Using external MIDI gear

Explore Force’s connectivity options by hooking up an external hardware monosynth, sequencing it via MIDI, then recording audio back in

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We’ve got a single mono output from the synth plugged into Force’s first input, and we’ve patched a MIDI cable from Force’s MIDI Out into the synth’s MIDI In. Tabbing over to the Mixer’s Inserts & I/O page and hitting the Audio Track’s speaker icon enables input monitoring, and we can now hear the synth signal through Input 1.

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Back in Force’s Matrix view, we add a new MIDI Track. In Melodic Note mode, Force’s pads can be used like a regular MIDI controller. Holding Shift and pressing Note opens the Config screen. We choose Scales mode in C over two octaves in the pentatonic minor scale.

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With our MIDI Track selected in the Matrix view, we can now hit Record and lay down a two-bar MIDI bass riff. As all of the displayed notes are in our preset key and scale, it’s easy to jam in a basic riff, even without any playing skills or theory knowledge.

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Once our notes are recorded in, we press Force’s Clip button to display the contents of our MIDI clip on the piano roll-esque display. From here, we can pinch on the screen to zoom in, and use touch controls to edit the MIDI notes with our fingers.

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Now we’re happy with the MIDI performance, it’s time to print the synth signal to an audio clip. This is as simple as record-arming the audio track, then tapping in an empty clip slot to render the audio in real time.

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Pressing the Clip button now displays the two-bar recording of our bass riff, and flipping to Region mode allows us to modify and manipulate the audio with the various editing tools. Once happy, we click Save to store the clip as a Sample for later use.