System with Synth Engines, MPC Sampling and Ableton Style Clip Launching

Best bit of kit I’ve ever owned! Bar none

After trying the MPC One, Studio, and MPC Live 2, I can say that it is the appliance that I was looking for. The negative aspects for me after trying the MPC Live 2 are the lack of speakers and an internal battery. Apart from these things, you cannot go wrong.

Loved everything complicated but worth the learning curve

Can be the brains of your setup or even your full setup it's feature set is that comprehensive.

The Akai Force (known as 'Force') is a 'standalone' music production studio with no computer required, or so it says on the box. This is because it comes with it's own computer, software and operating system built in.This product has been on the market for a few years now (as of October 2023) and has had several firmware updates to improve useability. These include internal 'Plug-in' software synths, drum machines and studio effects. The workflow is similar to the Ableton Live method of music production and 'sets' created on Force can be exported to Ableton Live (running on a separate computer) and vice versa.It also has 4 audio outputs and an audio interface for sampling, plugging in and recording guitars, vocals etc. Midi sockets for controlling external synths and drum machines, USB 3 sockets, Wi-Fi and ethernet are also included.The downloadable full user guide is quite a long read (over 400 pages) but there are plenty of YouTube tutorial videos (starting from beginners) available. There is also a good Force user on-line community.Force can be used straight out of the box and includes a quick start guide and some demo sets. At least a pair of headphones is required to hear what's going on. It can only be run on mains electricity (no battery facility) and upgrading the file storage capacity with a USB 3 memory stick, full size SD card and/or SATA 2.5 inch hard drive is recommended.If you're thinking of buying one, some of the more well known music stores around the UK stock the Akai Force and I would recommend a visit if you live near one. I bought mine from Amazon.In conclusion, some time needs to be spent learning how to use Force properly as it has many great features for modern music production. It is liable to the occasional crash, but this happens with computer based products and should not distract from the overall useability and performance.

A production studio in a box but falls down on DJing as a "standalone" piece of kit. Should have engine DJ and access to streaming services on board to make it truly standalone. Akai have missed a trick here.

I liked the idea of having an all in one unit to take away in my camper and get some tracks laid down.Sadly, the Force has failed and now freezes.I asked Akai chat help for a number for a UK repair center... "We don't give out numbers, I'll raise a ticket for you instead". So you can't actually speak to anyone about a repair.My Force is now out of warranty but if you're paying £900+ for a single piece of music gear, you expect to be able to get assistance when needed, warranty or not.Looks like Akai is slowly going down the pan.

Ok, well let's start with the really good points. The touch screen is sharp, clear and responsive. The pads respond well to finger drumming and have both velocity sensitivity and aftertouch, with a wide range of sensitivity and threshold settings as well as four response curves available. The 8 encoders are touch sensitive with dedicated screens above each one to show what they do.It can recognise a fairly wide range of USB devices including USB to MIDI adaptors and apparently (I have not tried this) even audio interfaces, meaning that its inbuilt 2 ins and 4 outs are, in theory, expandable.I have not had the unit very long but have yet to experience any kind of glitch or crash. (running 3.0.6 firmware).It is dead quiet - no studio noise. The ins and outs are all balanced.Now the not quite so good bits. Mainly the software is somewhat quirky. You will need to read the manual and watch some YT videos because some operations require multiple key combinations that aren't always obvious.In fairness given the quirkiness of most computer plugins, it's probably unfair to be too critical. Once you learn the button combinations, you'll find that as a way of quickly capturing musical ideas this is a far better way than working on the computer.I have really enjoyed my first few days exploring its capabilities. It's powerful and deep, and really there isn't anything to directly compete with it, when you consider in particular the quality of the hardware. Akai have continued to enhance the firmware and if they were to introduce direct audio streaming from disk, the Force will probably become the preferred choice for almost anyone wanting to free themselves from working on a computer.Finally the inbuilt synths are pretty good. They give you a wide palette of electronic and acoustic sounds - surprisingly, there's quite a good piano in there, and there's an excellent dedicated electric piano plugin as well. I'd be quite happy gigging with these sounds. Latency feels very low, and everything was crisp and responsive. This is a device which makes music fun again. I highly recommend it.