Maschine users - your fave way of bringing a song into Live?

[Citizen]

Specifically, Maschine users that like to use Maschine in standalone mode.

What is your favourite workflow for doing this?

• Just work out a single 8/16/32 bar loop in Maschine, then export each sound as an audio stem for arranging in Live?
• Workout a basic arrangement using Scenes in Maschine, then import Midi/Audio/some combination of both?
• Work out several variations in Maschine, so you will already have some 'parts' to work with when you go into Live?
• Something else?


I love composing/brainstorming in Maschine, and love arranging in Live - its just the transition between the two that I still find a little laborious.

Any insights would be hugely appreciated! Thanks!

[Citizen]

My current process:

• I currently keep all my drums in Group A as Midi, and drag and drop those Midi patterns into a Live template that reroutes the Audio from Maschine to individual audio channels in Live - which obviously retains full control over my drum processing in Live. Keeping everything as Midi means that I can continue to create drum edits fills/etc in Live.

• All other sounds (in Groups B-H) are also dragged into Live as Midi, and I have to then apply and set-up the same plug-ins (and parameters) again in Live. (thats the really clunky bit - is there a better way?)

• If I have a (secondary) Percussion Group, this will be imported as audio, but only once I've created enough variations in Maschine, and processed it a bit in Maschine. I should probably look into consolidating these patterns into any spare slots in my Group A, so the extra perch could be imported as Midi, actually - a bit of work, but maybe worth it to retain the control?

Obviously no/minimal mixing tasks are done in Maschine, since they will only have to be done in Live again.

Thats it! Not exactly simple, but it seems the best way for now. Keen to hear others approaches.

[cmockett]

bump, just got a maschine last week and id like to hear others answers!

[Citizen]

Anyone else?

I know there are a lot of Maschine users on this forum, because of the lengthy debate in the Push vs. Maschine thread.

[puzzlefactory]

It took me a long time to integrate Maschine into my main workflow. But i find the best way is to create patterns and scenes in Maschine and then use program changes in clips to arrange the scenes in Lives sequencer. At the same time routing the audio of the separate sounds to individual audio tracks in Live.

I've found this is nice way to keep all of the functionality that comes with Maschine whilst still integrating with Live.

[cmockett]

puzzlefactory, when routing out audio of a Maschine drum group, do you group 16 audio tracks in live to one drum buss?

[puzzlefactory]

Well i don't tend to use 16 sounds in a group. But i generally have several layers for each sound on different pads in a group.

So my kick will consist of a couple of samples each on their own pads and i will use the effect slots in Maschine to process each of those samples individually. I would then send both of those kick samples to a single audio track in Live called "Kick" so that i can process the layered sample as a whole. I do the same for snares, high hats, cymbals etc etc.

I then group all of Lives audio tracks into a single drum bus called "drums" where i can then process the whole drum track.

[cmockett]

thanks- one more question, why do you find it advantageous to do some of the effect or layer processing in maschine rather than all inside Live? Ive heard their onboard effects aren't quite A+ (not like i can tell the difference half the time tbh)

thanks for the info

[Citizen]

So my kick will consist of a couple of samples each on their own pads and i will use the effect slots in Maschine to process each of those samples individually. I would then send both of those kick samples to a single audio track in Live called "Kick" so that i can process the layered sample as a whole. I do the same for snares, high hats, cymbals etc etc..

That's Brilliant! I'm glad I started this thread, just to get that tip!

One of my main issues with Maschine is that you can individually EQ/ process layers on a single pad! I realise of course that you can link pads ( as you have done, right?), but at least within Maschine, you cannot then process two pads together (with a compressor, for example)

I've been routing out all my drums to 15 individual audio channels in Live, and it didn't occur to me to route two pads to the same channel! Chunky drums, here I come! ( plus, for each layered drum, I save an extra channel of audio!)

I then group all of Lives audio tracks into a single drum bus called "drums" where i can then process the whole drum track.

Yep, that's what I've been doing. Glad to see I'm not barking up the wrong tree completely. It's taken a fair while to work out what works best.

Thanks for the tips - keep em comin!

[puzzlefactory]

thanks- one more question, why do you find it advantageous to do some of the effect or layer processing in maschine rather than all inside Live? Ive heard their onboard effects aren't quite A+ (not like i can tell the difference half the time tbh)

thanks for the info

You don't have to use the internal effects, you can load plugins into the effect slots in Maschine. I do it like this to create a hierarchy. In Maschine it's the individual layers of samples, then they are "grouped" into single audio tracks in Live which are then grouped into a drum bus.

Ultimately i would bounce the layered drum sounds down as single samples, either by recording the audio from Maschine into the designated Live audio tracks, or by re-sampling the sounds internally in Maschine.

[Citizen]

thanks- one more question, why do you find it advantageous to do some of the effect or layer processing in maschine rather than all inside Live? Ive heard their onboard effects aren't quite A+ (not like i can tell the difference half the time tbh)

thanks for the info

You can use plug ins withinMaschine - you don't just have to use the factory effects. I don't think all of the factory effects are THAT bad, but is probably choose something else for my compression,EQ and reverbs.

I'm guessing the reason cmockett does the layering in Maschine is because if he was to do it in Live, it would require an extra channel and routing for each layered drum sound (ie. a layered Kick would have one channel each for each layer, then an extra channel which both those channels are routed so that thebothlayers can be processed as one.)

...which then gets routed to the drum bus for more processing, of course. I'm guessing that cmockett is trying to avoid a messy drum group, and minimise confusion with his routing scheme in Live.... Maybe cmockett can elaborate - because I am very interested, too.

I personally try to minimise processing in Maschine, because I simply don't want to be jumping between Live and Maschine if I decide I want to change a parameter. Bt I'm guessing that cmockett is simply EQing hhis drum layers in Maschine, and setting and forgetting them (right?)

Really keen to hear you elaborate n these points - perhaps I've got it all wrong?!

[Citizen]

Ultimately i would bounce the layered drum sounds down as single samples, either by recording the audio from Maschine into the designated Live audio tracks, or by re-sampling the sounds internally in Maschine.

Do you ever find that you want to go back and tweak the layers after you havedonethis?

Also, does that then mean that you are using a combination of audio tracks and Midi for your drum group in Live? Does that get confusing/limiting in any way?

[delicioso]

Just work out a single 8/16/32 bar loop in Maschine, then export each sound as an audio stem for arranging in Live?
• Workout a basic arrangement using Scenes in Maschine, then import Midi/Audio/some combination of both?
• Work out several variations in Maschine, so you will already have some 'parts' to work with when you go into Live?
• Something else?

The easiest way is to just drag and drop as audio directly from Maschine into Live as you go, if you prefer to arrange in Live.

I prefer to do a complete arrangement in Maschine standalone and just do an Audio Export of all stems for each group and drag those at once into a DAW (Logic in my case) for mixdown.

[cmockett]

Citizen, by cmockett you're referring to PuzzleFactory, im a noob in this thread!

[puzzlefactory]

Ultimately i would bounce the layered drum sounds down as single samples, either by recording the audio from Maschine into the designated Live audio tracks, or by re-sampling the sounds internally in Maschine.

Do you ever find that you want to go back and tweak the layers after you havedonethis?

Also, does that then mean that you are using a combination of audio tracks and Midi for your drum group in Live? Does that get confusing/limiting in any way?

As long as you save a copy of your project you can go back and make any changes you want.

When you resample your layers into single samples you can do it any way you want, to avoid confusion. You can just bounce down the sounds as single hits and then re sequence them (which would un-clutter your midi files as well as adding to your own "user" sample collection of unique drum sounds). Or you could bounce them down like a multitrack recording with a single audio file for each of the drums in your patterns. It's actually quite easy to create drum edits from audio so you're not really limiting yourself in any meaningful way.

Do it in anyway that you feel comfortable with. Personally i don't have a problem with using a combination of audio and midi parts when creating my drum parts. As long as you can keep track of what is going on, in your head, then do what ever.