NI Maschine
Dubious
1,865 Posts
tried the search function and i looked in the "music y'all" forum but i don't see anything related to this piece of hardware.I picked one up last week after watching a shit tonne of vids online. So who's got one?I'm using it with Ableton. I mainly got it because I feel Abelton has kinda dropped the ball on "step sequencing" cell based drum machines. The impulse seems to be lost in time while they urge you to use the overly complex "drum racks". Browsing / previewing samples in the impulse is also slow and clunky. Maschine has def improved my worflow on that end. Really diggin doin 90% of everything on the box instead of staring at the screen. The swing in ableton is also wierd IMO. Used to suck.. is now overly confusing and complicated. Maschine clears that up.Now inspite of these big time workflow improvments i also feel like Maschine is a step BACKWARDS.Maybe i need to log more time on this thing. But routing audio seems clunky. I have a shit tone of outboard gear and a patchbay. I dont want to always record thru tracks 1 and 2 on my motu because that means i need to use the MOTU pres instead of my API lunchbox. I cant figure out how to record in "mono" - that ends up as 1 channel of stereo hard panned.If you don't specify how many bars you want to record for its nearly impossible to figure out the cut point later. I mean displaying the sample length in SECONDS instead of bars is just RETARDED!! maybe i missing a toggle for this control.Cant type values anywhere always need to move the digits with the mouse or the controller. I'm also not digging that the maschine dumps everything into a common "recordings folder". Ableton does such a GREAT job of packaging / organizing stuff.Anyhow i've only had the thing for a week or so, def need to log more hours but I'd liek to hear from any other users out there.
Comments
i am a novice on sequencing software and am looking to learn that while having a physical component
it seems like the best of both worlds
hardware that can be fined tuned through software
or is this only useful for advanced ableton users??
I can remember back in the LAST century playing around with my 505 and my buddys 606 and goin ?man if only you could like have THIS box and use it with a computer?. Amazes me that its like 11 ? 12 years later and they?ve only just really dropped the solution!
I think most of my ?beefs? are because I?m a hardcore ableton dood and I?m just SO used to that flow that the learning curve of the Maschine is throwing me fer a bit of a loop.
But makin ?beats? on this thing is RETARDED quick.
On the backend Maschine's file structure is IDIOTIC and something that they refuse to do anything about. The fix would be f**king simple and the software even eludes to a very competent file structure that is similar to the Ableton browser, but in some ways even cooler. But getting that shit to work with things you are actually sampling is ABSOLUTE nonsense. In other words, if you have a folder full of kick drums, great! Toss them into the right folder and you can do the sound swapping in the demo videos. Sample something new and that shit ends up in your documents folder and if you move it you are F**ked. EVERYONE who does ANYTHING INTERESTING has this issue with their product but they were more concerned with emulating an MPC60 and SP1200 and the modeling sounds retarded, because they are just modeling the sampling rate conversions and not anything about the actual A/D and D/A converters and the circuitry that made those machines unique.
But other than that if you are chopping records and sequencing Maschine is really great. The workflow is quite fast and once you get used to it, the way things are structured make it so that you can truly build a song in an MPC-like interface.
I have mine and am keeping it, but kind of as a sketchpad for ideas and then using other software to do the real work. But for a sketchpad it's really great and I could see it being the workhorse for many people.
Thanks B****** for this comment, this is exactly how I perceive this to be...
What i've been doing is using the Save project with all audio option to create a project folder, then when i reopen it, it will automatically save samples into that folder. Not sure wether this is really a viable work around yet though, haven't ponied up and cleaned out my documents folder..
b/w
I wish I could just turn the browser the hell off.
Yes this is decent but then in order to browse said samples in the format that NI shows off, switch between sounds, you have to resave the files in separate folders - there is no way to sample something, chop it up, and then take a pad and save it to a category within the browser file structure, which is what you should be able to do, and what everyone wants. That way you could essentially make a library of samples that you had previously toyed with to return to, mix, and match, instead of being separated by project folders.
At the end of the day there would be no way I would be this frutstrated if they hadn't made a fundamentally worthwhile product, it's just that they are so close to hitting the mark but can't quite get there.
I feel kind of the same way. The Hardware is DOPE. The software looks good on paper but is proving to be a tad frustrating. NOW i need to keep reminding myself that this is V1.5 and I'm on V8 of ableton. Ableton was pretty different back when i first started using it circa v1.5 / v2. SO hopefully they can iron out some of these quirks.
BTW from what i can tell you can toggle the "vintage" emulation on at any point for any sample. Not just durrign recording.
Im not super interested in creating a big archive of sounds. I tend to like to record things for the project at hand and then start fresh for the next one. But it would be VERY slick to be able to just dump common sounds like claps and hats into there respective folders with ease.
I still haven't done much sequencing on it. Just been making some beats and sampling some synths into it.
I've got to wrap my head around the workflow. Part of me thinks i may need to start launching it in abelton. Record in ableotn. Edit my samples in ableton.. then sample them into the maschine and play them from there. not sure yet.
I used my buddy's one and i have to say it really looks dope and intuitive,and the interaction with Logic sequencer is ridiculous..
Does anyone know if you're capable to import MPC sequence files other than the PGM and the single sounds?
i need a solid drumsampler for live. where you can edit startpoints, envelopes, looppoints, that browses samples fast and can add endless files to the same instance and map over the same keyboard range. cant be too hard to program??
until then ill just work my way using lives drumracks.
Maschine+Live 8=
ableton
maschine
komplete
Did you do this? Im thinking of ditching a bunch of gear and hours of pain trying to get pro tools and my mpc to run, and just getting a similar setup (I already have Komplete). The main reason for the move, of course, is to avoid having to track the MPC into pro tools, which I just dont have the time for anymore.
Can anyone speak on the advantages of having both Komplete and Ableton, vs just getting a controller and Ableton? I've always worked on an MPC, so I really like the idea of a hardware sequencer (even though I know it doesnt run stand alone).
Also, I'd need some inputs. Any recommendations? Or does anyone know if I can use my Digi 002 with any of these set-ups? I'm planning to hold on to some of my analog filters and my juno 106, as well as my turntables, so I'd be needing at least 3 stereo ins..
i was forced to do it because I moved to New York and kinda didn't have room for all that stuff. gonna stick with my original plan once I move (again) and don't see that changing. works fine for the stuff i want to work on
Whats confusing to you about them? I cant really see any advantage to using impulse other than its kind of a limited kit. IMO to get the most out of ableton you really have to think about the session view as being a sampler in itself. You can chop, trigger samples, and everything else right from the session view.
The default file browser is really all I need to find sounds.
That said, I still probably couldnt get along without kontakt and multiple third party vst's, However, Im fairly sure that sampler will do everything you are looking for. It also reads a multitude of old sample formats.
The coolest thing about the racks system is that it makes the whole software a modular interface. Its a little overwhelming at first, but not cause its overly complicated, just because its different.
I dont really need it, but id love a fruityloops style step sequencer too. Nothing is really as nice as that as far as the piano roll goes.
I have been using XFER Nerve. And its about the closest thing I can find for that stuff. Other than that I just program drums on the fly.
If you play all the notes on the same midi track, its still pretty easy to just copy and paste to separate your drum sounds. Not worth the time setting up multi timberal channels in my opinion,
I go back and fourth from wanting and not wanting the Maschine. I know plenty of people that have it, and the build quality is actually super nice. But the software is still just a giant step backwards and ultimately another step in between you and your daw of choice. The software is the sequencer these days.
the apc40 is nice, but not really necessary either. I miss the feel of doing a whole beat on hardware too, but its just time to leave it be and move on.
Unless you are shooting for a throwback type of feel, its just getting in your way.