Maschine 1.6

Native Instruments has just released the new update for their Maschine software/controller, and by far the most talked-about new feature is that Maschine can now directly host any 3rd party plugin and have all the parameters mapped out to the knobs on the controller (either automatically or the way the user would like).

I'm on vacation right now but flying back home tonight.. can't wait to try this out.

The free update also comes with "Komplete Elements", some 3 gigs of instruments and samples.... mmmmmm free stuff....

This update opens up all sorts of weird windows for me. Thought WATMM might like to know.

I'd like to know how good the workflow is with Maschine.

man I don't know. I don't think maschine is as intuitive or fast as they say. at least for me i struggle to do real basic shit like manage patterns and edit sequences using just the hardware. they say its a good box for doing everything via hardware only but it's really cumbersome i find. it also doesnt integrate well as a plugin, the audio ins/outs are easy to route but linking midi is buggy as hell and sometimes resets all my midi settings so fuck that. i just use it standalone and export chunks of audio to a daw but thats not exactly well integrated.

it's cute that you can use it as a standalone daw with plugins now and so far my experience has been enjoyable but Id still prefer just using FL or Live for the hugeness of those programs, and I find something kind of constricting about maschine. maybe i'm alone on this.

Another thing thats kept me from loving maschine is just the sheer freaking quantity of shit it comes with keeps me from being productive at least when i browse using the hardware, i almost wish it had less (cue flaming).

that said the idealist in me does jizz his pants imagining actually being productive using just maschine but so far i havent been successful with it.

i've been eyeing maschine with extreme curiosity for months..... but so far, i'm thinking i'll stick with my MPC.

psn - I find the workflow to be very quick (I pounded out three tracks in the window of a [___] come-up recently), but I have a feeling I'm still only scratching the surface of the way I could be using Maschine.

Abe raises a good point about the mild clunkiness of sending MIDI from Maschine to a DAW (while running Maschine as a plugin). I have a feeling that my simple problems stem from a greater ignorance about MIDI routing in general, and that it would be pretty quickly solved if I'd just put in the time - but as it is, I usually have Maschine recording simultaneous audio tracks into Live and I record everything in arrangement mode, adding and deleting things as the track develops. I have always worked like this in Ableton, and I understand that's not how most people use the program (I completely neglect the clip view).

With that said, I rarely use Maschine as a stand-alone program - I think it's much more versatile inside a DAW. You can now run VSTs inside Maschine while Maschine is running as a plugin in your DAW, btw. That feature is not limited to stand-alone mode (none of the features are, afaik). The auto-mapping of the plugin parameters is excellent, and it's easy to remap them your own way if you'd like.

hat - I think you're probably fine just sticking to your MPC. I bought Maschine because I was eager for features like this VST compatibility inside a well-made sampler, but if I already owned an MPC I wouldn't be too inclined to drop the cash on another similar sampler.

i'll start off by saying i work for NI... but as anyone there will tell you, i'm the most critical of their products and general german-ness as anyone on earth.

having said that, maschine has entirely changed my workflow and the way i make music.

it's more visceral, more hands-on, less linear and constraining than working in logic or protools or any other standard daw (save, perhaps, for ableton, of course.)

i find i don't quantise anymore. the beats i'm coming up with in particular have a new life to them... it might have something to do with being around all the hip hop producers who are using it (all the videos i've done for mashine are with hip-hop guys... though i'm trying to change that.)

i still use logic (and i've just picket up PT9 for getting back in to mix/editing the way only PT can (for me) ) for arrangement, layout, and structure, but i can come up with 10 sketches of tracks with a LOT of great potential tracks.

it's a little tricky to finish projects in, coming from a more linear background, but it's a new way of thinking and approaching tracks for me. if you come from an MPC background you may already be familiar with working like this.

in terms of integration with a daw, i don't see how it could be easier. you just drag-and-drop either the MIDI data or the direct audio from the plugin right into your timeline... easy as!

the factory library is pretty slick, but if you've got an archive of drum sounds (which most of us probably do...) you can just drag them from a folder onto the pads directly in the software (as of the 1.6 update). then you can tweak the hell out of them just using the "sampler" module functions - MPC60 / SP1200 emulation, compression, saturation, panning, pitch envelopes, etc... and that's before you use the 3 additional FX / plugin slots for each sound module (per pad). those can now be plugins. then every parameter can be automated and stored per pattern... allowing you to construct some pretty insane stuff right out of the box.

ymmv.

yeah, the sampler module functions are sweet.

and I want to add that while I may have a few reservations about this device, it works incredibly well for a variety of genres/styles, and like maus, the way I write music has been significantly impacted by using maschine (in a good, adding lots of versatility way). It's also a lot of fun to use, and that's an understatement. I can even easily write tracks while browsing watmm, letting the loops simmer in my head as I post (like I'm doing right now).

some beardstroking and ignorant speculation below !

part of the joy of the mpc is that it is not a computer, and it has nothing to do with the computer. i used to write a lot of music on the computer, esp. before i started buying synths 'n' drum machines. then i got into hardware and it was much more fun. i started to feel impatient with the computer. and i use one all day for a job, too.

i still use cubase sx, which is admittedly pretty shit for automap etc. so when i'm into VSTs there i'm often entirely mousing it. i have ableton on my laptop, and it's nice. i do a track here and there. but ableton is just such shit for multitrack... once you're into the arrangement phase (90% of the work) it's shit compared to cubase.

if i were just cutting my teeth on all this, starting with ableton live instead of cubase, wanting to work on a laptop... it'd probably be great. but i already got a nice setup !

  On 4/3/2011 at 8:46 PM, maus said:

in terms of integration with a daw, i don't see how it could be easier. you just drag-and-drop either the MIDI data or the direct audio from the plugin right into your timeline... easy as!

I've had my interest piqued by version 1.6 although I don't think I'm in any rush to add new things to my setup. But the ability to the above in Live sounds like a bit of a missing link. I've got music I write using the computer to control it all and I've got other stuff that I've used hardware only and I don't think I've yet found a decent way to combine the two approaches. Hmmm...

  On 4/3/2011 at 11:41 PM, jeyemusik said:

I've got music I write using the computer to control it all and I've got other stuff that I've used hardware only and I don't think I've yet found a decent way to combine the two approaches. Hmmm...

this. but also...

maschine does a pretty good job of bridging that gap for me.

edit: pretty cool blog you linked there hahath, thanks

edit2: removed track cuz i wanna change some stuff yet

  On 4/4/2011 at 1:22 AM, hahathhat said:

  On 4/3/2011 at 11:41 PM, jeyemusik said:

I've got music I write using the computer to control it all and I've got other stuff that I've used hardware only and I don't think I've yet found a decent way to combine the two approaches. Hmmm...

 

this. but also...

an interesting read. I'm a big fan of Reaktor and reckon it's probably my most used piece of music software outside of a sequencer. but i'm guilty of using it mainly as a straight forward synth to play, or as a soundscape/rhythm generator that i'll then record and import into Live. I've never tried to use it to create an entire stand-alone track.. but in the interests of trying new things to avoid ruts i might give it a go.

cheers!