Maschine users - tell me about your workflow?

[Citizen]

I'm still trying to get my head around just what would be the best way to use Maschine with Ableton.

Are most people using it right from the start as a plug-ing in Ableton, or are you starting tracks in stand-alone mode of MAschine, and then later bouncing iether audio or midi into Abelton to arrange and mix?

I would really appreciate some guidance from those who have experimented with the various ways to use both together, keen to hear your tips!

Cheers!

[perplex]

my maschine is coming tomorrow in the mail! so I am also interested in the responses

[razorblade]

Since they added VST support, I'd say about 50-50 split between stand alone and in Live...

[starving student]

mostly stand alone, even when not stand alone I kind of still use it stand alone, just use live like a huge mangle space and sample that and whatever else is going on in live back into maschine, But right now I still prefer to do arranging in ableton, fuck maschines song mode it blows, so I'll export everything and finish in ableton. that shit is gonna change real soon though, it has to.

[[nme]]

After v1.5, using Maschine in VST mode allows you to record Maschine events into Live. In many ways, this is significantly better than using Maschine in MIDI mode, since it instantly gives you the enhanced features of the VST (i.e. poly-pressure, aftertouch, note repeat, swing, etc,) but with the benefit of Live's sequencing capabilities.

This is achieved using the "Sounds to MIDI Notes" option found within the Machine GUI.

Not to mention - you can silence the Maschine sounds and use it strictly as a Live device controller - where the Maschine VST triggers Drum Racks, Impulse - or any other devices and sounds found in the Live Library.

Check out this video to help you get started.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vp4CoNxf9_c

Keep a close eye on the routing setup. This can be frustrating if you skip or misinterpret one small step. Setting it up properly the first time opens the door to creating a template Set where having both recordable VST functionality and Live Device control ready to go the second you open your Live Set.

Have fun!

[funkazoid]

Hiya,

I love playing around with maschine, in find myselve nowadays starting with maschine either as vst or standalone. Playing the pads, being able to change sounds on the hardware, setting the grooves and effects is great, very creative.

I tend to bounce the basic groove i have into ableton, as seperate channels, and start to work out the foundations of a track. Adding synths, sounds etc etc.
I have maschine running as vst running as well, and what I think is great you can record additional layers of drums and percussion while playing live.

So the music keeps going and you can add more ideas while not stopping. It basiscly changed my whole workflow in the first part of creating a track.

Hope that helps
J

[chilleddreams]

I always use Maschine as a VST. I usually start with Maschine as the first instrument in my projects. At a certain point in the work I begin to route some of Maschine's instruments to different tracks into Live. So I have different tracks for Kick, Snare, HHs and so on. This makes it easier to apply different EQs and effects directly in Live.

I prepare various Scenes in Maschine. Then I create dummy clips in Live to switch scenes via MIDI from Live's arragement view. I never use any bounce/render functions of Maschine.

[timothyallan]

I can really only use it at the start of my projects as a VST because of the latency issues later on when I load up plugins. I tend to make a few drum loops and export as audio, maybe make some strange perc loops as well, but always drag them out as audio onto a new track. I do all the sequencing in Live as Machine can't record pattern mutes and creating thousands of scenes doesn't interest me

If I want to use it later on in the project to play things live, I have to set it up standalone and sync it to Lives clock... or other way around.

[STRATEGY_510]

But right now I still prefer to do arranging in ableton, fuck maschines song mode it blows, so I'll export everything and finish in ableton. that shit is gonna change real soon though, it has to.

One would think so, but I don't think it ever made their road-map that we're allowed to see and it definitely doesn't sound like there's anything in 1.7 on building songs.

I'm with you though, I don't like the way it works right now it's unwieldy. The sequencer is great other than the arranging scenes into a song bit.

STRATEGY

[delicioso]

But right now I still prefer to do arranging in ableton, fuck maschines song mode it blows, so I'll export everything and finish in ableton. that shit is gonna change real soon though, it has to.

One would think so, but I don't think it ever made their road-map that we're allowed to see and it definitely doesn't sound like there's anything in 1.7 on building songs.

It is definitely a part of their masterplan for sure. It's been mentioned in two different On the Record sessions already:

"KravenZ wrote:
In the first "Maschine on the Record" round you said that you are planning to make the arranger more flexible overall. What are your ideas? Are you planning something like pattern per sound? I (and maybe some others ) think that it would give us a really flexible way to arrange beats.
James @ NI:
We can't share details yet because the arragement improvements that we have planned require deeper change to the sequencer, so it's not a short-term thing. "Pattern per sound" is definitely among the planned features."
http://www.native-instruments.com/forum ... post735082

[aizo]

I have a template saved for startup. It goes like this:

One instance of - Maschine, JP-8000(external instrument), Reaktor, and Sylenth1.

I usually make a bass line in one of these 3 other instruments and then make a beat using Maschine.

Depending on the style I'm working in I might use Maschine's normal functions or sometime use it to control Additive Drums or Eazy Drummer.

I've tried to use it as a standalone. I'm not very good at it yet. But maybe tonight I will fudge with it again.

There are so many options with Maschine it's silly to stick to one. it has a ridiculously fast workflow. So fast that it sometimes is disappointing because I'm like shit the drums are done......

[Deepcycle]

Hi.

Just started using Ableton with an APC40 and really loving using the session view to build live sets. Before that I was using Logic and Maschine. I am really keen to integrate Maschine into my live setup now though.

I want to run it synced so that when I change scene in Ableton using the APC40 then Maschine will also jump to the corresponding scene. At the moment I can't get it to do this. If I leave a loop running on scene 1 in Ableton Maschine will cycle through its scenes rather than just sticking to scene 1.

Anyone know how to do this?

Thanks for any help.

[Rationalizer]

I have a template which contains 8 tracks with external instruments devices that are routed to Maschine. So I start my projects by recording a drum track and couple of variations to Maschine and then I drag the midi to the corresponding channels in Live. Then I treat the tracks as they were ordinary midi tracks.

I would love to do some variations with Maschine at later point in the track but can't because of the latency, which timothyallan already mentioned.

[timothyallan]

I have a template which contains 8 tracks with external instruments devices that are routed to Maschine. So I start my projects by recording a drum track and couple of variations to Maschine and then I drag the midi to the corresponding channels in Live. Then I treat the tracks as they were ordinary midi tracks.

I would love to do some variations with Maschine at later point in the track but can't because of the latency, which timothyallan already mentioned.

Did up a video to show how nasty things get even if you're just running the Glue in oversampling mode, or any other common plugins that induces latency in Live: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TTA8_kFcU24

[Rationalizer]

Did up a video to show how nasty things get even if you're just running the Glue in oversampling mode, or any other common plugins that induces latency in Live: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TTA8_kFcU24

Yeah, I've got the same situation. If I don't record enable the track in Live I can record the sequence to Maschine ok. But if the track is armed there's so much latency that it's impossible to record anything.