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IamForce allows your MPC to become a Force. IamForce2 is an entirely rewritten version of the first version of IamForce, and now supports several midi devices with a plugin system. A new standalone mode is also available if you haven't any external controller.
IamForce2 does not update your MPC, but prepares and launches an isolated environment for the Force software ONLY from the external SD card. If you remove the card, you will find your MPC as usual at the next boot. However, you must update your MPC to a recent ssh firmware, being provided at the root of the card, so you can update directly from the MPC user interface. If you own a MPC Live mk1 or mk2, IamForce2 can be used unplugged, on battery.
Pre-requisite :
- to have a sd card or a usb key of at least 4Go .
- Knowing the IP address of your MPC (see preferences)
Steps :
- Download the latest sdcard img of the bootstrap here
- Flash the image on your sd card. NB : this one will be entirely erased. I recommend the use of a tool like Etcher, which will avoid you to make mistakes.
- Once the image is flashed, start your MPC without inserting the card for the moment
- For Iamforce2 to run correctly, you must have the latest MPC firmware. Once your MPC has started, insert the card, and update the firmware with the latest version of the tkgl ssh image present on the sdcard (unless you have already done so) by choosing update from USB.
- Your MPC will restart, and you should see a "The KikGen Labs" logo appear quickly. You now have an SSH connection. By default the bootstrap will only display the logo. We need to tell it that we also want to run IamForce2. To do this, you will have to modify the launch script, to add the corresponding module.
Open a command line on your computer, and type the following commands (be careful to type the space before "iamforce2"):
ssh root@(your MPC ip address) 'echo TKGL_DOER=\"playlogo iamforce2@APCMINIMK2\">>/media/TKGL_BOOTSTRAP/tkgl_bootstrap_[ProjectData]/doer_list'
ssh root@(your MPC ip address) reboot
Your MPC will reboot, and Iamforce2 should start !
Note that you can change "APCMINIMK2" by "NONE" if you are not using any controller, or by any other driver ID, e.g. LPMK3 for example, for the Launchpad Mini MK3.
If you have some trouble, you can display the content of the doer_list file with :
ssh root@(your MPC ip address) 'cat /media/TKGL_BOOTSTRAP/tkgl_bootstrap_[ProjectData]/doer_list'
If you are a Windows user, I really recommend to use WinSCP SSH utility to browse and explore your MPC directories easily, like you do with the file explorer. On other systems, like Linux, Thunar is able to browse the MPC at "sftp://root@(MPC ip address)".
- Akai MPCs
- Akai APC Mini Mk2
- Akai APC Key 25 Mk2
- Novation Launchpad Mini Mk3
- Novation Launchpad X
- The KikGen Labs KIKPAD LPMK3 emulation
Driver Ids :
- NONE : IamForce2 whithout a controller
- APCMINIMK2 : IamForce2 using the Akai APC Mini mk2 controller
- APCKEY25MK2 : IamForce2 using the Akai APC Key 25 mk2 controller
- LPMK3 : IamForce2 using the Novation Launchpad mini mk3 controller
- LPX : IamForce2 using the Novation Launchpad X controller
- KIKPADMK3 : IamForce2 using the KikGen Labs KIKPAD LPMK3 emulation
You can control some of the Force functions and special macros with Control Change commands from any midi controller connected to your MPC. To do that, you need to send a specific CC#/parameter value event and route it to the channel 16 of the "TKGL Midi_(controller name)" midi out port. When the CC parameter value is :
- 0 : that will send an "off" event (ex : button released)
- 1 : that will send on/off events (ex : button pressed and released)
- 127 : that will send a "on" event (ex : button pressed)
| CC# on channel 16 | Allowed parameters | Function |
|---|---|---|
| 0 | on, off, on-off | PLAY |
| 1 | on, off, on-off | REC |
| 2 | on, off, on-off | STOP |
| 3 | on, off, on-off | TAP |
| 4 | any value > 0 | Next sequence macro |
| 5 | any value > 0 | Previous sequence macro |
| 6 | any value > 0 | First sequence macro |
| 7 | any value > 0 | Last sequence macro |
| 8 | on, off, on-off | ARP |
| 9 | on, off, on-off | UNDO |
(TBD)