Your question is about how Akai Force works... You should contact them about recommendations on how to use it with external MIDI devices.

The MONTAGE can connect to an external sequencer in two ways:
1) via USB “To Host” to either a computer (using the Yamaha Steinberg USB driver) or to an iOS device (iPad/iPhone)
2) via 5-pin MIDI connection

The Akai Force compliments the Montage very nicely. The main issue you're going to run into is the Akai Force MIDI IN is "Omni". It detects any and all channels as input. Therefore, workflow becomes complicated as every time you press any Montage key, the Force is going to try to respond, including playing drums if you're in a drum program, etc. You have two solutions: 1. use a separate MIDI controller to "play into" the Force and only use the Montage as a MIDI receiver (tone generator). 2. (what I do), use some piece of hardware to filter all but one channel coming out of the Montage to the Force. In this way, you can reserve (for example) Montage Part 1, to be a non-tone generating "controller" channel that Force listens to, but channels (parts) 2-16 you can play locally but do not get sent to the Force (though can still "receive" MIDI from Force for all of those channels). There are some hardware only boxes that do this MIDI channel filtering. The one I use is vintage and impractically rare / expensive to suggest, but I believe a Kenton MIDI Processor can do this fairly cheaply.

Obviously if you involve a computer and DAW, then you can pull off this type of filtering in software but I gathered from your question that you, like me, are not interested in a software solution. I think Force + Montage + Kenton MIDI Processor is a fantastic and very powerful hardware only combination. Limitless practically between tracks, sampling, audio routing in both directions, great effects on both sides.

3. Use Montage single-channel MIDI mode.
4. Use multi-channel MIDI mode with Zone Master ON and setup the PART Zone settings for MIDI Transmit Ch = OFF for all channels except one.

Good recommendations (as always) Jason!

I think 3. tends to be problematic and very annoying in real use as literally every key press on the Montage is going to poke the Force. So you end up creating a MIDI track on Force, playing in some notes, all good. Then you create a drum program (for example) on the Force and use the pads and sequence some beat. While it’s playing you want to pick another voice of the Montage and play a long with it, experimenting, and as soon as you play a key, it starts playing drums on the Force. The Omni in of Force (and MPC Live/One/X) is super annoying I found.

4. Is interesting, maybe I hadn’t noticed a MIDI off on multi before? That may actually work very well then.

MIDI Channel receive is limited. Montage as a master controller for MIDI send is another story. Very capable and configurable.

A sequencer that can only record OMNI coming IN is going to be problematic for Multi-Part recording, as Aaron correctly points out.
This is similar to an issue you have with Cubase AI, which will record all incoming MIDI channels to the armed Track — that in itself is not an issue, the issue occurs when/if the sequencer re-Channelizes the Track data on the way back out.

Here’s what Cubase AI does... when you send in MIDI, Cubase AI documents all 16 channels of data... after all, when you press a Key (say middle C at a velocity of 101 — you will get an event 9n 3C 65
9n = a NoteOn where n = the MIDI channel 0-F
3C = note number 60 or middle C
65 = velocity equals 101

Most sequencer Tracks record all incoming data... the channel number keeps the data discreet.

The point is every MIDI Note-On event, pitch bend event, Aftertouch event, controller event, etc includes the channel information already.
Example: Every MIDI Note-On event always includes the channel.
What Cubase AI does is allow you to decide on what MIDI channel the data will be echoed back Out to the device. You can choose “ANY” which sends the MIDI data back on the channel of origin. If it came in on Ch1 it will be echoed back out on Ch1, if it was sent in on Ch2, it goes back out on Ch2... and so on. Or you can merge all the incoming data to a single channel (not good if any arpeggiators are active). When arpeggiators are involved most times you want to keep their data separated on their own tracks.... drum grooves sound silly playing from anything but a drum kit! Merging channels is not an option!

Therefore, it is possible to transmit Multiple Part Performances, but remember the MONTAGE will generate events on multiple channels.

Sorry, I don’t know and I cannot offer direct support for Akai Force... thanks Aaron for chiming in as you have experience with it...

If you place the MONTAGE in “MIDI I/O Mode” = Single, Arpeggio Data will not be output, at all... only the notes *you* trigger directly will be sent Out via MIDI. In order for this to playback properly you will need to reset and re-arm the Arpeggiators prior to running the playback. This is because the recorded (documented) notes will need to trigger the Arpeggiators “live” during playback.

A workable workflow would be to record Multi-Part MONTAGE Performances as audio clips... I must communicate with literally hundreds of end users each month, who record MIDI because they have always recorded MIDI. Not because of any real reason other than that is how they learned to do things.

I ask them if they do any editing (the prime reason to record as MIDI) surprising most don’t - If you need to edit what you’ve played THAT is a good reason to record as MIDI, but once you have it locked in (corrected), why not render it as audio? Or why not record audio in the first place?

Tempo change would be one consideration ... changing the tempo of MIDI is free of any complicated time stretching or consequences... of course, with audio recording you are locked into the original tempo unless your sequencer has something like Cubase’s “musical mode” that allows audio recordings to be time stretched to match tempo automatically. (Not quite as flexible as tempo change with MIDI, but extremely useful for most tempo adjustments in the real world).

Extra Credit
Cubase Pro features a MIDI Filter setup, called the “Input Transformer”, that allows you to designate one MIDI channel per track. It will filter out all but the single MIDI channel. This makes transmitting multiple Part Performances a breeze... you simply arm as many corresponding Tracks as Parts... each Part is documented to a separate channel on its own Track. You can even isolate the Super Knob and Scene Change commands on a Track set to record Sysex.

Having MIDI data on separate Tracks is really only necessary to make editing easier.
Having MIDI data on separate Tracks is really only necessary to make editing easier. Repeated for emphasis.

Remember all 16 MIDI channels can exist on a single track... the channel designation keeps the data discreet. But imagine looking at 8 MIDI channels of data on a single event list... you’d need to step through every event just to find your Bass guitar on Channel 3. When you can place all MIDI channel 3 events on their own Track it does not change how it sounds, it only changes how you can view it.

Alternate workflow: Use the MONTAGE Performance recorder time create your initial MIDI recording (since it is designed to document itself quickly and easily) then export your MONTAGE recording as a .mid file.... load that to your external sequencer. All tracks will be isolated and discreet channels per track.

Hi all, so the conclusion is that Akai Force is not a good match for MODX/Montage ?

Hi all, so the conclusion is that Akai Force is not a good match for MODX/Montage ?

I don’t think that is the takeaway here. You need to configure your Transmit options on the source (MODX), and the Receive options on the destination device(AKAI).
MIDI has 16 channels.

I recommend mastering recording one instrument (Single Part instrument) per one Track on your sequencer.
Once you are clear on how individual channels work, you can move to more advanced Transmit and Receive options.
I also highly recommend that you read and absorb how your Akai sequencer works and what options you have available.
https://www.akaipro.com/support

We will happily help you with the MODX settings.