Live users and Maschine - an observation

[starving student]

i think if you're someone who does not want to use anything but the computer that maschine is for that person, it would help the computer feel more like an instrument

Yeah, I think that describes me as well. I have used hardware like the electribe and MPCs and while I appreciate what they are, I've come to realize that they're too limited for me and that's why I've decided on a software setup based on Live. The main reason for choosing Live for me (and I'm sure many others as well) was the session view. Up til now, I knew of no other software program with a non-linear pattern sequencer like Live's session view, other than FL Studio which I can't use because I'm on a mac. But Live has disappointed me with its inherent limitation of not being able to record automation in the session view.

And now, looking at Maschine, I feel like it IS serious competition for someone like me who's main interest in Live is the session view style workflow. I don't care that much about follow actions or other Live exclusive session view features. All I really want is to be able to simply record controller movements while in a session view-like environment, and Maschine does this. And Maschine has a built-in hardware step sequencer. Live users would need APC40 and Max for Live whenever it comes out in order to accomplish that. Knowing what I know now, I probably would have gone for Maschine instead of buying Live.

i see, whats the best work around for this in live have you been using?
i didn't know that about maschine that would definitely peak my intrest.

[continuous]

i have a question about maschine, does it have this feature that I found on the korg esx-1, i love this feature, you've got your pattern running and you can do all kinds of stuff to it manipulate it like crazy
every which way and then you can press like shift and another key (not in front of it right now)and it will revert back to the original pattern that you were playing with out all of the editing,and then if you want you can do the button combo thing again and it will revert back to the effected manipulated pattern.
this feature singlehandedly makes the korg esx-1 so much fun and incredible for Live use I love this machine and it's great for sample manipulation.

can maschine do this?

From my VERY BASIC experience with Maschine so far I'm thinking the closest thing to this would be to make a string of variations (A1,A2,A3,A4 etc.) leaving the original intact.

So lets say your 'solid' pattern is A1 you would then hold down the pattern button + the duplicate button then tap the button which contains A1 and tap any other button you want to copy that pattern to. So doing this I would tap A1 then A2, A1 then A3, A1 then A4 etc. and have 4 copies of the pattern which you can then go in and mess with, leaving your original 'backbone' pattern alone. Even a clumsy dork like myself can do this in like three seconds. You can do the same with 'scenes'.

You would prolly wanna get this technique going pretty much right away cause any time you change A1 where it exists in any 'scene' it changes all instances of A1 which kinda frustrated me at first. Hope this makes sense!

[bog]

i think if you're someone who does not want to use anything but the computer that maschine is for that person, it would help the computer feel more like an instrument

Yeah, I think that describes me as well. I have used hardware like the electribe and MPCs and while I appreciate what they are, I've come to realize that they're too limited for me and that's why I've decided on a software setup based on Live. The main reason for choosing Live for me (and I'm sure many others as well) was the session view. Up til now, I knew of no other software program with a non-linear pattern sequencer like Live's session view, other than FL Studio which I can't use because I'm on a mac. But Live has disappointed me with its inherent limitation of not being able to record automation in the session view.

And now, looking at Maschine, I feel like it IS serious competition for someone like me who's main interest in Live is the session view style workflow. I don't care that much about follow actions or other Live exclusive session view features. All I really want is to be able to simply record controller movements while in a session view-like environment, and Maschine does this. And Maschine has a built-in hardware step sequencer. Live users would need APC40 and Max for Live whenever it comes out in order to accomplish that. Knowing what I know now, I probably would have gone for Maschine instead of buying Live.

i see, whats the best work around for this in live have you been using?

you mean not being able to record automation in Live's session view? I haven't successfully done this yet but I'm aware of a few workarounds as mentioned here: http://forum.ableton.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=113363
I may just save up for Maschine.

[starving student]

thanks continuous.

@bog you might want to keep a hold of live because they will definitely implement this eventualy if they don't they will have to hide

[doc holiday]

there is no way in hell i could drop live for maschine.

I think the two would sit very nicely together.

[starving student]

there is no way in hell i could drop live for maschine.

I think the two would sit very nicely together.

thats what i'm sayin thats just crazy talk

i think he needs a doc and a holiday.....doc

[bog]

@bog you might want to keep a hold of live because they will definitely implement this eventualy if they don't they will have to hide

Since I'm already invested in Live I'll continue using it even if I do end up getting Maschine which I won't be able to afford for a while. I was just saying that if I hadn't yet bought Live, knowing what I know now, I might have instead of bought Maschine and maybe a different DAW to run it in like Logic since Maschine seems to offer what I need from Live's session view.

[starving student]

@bog you might want to keep a hold of live because they will definitely implement this eventualy if they don't they will have to hide

Since I'm already invested in Live I'll continue using it even if I do end up getting Maschine which I won't be able to afford for a while. I was just saying that if I hadn't yet bought Live, knowing what I know now, I might have instead of bought Maschine and maybe a different DAW to run it in like Logic since Maschine seems to offer what I need from Live's session view.

I'm hoping that by the time Ni gives everybody the upgrades they want that the used market will be full of maschines from folks that didn't really get it so I can pick one up for cheaps, when it comes down to it you just gotta try these things out as much as possible so i gotta get my hands on it but not at m/f guitar center

[contakt321]

Tempting...

http://cgi.ebay.com/NATIVE-INSTRUMENTS- ... 7C294%3A50

[starving student]

i don't knowwww why wouldn't dude just take it back it's only two weeks old, but anyway i need him to knock off at least another 150 so i'll have to wait a while

[glitchrock-buddha]

@bog you might want to keep a hold of live because they will definitely implement this eventualy if they don't they will have to hide

Since I'm already invested in Live I'll continue using it even if I do end up getting Maschine which I won't be able to afford for a while. I was just saying that if I hadn't yet bought Live, knowing what I know now, I might have instead of bought Maschine and maybe a different DAW to run it in like Logic since Maschine seems to offer what I need from Live's session view.

I'm hoping that by the time Ni gives everybody the upgrades they want that the used market will be full of maschines from folks that didn't really get it so I can pick one up for cheaps, when it comes down to it you just gotta try these things out as much as possible so i gotta get my hands on it but not at m/f guitar center

In a year's time you'll see plenty of maschines for sale used. Also the price will come down a fair bit new. Just look at Kore. It got cheaper and cheaper and you can pick one up very easily used now. Ok, that's more than a year I suppose, but this kind of technology is just moving faster and faster. It's a terrible investment any way you look at it. When Kore came out it was about 500 or 600 as well. I picked up Kore 2 with the old controller for 150 this year. My original plan was to get max for live and wait a while on maschine for the used ones to come out and the price to go down, but once you watch all the videos out there, it's hard to resist. Wouldn't even think of it being a replacement for Live though. You wouldn't even be able to use plug-ins! More like a replacement for battery and an mpd32.

And by the way starving student, you can do multiple undos, but I don't think you can do an undo for an actions before more recent actions.

[33tetragammon]

different tools for different people....

[33tetragammon]

[/quote] . But Live has disappointed me with its inherent limitation of not being able to record automation in the session view.

And now, looking at Maschine, I feel like it IS serious competition for someone like me who's main interest in Live is the session view style workflow. I don't care that much about follow actions or other Live exclusive session view features. All I really want is to be able to simply record controller movements while in a session view-like environment, and Maschine does this. And Maschine has a built-in hardware step sequencer. Live users would need APC40 and Max for Live whenever it comes out in order to accomplish that. Knowing what I know now, I probably would have gone for Maschine instead of buying Live.[/quote]

yup,i feel the same way about Live's limitation in sessionview.Maschine fills that gap perfectly,and this is the main reason i'm going to buy it most definitely next week,plus it's hardware/software integration(very important for me to LOSE that F#$%IN" mouse!).i really missed NOT having a decent hardware stepsequencer in the past years,after selling all my electribes etc.....
in my eyes can only get better when in the not so far away you can sequence other plugins/hardware with it as well,timestretch,more slice options and groove features like in Live 8.

i take back those words i wrote about it in an earlier post.Maschine is AWESOME!Live 8 is AWESOME.together with the AWESOME Kore 2 it's the HOLY TRINITY of my music productions.......

[contakt321]

So...

I got a chance to check out Maschine at Guitar Center for a few minutes this weekend.

All in all, the build quality looks great and I was able to figure out a lot of the basic use really easily (it's well labeled and intuitive). I can also see by the layout that someone used to it could get a lot done really quickly because of the way the menu/labels work. Pads felt good (softer/spongier than MPC) and really responsive to interpreting different velocities.

Playing with this - I could see how a ProTools user would go nuts over this. I know that a lot of hip-hop producers who use MPCs often will get "lazy" and do a lot of work in protools, or sometimes craft beats in protools which they always complain about not being an awesome experience. Thinking about Maschine with something like ProTools which IS clunky and it really sounds like a killer machine and way to make music. A beat machine that they can than plug into their clunky daw and have 8 stereo tracks (twice as many as the older MPCs, 4x as many as a 1000) and it sounds great.

One question for Maschine owners - how do you adjust the swing? I know there is a swing knob, but I couldn't hear the impact or see where that parameter was affected. Also, is it an MPC like swing (shifting some notes forward, some notes back)? How does it feel? Curious.

[jamester]

So...

I got a chance to check out Maschine at Guitar Center for a few minutes this weekend.

Same here, unfortunately didn't get to do much but it was cool to see it in person and get a feel of it. It does feel great, and the little I did with it I liked. One thing that concerns me though are that the screens are flat with big knobs in front of them - not well designed IMO. Sitting down you really can't read the screens, you have to get above it.

Playing with this - I could see how a ProTools user would go nuts over this. I know that a lot of hip-hop producers who use MPCs often will get "lazy" and do a lot of work in protools, or sometimes craft beats in protools which they always complain about not being an awesome experience. Thinking about Maschine with something like ProTools which IS clunky and it really sounds like a killer machine and way to make music. A beat machine that they can than plug into their clunky daw and have 8 stereo tracks (twice as many as the older MPCs, 4x as many as a 1000) and it sounds great.

While Reaper is far from "clunky", this is basically exactly how I'm feeling about using Maschine with it.