NI Maschine + Ableton Live

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Opuswerk
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Re: NI Maschine + Ableton Live

Post by Opuswerk »

as long as you buy the stuff and use it, all is good no? -twisted
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Quantize
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Re: NI Maschine + Ableton Live

Post by Quantize »

The 1.6 update of Maschine introduced 16 audio outputs and this got me using maschine again. I completely agree with Opuswerk about the workflow integration, there is often a stumbling block in the way and the editing power in Live is a lot more powerful.

With Maschine as it stands I like to create a kit, route each of the pads to their own Ableton audio channel, make a bunch of patterns in Maschine and then record myself jamming into Live (all 16 channels simultaneously). The final step is to edit the audio down into something useful.

It's a great way to come up with some ideas that you might not have otherwise using another piece of software or hardware, but it certainly won't become my main sequencer. It's another tool and getting on the the point from the OP, it's not really a replacement for the APC40. If you can run them both then happy days :-)
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Re: NI Maschine + Ableton Live

Post by NomadSpectrum »

I want a Mashine - sorry just thought I would share :)
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Re: NI Maschine + Ableton Live

Post by Maiyal »

Bump.

I've recently bought a Maschine and Akai LPK25, and I've really had loads of fun jamming with them. I use Maschine in Live, record jams and export all the audio as individual files so I can have them as separate audio tracks in Live. I am looking to start playing live at some point in the future, so I was wondering how to get started with this. Anyone have any tips and tricks that would be helpful?

Thanks in advance!
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Rein
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Re: NI Maschine + Ableton Live

Post by Rein »

i use maschine too in combination with some other synths, drumsynths, fx boxes etc for playing live.

it depends on how you want to use the maschine.

what is important in my eyes: routing. i send kicks to a channel, hi hats, snares / claps, etc. all with build in processing (filters and limiters mainly, bit of reverb), so that the sound throughout my live set stays kind of the same frequency wise. i like to do stuff on the fly so i load in a bunch of samples i recorded or drum hits nicely grouped so that i know where to find it while playing.

another approach which i use sometimes is to write 8 "tracks". every of the 8 groups contains a track (of course all the sounds in this group are routed to the appropriate channels. the main rhythms are fixed then, but i can change them on the fly and i keep some sounds for on the fly programming.

another interesting thing i do sometimes is routing other stuff through the machine's input channels. for my upcoming live set i route my sh101 through a bunch of maschine fx for example. keep an eye on the delay if you do so! it gives a 25ms delay in my case, so check and adjust this! you could also send the loops you've made with the maschine trough different inputs. for example make perc, hat and synth audio tracks in ableton, and route them to different inputs in the maschine that route back to different audio-ins in ableton. this way you can use the fx of maschine which are stunning for live sets in my eyes because of the hands on and easy to use parameters.

there are loads of possibilities, practice and play with stuff, and you'll find a manner of doing things in a way that works the best for you.
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Re: NI Maschine + Ableton Live

Post by NoAffiliation »

maschine and apc are great together. both are super powerful if you learn to use all the functionality. put them side by side and you can make music without looking at the screen or touching the mouse if you set up a template to record all the outputs. i use maschine in drumcomputer mode and just jam out takes into live. it's nice because once you have a skeleton you can improv long sections spontaneously and record everything individually. you will program stuff that you wouldnt do with a mouse just intuitively as you play along with the track. not to mention you can run vst's inside it and sequence multiple external instruments. it's basically like the features of every drum machine ever made, you even get parameter locks like a machinedrum and you can easily lock note changes per step while sequencing in real-time. it's magic. if they could somehow make a feature to snap notes to a certain set of notes when turning the pitch knob it would be the end all
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Re: NI Maschine + Ableton Live

Post by 5meohd »

I'm thinking of setting aside my apc40 and ableton just to switch it up.. I think I've become too familiar with all of its options and possibilities.. nothing to restrain me. I think ableton will suit me for designing sounds.. presets.. etc..

but for jamming I'm going to see whats like to just leave ableton out of the picture.. mind you, my goals are to 'produce' live sets rather than 'songs' or 'albums' so recording and rearranging are unnecessary at this point.

I am a bit baffled at the (imo) non-intuitive nature of sequencing 'melodies'. For a while I thought you couldn't even change individual notes in the piano roll without the mouse.. I checked the manual at work.. thought I had it.. came home.. nope, couldn't remember. imo that is non-intuitive. With so many other features being so simple I can't complain.

I'd say that the apc40 and maschine combo is excellent if your style lends itself to live looping or triggering of pre recorded audio loops.. I personally want access to as many original synth parameters as possible.. with ~50% of the sequences being the only 'pre-determined' or 'written' material in a 'live' set.
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Re: NI Maschine + Ableton Live

Post by NoAffiliation »

5meohd wrote:I personally want access to as many original synth parameters as possible.. with ~50% of the sequences being the only 'pre-determined' or 'written' material in a 'live' set.
you can do that with maschine. the new version of the software is ridiculous for controlling vsti synths or hardware cc's. you can scroll through banks of the 8 control knobs assigned to whatever you want. i think you can control 16 machines at a time with unlimited cc's on the knobs. i use maschine to sequence melodies, drums, really everything. maschine by itself is a huge contender to ableton, Native instruments has no reason to make a DAW after maschine got vst support. If you own Komplete or any NI synths the synth parameters are automatically assigned to important parameters in banks, very tightly integrated. lastly, i dont know how many know this but when you use vsts or anything inside maschine you get the benefit of high resolution knobs. these are not stepped 127 midi knobs, you can get ultra fine resolution live with maschine
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