POLL: Maschine / MPD 18/32 / MPC 500/1000/2500

[23kon]

What "looks quite restrictive" to you?

Well in TouchAble i'd have all the scene launches in front of me and could have either levels/effects/keys/pads in the bottom half of the screen at the same time.

With Maschine i'd have their scene/triggers and just 8 buttons at any one time.

Having said that, I guess I could use TouchOSC or similar on the ipad to have more hands on controls at one time with Maschine.
- will the novation nocturn work with it?

Playing live gigs: I'd see me using pads moreso in the studio rather than playing live. (until i became more of a 'pad master')
And live playing would really just be triggering scenes/clips and tweaking synth parameters and effects and triggering samples.
I think that maschine to me seems like more of a studio device or something for playing 'live' beats. No?

Does Maschine timestretch samples to fit the bpm etc as ableton does?
(just another question on top of my others lol)

Also, theres lots of videos of production of tunes on youtube. Anyone got any good 'playing live' videos that i've probably not seen.

Much thanks to all the help/advice and chat btw!

[delicioso]

What "looks quite restrictive" to you?

Well in TouchAble i'd have all the scene launches in front of me and could have either levels/effects/keys/pads in the bottom half of the screen at the same time.

With Maschine i'd have their scene/triggers and just 8 buttons at any one time.

Having said that, I guess I could use TouchOSC or similar on the ipad to have more hands on controls at one time with Maschine.
- will the novation nocturn work with it?

You can definitely use touchOSC, nocturn...etc. to extend Maschine's controller.

The thing is, you have to look at Maschine for how it's meant to be used to get the best of it. For example, you can quickly hold down a pad and change the level, pitch, position of the sound on that. Similarly, you can hold down one of the group buttons and tweak the main volume knob to adjust the level for that while group and the tempo knob to adjust the pitch of the whole group...etc.

Playing live gigs: I'd see me using pads moreso in the studio rather than playing live. (until i became more of a 'pad master')
And live playing would really just be triggering scenes/clips and tweaking synth parameters and effects and triggering samples.
I think that maschine to me seems like more of a studio device or something for playing 'live' beats. No?

Does Maschine timestretch samples to fit the bpm etc as ableton does?
(just another question on top of my others lol)

NI have been working on quality realtime timestretch for Maschine for quite some time. In the meantime, it's just a matter of loading any timestretching plugins like Reaktor, Kontakt, Melodyne...etc. inside Maschine.

Here are some examples of Maschine for live performances:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_iH5hGF210
http://vimeo.com/m/#/12143973
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7latln5hKI

[23kon]

Cheers for that. I don't use too many timestretched samples - just occasional loops n riffs from old found disco/funk/random records. I guess i'd probably do them in ableton then import into maschine if i was using it standalone.

[starving student]

.


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

[jestermgee]

I own an MPD32 and it's not too bad... But not great either...

The MAIN reason I got the MPD was I needed to tap out drum beats. I wanted a few more controls which I hard code to functions in Ableton so it's basically a drum programmer and works well for that and is just simlpe MIDI. After setting it up I can just use it.

Things I Dont Like:
- Pads were very "stiff" requiring you to hit quite hard. Possibly great on stage or standing but I sit at my space ship flight deck in the studio and it really needed modifying to bring up the sensitivity... Rocks now!
- No MIDI feedback!. It's one way only man. Now, it can accept the clock signal from Ableton for syncing the note repeat but I never use this. What I mean is no CC MIDI data can be sent to keep buttons and knobs in sync.
- It's a BIG footprint. Takes up a lot of desk real estate for programming drums.

I was actually just looking at Maschine and it does look good, but for the price I don't know if it would be worth it. Yes its good to get away from the monitors a bit but as has been said, it's just easier to use a mouse to load up sounds and get things setup. After that you can tap away on the pads of anything pretty easy. My main thinking for this thing wouldn't even be for live performing but "jam time" playing to get ideas happening. It just looks like fun.

[23kon]

Cheers for your feedback jestermgee.

I'd started looking at the various pad options purely just for battering out beats like yourself and Maschine came along with a line of temptation.
It's not what i'm after at the moment I don't think. It's just going to lead to me having to buy other NI products probably haha. I just want something to knock out beats so been keeping my eye on ebay for MPD32s going for a bargain. Even got distracted by Midi-Fighter too. http://www.djtechtools.com/store/contro ... ghter.html
That's even more minimum that the MPD18!
I realise the buttons are just on/off though and don't have sensitivity. Nice things though!

Maschine's are in my watch-list too on ebay and I may end up jumping at one if theres a bargain to be had.

[starving student]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ys8bsWEWt0A

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajIniQuU ... ure=relmfu

[starving student]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qKqZALPeCA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n1htNKK_6hQ

[starving student]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ijh4-iRx ... re=related

^

[23kon]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qKqZALPeCA

Nice tune but this video doesn't convince me that Maschine is a "live performance" tool.
These guys are only using Maschine to trigger a loop.

For keys he's playing a keyboard.
For effects they've got a kaoss pad.
and why ... so everything can be tweaked/keyed at the same time.
I don't see being able to tweak this many parameters at once on one controller as possible.

Hence why I think my setup of ipad with touchable allowing two of the following at one time
keys, pads, clip/scene launch, effects
plus just a wee nocturn is a better setup for live performance reasons
plus maybe some rubbery pads for laying beats live rather than playing ipad screen pads.

i DO see Maschine as a good studio tool. not knocking that at all.
just fail to see any advantage of using it as a live performance tool because it seems restricting.

this saturday i'm going to local music shop to get a (hopefully) long showcase of maschine to see what its all about.

[perplex]

to the guys with a maschine + ableton

how do you drag the MIDI (not audio) from the maschine to ableton?

[esky]

MPD 32 as a live tool...:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=31AFfyPXUKQ

[delicioso]

to the guys with a maschine + ableton

how do you drag the MIDI (not audio) from the maschine to ableton?

You can choose whether drag and drop does audio or midi.

[23kon]

VERY nice link showcasing the real capabilities of using an MPD32 as a full-on controller.
Great tune too. Had a quick watch while i was "working" at work but will study it in more detail later.

Looks like he's assigned knobs to go through his banks of sounds perhaps?

[perplex]

to the guys with a maschine + ableton

how do you drag the MIDI (not audio) from the maschine to ableton?

You can choose whether drag and drop does audio or midi.

whaaaaaaaaaaaat? (im a noob, just got it lol)

Can you also drag midi from ableton to the maschine?