is anyone using MASCHINE ?

[NoAffiliation]

i've owned it twice, bought when it came out, sold then bought again when i found out about vst support

i like running maschine in standalone mode. it doesn't make much sense running it inside ableton since it basically is ableton already. maschine is the reason NI never made and probably will never make a DAW.

with that said, integration with reaktor and other NI stuff is amazing and way better than any of this automap control script sh!t. well it's not better but the work of truly thought out mapped parameters has been done for you and the encoders are high resolution

the pads are the best. play an ni synth with those pads and you will get ridiculous expression

but i understand why people sell it. maschine is aimed to be a center of a studio so if you already have a center you wouldn't want to keep such as thing as you would be wasting the potential it has

[Boxbeat]

Machine is a great studio tool but you definitely got to take time to learn how to use it. Hands on step sequencing is the bomb. I have it set up across 8 channels in ableton with a bunch of effects on the return so can send each sound out via a combinations of effects.

When I get bored with that I use it as a controller for some of the effects and really twist things up to get some human feel.

Its true you can get similar effects with one of the small cheap akai USB pad things using built in ableton instruments however the integration be no where near as good.

Of course it's not perfect but very little is even your hugely expensive 808 has glitches.

If you can get one second hand you can't go wrong.

Boxbeat
www.soundcloud.com/boxbeat

[Rein]

agree with boxbeat on this one... maschine is a great tool if you know how to use it. i've got it since it was first brought on the market. since version 1.6 or so it's a very mature tool in the studio (with regards to stability and flexibility). 16 stereo outputs and 4 stereo inputs; if you make a nice template in your DAW you have a very fast way to (re) sample things in your studio on the fly. also the sequencer is pretty neat to use via MIDI, i use maschine as the main controller for hardware synths / drums during livesets...

if you're looking for just a MIDI controller and aren't planning on learning/using the software or think you can get instant results than it's not for you. a lot of people i know don't take the time to learn the instrument to its fullest and get rid of it fast...

the thing i don't like about it is the fact it's not standalone... but on the other hand; because of that it is easy to take with you (easier than an mpc) and it brings the price down as well...

[steevio]

i can see that it is a useful tool for some of you guys, but dont assume that the people who bought it and sold it on didnt bother to learn how to use it, the three guys i know are all very experienced prolific producers, they just didnt like it, it didnt suit their way of working.
its like everything else, the only way you are going to know if its right for you is if you buy it and try it, because even if it looks perfect for you on paper, it may fall short in your studio environment. i've bought several pieces of kit that looked perfect but didnt work out for me.

[blizt]

Third video is insane. Best I have seen so far. Very expressive. Again it's not the gear but the individual behind it. Btw anyone know what stand is he using?

[lem]

I pretty much followed the Maschine manual, did all of the online tutorials and I did spend time 'learning how to use it'. I do not buy anything expecting a magic-red-button. I have been doing this for too long
I bought it after so many long-time owners of it saying, "I'm still discovering new things today"
Yes things like Komplete support, Vst intergration and Ableton live control are all lovely things. But really when you buy a sampler/sequencer you want a sampler sequencer. To me neither of these was executed very well and are not getting improved because of things like Komplete support...

I really didn't like the step-sequencing on it. For software it didn't seem to have much depth in terms of the sequencer and often reminded me of the limits of old hardware.

...it doesn't make much sense running it inside ableton since it basically is ableton already....

...with that said, integration with reaktor and other NI stuff is amazing and way better than any of this automap control script sh!t...

I think you are way off here mate, I think they are two very different things. Remote scripts, Ableton and 3rd Party controllers are very customisable. Throw Max4Live in there and you have got something exteremely customisable. Maschine just felt a bit basic and im sure begginers get on really well with it. But when you are a little set in your ways, like me, it just seemed to get in the way.

Each to there own tho, if it works for you then great!

[oblioblioblio]

If you want a live music box... I've been really impressed by the company Elektron.

I got the Octatrack for sample recording and manipulation, and normally with digital boxes I get really sucked in with awe and then get fed up with the limits or predictability, but the Octatrack is really deep as well as useable.

A few of them are on offer at the moment and they often show up cheap second hand. 3 year warranty too which is comforting when buying digital equipment.

[lem]

I have never actually used any of the Elektron stuff, im a bit reluctant to pay so much for something that I can't fix myself. The Octatrack looked promissing but got a few bad reviews and os bugs, which is probably the worst thing to have to think about when using it live.

I just don't think anything is as deep as the Ableton/Max combo. Even without Max there is so much you can do with racks and doctering a remote script can produce a workflow completely unique to you.

I sold on Maschine to someone that gets a lot more out of it, I bought a £70 Electribe ER-1 which I just use to send midi to an Ableton Drumrack. Yes the Electribe isn't as flexible as Maschine, but a drumrack uses up much less CPU and an Electribe is a sh!t load smaller/cheaper. And for the money suits me fine.

I found recording and shaping a sound in Ableton to then have to import into maschine so clunky, I kept thinking why don't I just drag it into a drumrack. Then doing things like setting up tracks for Maschines audio to come in... It was just a needless ballache.

All I wanted was something that I could improvise X0X beat sequencing with, but with more scope than a 909. Polyrhythms, sequencer directions, editing patterns that arn't playing.. there were other things aswell. (I can't think right now, I feel so ill )
There were a couple of nice features, like being able to shift a part by the clock division and... ummmm.... (my brain is mush! I hate being ill) Oh and the Undo, I found that pretty useful.

But those nice features didn't really outweigh what was lacking for me. I think it is the first NI product I have ever used that I really haven't liked...