Just tried Maschine again after a few years

Discuss music production with Ableton Live.
Tarekith
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Re: Just tried Maschine again after a few years

Post by Tarekith » Wed Jun 03, 2015 8:31 am

The browser on the Studio is one of my favorite things, so easy to find what you need quickly, no laptop browsing needed.
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TomViolenz
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Re: Just tried Maschine again after a few years

Post by TomViolenz » Wed Jun 03, 2015 10:46 am

Machinesworking wrote:Luck would have it that someone on craigslist was selling a pristine Maschine Studio for $500! 1/2 the price in stores!
Dude looked like Mike Tyson, even sounded like him! :)
Oh man, I hope he didn't chew your ear off! :mrgreen:



Congrats on a great deal. Don't overlook that Maschine is also a very versatile general Midi controller.

Machinesworking
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Re: Just tried Maschine again after a few years

Post by Machinesworking » Wed Jun 03, 2015 7:52 pm

lol no, he was a gentleman like Tyson is now that he's years away from being associated with Don King! :x

yeah nothing MIDI controller wise compares to the Remote SL MKII, Push certainly bites as a midi controller..

Idonotlikebroccoli
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Re: Just tried Maschine again after a few years

Post by Idonotlikebroccoli » Wed Jun 03, 2015 8:01 pm

Tarekith wrote:I really like the Maschine Studio:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D7V8HvRLXfo
Love the Sending Orbs shirt! :)

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Re: Just tried Maschine again after a few years

Post by Tarekith » Thu Jun 04, 2015 5:38 am

My favorite label :)
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brettonwoodsapocalypse
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Re: Just tried Maschine again after a few years

Post by brettonwoodsapocalypse » Fri Jun 05, 2015 4:02 pm

MAschine has lods of great sounds and the browser is fantastic. But I can't help to agree with the first post that the sequencing part is just plain awful, it's not intuitive at all unless you comme from the MPC school of things. I have been using it for a long time, so I just jam for a while (Maschine pads are great) and then export it to Live. I know it well enough now to do everything I want to achieve but I have to say that Live is much more flexible for recording ideas once you've got a few loops running. I love push 64 pads too (yes, I've got both).
It's a but strange this debate provoke some fairly unpleasant comments. Looks like Abes and NI fans don't mingle well, don't see why these 2 tools are perfectly compatible.
Maybe it's just a question of taste regarding sequencing capabilities but I think NI hasn't got it yet. I hope they will, if they do they could kill Live I suppose.

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Re: Just tried Maschine again after a few years

Post by Tarekith » Fri Jun 05, 2015 4:45 pm

I don't get the sequencing complaints I hear now and then. What makes it not a great sequencer?

Genuinely curious, as it does everything I've needed so far.
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mholloway
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Re: Just tried Maschine again after a few years

Post by mholloway » Fri Jun 05, 2015 5:18 pm

Tarekith wrote:I don't get the sequencing complaints I hear now and then. What makes it not a great sequencer?

Genuinely curious, as it does everything I've needed so far.
I think that often the people who say it's "not great" are really just saying "it's not like Live's session view," and because that is what feels right to them by familiarity, they think Maschine's approach is somehow shitty or wrong.

For example, the chief complaint I've seen is either 1) that you can't drag the clips around the arrangement page, in other words, treat it like Live's matrix, and 2) that clips are only references, not unique content, so changing a pattern makes every instance of that pattern change throughout the arrangement (which is a GOOD thing, if you understand and like Maschine's true pattern-based logic of sequencing, but is probably an odd or difficult thing, if you're thinking in a live mind-set that every clip is a unique entity and changing it will never change the content of another clip).

-M
my industrial music made with Ableton Live (as DEAD WHEN I FOUND HER): https://deadwhenifoundher.bandcamp.com/
my dark jazz / noir music made with Ableton Live: https://michaelarthurholloway.bandcamp. ... guilt-noir

Airyck
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Re: Just tried Maschine again after a few years

Post by Airyck » Fri Jun 05, 2015 8:33 pm

Tarekith wrote:I don't get the sequencing complaints I hear now and then. What makes it not a great sequencer?

Genuinely curious, as it does everything I've needed so far.
Before I used Ableton I started on Cubase back the VST5/SX days. Even back then Cubase always had a "Cycle" record where it would stack and mute clips.
I would loop a section of a song I was working on, hit record and just jam away until something good happened. I'd stop and locate and assemble the clips as needed and discard the rest.

I do something similar with Ableton Live but with session view I can record as long as I want, make a loop length and just move around until I find a nice sound motif or loop section. No limitation on how long I can record, no having to set up how long I want to record ahead of time, and no having to wait until the first beat to start recording.

With Maschine as soon as you reach the end of the pattern you start to overdub. It's a small thing and it's really that it just doesn't work for "me" personally.

Not being able to move the start point is another big one. I know there are work arounds like nudging into infinity, mouse work, or from what you were telling me it's a lot better moving notes with the Studio.

They also used to have a "split" function that they got rid of which allowed a little more experimentation without stopping your workflow.

It just feels very restricting and blocky. Everything seems like it has to be predefined which to me really doesn't encourage experimentation or growth. Good for banging out something where you already know exactly what you want though I guess.

It's not bad necessarily it just seems like it stops me up too much to do some menial tedious task before I can continue instead of letting things flow swift and free.

FYI: This is just my "opinion" so please don't get offended people.
Ableton Live 10 Suite / Push 2 / Max 8 /

Tarekith
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Re: Just tried Maschine again after a few years

Post by Tarekith » Sat Jun 06, 2015 6:30 am

Compared to a DAW I could see how it might be a bit limiting like that. I personally just make my default patterns really long in Maschine so I can just jam as long as I want until something good comes along. But yeah, if you forget to set that ahead of time it would be an issue.
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db120
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Re: Just tried Maschine again after a few years

Post by db120 » Sat Jun 06, 2015 8:35 pm

Airyck wrote:
FYI: This is just my "opinion" so please don't get offended people.
You might consider not starting your opinions with something sucks followed by a smiley face. The impulse to write something negative about a product on a completely different companies forum seems a bit like self-justification, lack of creativity, and rarely a genuine gripe. Why would you write this here? Especially in this case where you're comparing a DAW to something completely different and aren't using the Studio version? Actually, no need to answer, both of our time would be better spent making music.

Maschine Studio is a COMPLETELY different thing, it's more a Tron bike criss-crossing the grid in countless creative ways and Ableton is the mothership waiting to beam it to outerspace.

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Re: Just tried Maschine again after a few years

Post by Tarekith » Sat Jun 06, 2015 10:17 pm

I thought he had a pretty fair and well stated opinion.
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TomViolenz
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Re: Just tried Maschine again after a few years

Post by TomViolenz » Sun Jun 07, 2015 9:41 am

Tarekith wrote:I thought he had a pretty fair and well stated opinion.
I personally thought it..................
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...............................sucked :lol:

Machinesworking
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Re: Just tried Maschine again after a few years

Post by Machinesworking » Sun Jun 07, 2015 8:30 pm

TomViolenz wrote:
Tarekith wrote:I thought he had a pretty fair and well stated opinion.
I personally thought it..................
.
.
.
.
..
...
....
...............................sucked :lol:
The dialogue it created inadvertently led me to re-evaluating Maschine and purchasing Studio used in top condition.
So I'm gonna disagree, agree, and disagree. I disagreed with Airyck's evaluation, I agree with you there, but I disagree that the opinion had no merit since the dialogue proved helpful, (along with some craigslist luck). 8)

TomViolenz
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Re: Just tried Maschine again after a few years

Post by TomViolenz » Sun Jun 07, 2015 10:12 pm

Machinesworking wrote:
TomViolenz wrote:
Tarekith wrote:I thought he had a pretty fair and well stated opinion.
I personally thought it..................
.
.
.
.
..
...
....
...............................sucked :lol:
The dialogue it created inadvertently led me to re-evaluating Maschine and purchasing Studio used in top condition.
So I'm gonna disagree, agree, and disagree. I disagreed with Airyck's evaluation, I agree with you there, but I disagree that the opinion had no merit since the dialogue proved helpful, (along with some craigslist luck). 8)
Ah sure, and the thread didn't go quite as badly as I expected at first either, but that little dig using the OPs word choice was still warranted IMO :P

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