Maschine or turntables again?

[Hidden Driveways]

TT's!

This is a pretty apples and oranges decision, but big spinning platters are just a happy thing to have around. No living room or recording studio is truly complete without them. I bought my 1200's used through craigslist years ago and it was one of the better gear purchases I've made.

I don't have anything against Maschine, it seems cool, but personally I'm not sold on the idea of loading in the same gigs of sounds everyone else here has on their computer. I want to stay away from the prefab and start fresh.

The great thing about turntables is how uncomputery you can get. Turn on the mixer and turntables and speakers and drop the needles and go. You can start jamming in 10 seconds, have a 45 second session, stop and do something else. Computers just don't have that.

If Smutek doesn't cut you a deal, you should try to find someone who's unloading their Technics and a Serato interface for one low price.

You can bang out beats with velocity sensitivity on any MIDI keyboard. Any emulation of turntables and a mixer is 100% Microsoft Flight Simulator.

[beats me]

I don't have anything against Maschine, it seems cool, but personally I'm not sold on the idea of loading in the same gigs of sounds everyone else here has on their computer. I want to stay away from the prefab and start fresh.

Aren't you waaaaaay simplifying what Maschine does? And you aren't tied strictly to the sample content that comes with Maschine. I think that's the least appealing thing about it.

[dum]

ya, the maschine/traktor integration looks boss

it is uber-boss, killer OMFG hottest shit.

that damn maschine, i need to get one, it is the ultimate tool in my eyes, full superb integration into DAWs, sexy controller and works well with Traktor / Serato, plus it is awesome standalone... and the built is through and through oldskool german quality. yes!

i played only around with it once and i was like that

i need to have it.

Very pleased to hear about the build quality. I'll take your word for it as I probably won't be able to touch one in the near future

[dum]

TT's!

This is a pretty apples and oranges decision, but big spinning platters are just a happy thing to have around. No living room or recording studio is truly complete without them. I bought my 1200's used through craigslist years ago and it was one of the better gear purchases I've made.

+1.333

[aqua_tek]

I disagree with the idea that having Maschine, or any other type of drum machine or synth means you will sound like everyone else who owns it. Not everyone will use the soundbank exclusively. Not everyone sequences the same way. Not everyone post-processes their sounds in the same way.

Everyone who owns a certain synth, is basically met with the same bank of presets. Doesn't mean they'll all use them in the same way, or even use them at all.

That said, I still do have to mull it over. Maschine looks like great fun, and the 1.5 update seems to make it even more capable. However, I still go through my waves of doubt. Will it really give me an edge over what I can already do with Drum Racks and some other generic pad controller (or even the APC40 itself with the NativeKontrol "hacks" and switching to Drum Rack mode)? Would the possibility exist that even Drum Racks would offer certain added functionality that I would miss once I go into the Maschine environment?

I'm known to be flaky with my gear purchases. So, beat me's post is actually pretty spot on. I tend to overanalyze and somehow make choices that go against all the advice received

So despite almost all evidence and advice pointing to Maschine I expect Nathan's next post to be "So I got some turntables……"

so I decided to go with the booze, drugs, and hookers combo, and I couldn't be happier.

Thanks so much for your input, guys.

[beats me]

so I decided to go with the booze, drugs, and hookers combo, and I couldn't be happier.

Thanks so much for your input, guys.

I highly recommend consulting with ChiDJ to get the most bang for your buck on booze, drugs, and hookers for a price comparable to turntables or Maschine. The man has a system and you might want to take advantage of the free advice before he starts selling his book on late night infomercials.

[Hidden Driveways]

Just watched all of the 1.5 videos. Don't get me wrong... Maschine seems neat-o. But I don't get the feeling that my music writing will improve by using it. All in all it seems like it would create several layers of complexity in order to do the things I currently do with Ableton alone.

It is cool, but I need to maximize my music time. Getting used to all of those drop down menus and pop up selection screens would set me back.

[beats me]

Just watched all of the 1.5 videos. Don't get me wrong... Maschine seems neat-o. But I don't get the feeling that my music writing will improve by using it. All in all it seems like it would create several layers of complexity in order to do the things I currently do with Ableton alone.

It is cool, but I need to maximize my music time. Getting used to all of those drop down menus and pop up selection screens would set me back.

Fair enough but I think there is a certain amount of people that feel that Live is putting them in a rut with how it works coupled with 8 being buggy as shit still. Maschine would be an obvious response to that in being close enough to Live and also dabbling into the world of MPCs. This would also be a lot easier than going the other extreme route of learning and using a completely different DAW.

And on some levels I think it is a game changer that I don't think fits the same "this softsynth will up my game" delusions. There's almost nothing but universal praise for Maschine aside from those early adopters who couldn't give it more than a week before they decided it was garbage or redundant. I don't think you can come to that conclusion that quickly and especially with NI adding major features in free updates. Almost all the features people complained about in the beginning are now made possible with the software updates.

[dum]

Just watched all of the 1.5 videos. Don't get me wrong... Maschine seems neat-o. But I don't get the feeling that my music writing will improve by using it. All in all it seems like it would create several layers of complexity in order to do the things I currently do with Ableton alone.

It is cool, but I need to maximize my music time. Getting used to all of those drop down menus and pop up selection screens would set me back.

Fair enough but I think there is a certain amount of people that feel that Live is putting them in a rut with how it works coupled with 8 being buggy as shit still. Maschine would be an obvious response to that in being close enough to Live and also dabbling into the world of MPCs. This would also be a lot easier than going the other extreme route of learning and using a completely different DAW.

And on some levels I think it is a game changer that I don't think fits the same "this softsynth will up my game" delusions. There's almost nothing but universal praise for Maschine aside from those early adopters who couldn't give it more than a week before they decided it was garbage or redundant. I don't think you can come to that conclusion that quickly and especially with NI adding major features in free updates. Almost all the features people complained about in the beginning are now made possible with the software updates.

yes, but the complaining and the eventual changes for the better are probably linked. you seem to be hinting the two things are independent of each other.

[beats me]

Just watched all of the 1.5 videos. Don't get me wrong... Maschine seems neat-o. But I don't get the feeling that my music writing will improve by using it. All in all it seems like it would create several layers of complexity in order to do the things I currently do with Ableton alone.

It is cool, but I need to maximize my music time. Getting used to all of those drop down menus and pop up selection screens would set me back.

Fair enough but I think there is a certain amount of people that feel that Live is putting them in a rut with how it works coupled with 8 being buggy as shit still. Maschine would be an obvious response to that in being close enough to Live and also dabbling into the world of MPCs. This would also be a lot easier than going the other extreme route of learning and using a completely different DAW.

And on some levels I think it is a game changer that I don't think fits the same "this softsynth will up my game" delusions. There's almost nothing but universal praise for Maschine aside from those early adopters who couldn't give it more than a week before they decided it was garbage or redundant. I don't think you can come to that conclusion that quickly and especially with NI adding major features in free updates. Almost all the features people complained about in the beginning are now made possible with the software updates.

yes, but the complaining and the eventual changes for the better are probably linked. you seem to be hinting the two things are independent of each other.

Actually I'm not hinting at that at all. You can either look at it as complaining or feature requests but either way NI actually listens to those and implements them in free updates. In a way I think that's a better practice than releasing something with a ton of new features that's unstable as fuck. I'm willing to bet that they already had a lot of these features on the drawing board long before people even requested them.

But I'm sure that's also the benefit of releasing something that's new to the market. Ableton couldn't exactly release 8 with 1/10th of the new features it has in order to have better stability and still expect people to pay for it.

[humnumb]

I don't have anything against Maschine, it seems cool, but personally I'm not sold on the idea of loading in the same gigs of sounds everyone else here has on their computer. I want to stay away from the prefab and start fresh.

That's like saying everyone using an MPC will be using the stock sounds that come with it. It's a sampler, with Kore-style tagging and browing so it's lightening fast to find and load what you need.

All in all it seems like it would create several layers of complexity in order to do the things I currently do with Ableton alone.

Maschine actually removes layers of complexity for me. Try recording realtime automation in Live's session view without having to resort to inadequate and cumbersome hacks. Maschine has this built in. It's so intuitive to use yet allows so many different workflow scenarios. You can just drag and drop patterns into live as audio or midi clips, for example. Or trigger Maschine's patterns with midi notes or program changes. Being able to browse/preview/switch sounds directly from the hardware speeds up the workflow exponentially compared to Drum Rack.

Getting used to all of those drop down menus and pop up selection screens would set me back.

Seems like a typical confusion that can come from not having used Maschine. You never have to use "drop down menus" or "pop up selection" because you can do pretty much everything on the hardware that you can on the software without ever having to look at the computer screen.

[SubFunk]

^^^ precisely.

Getting used to all of those drop down menus and pop up selection screens would set me back.

that clearly shows you never ever used it.

it is exactly the first true product that let's you completely forget about the computer (screen and mouse) and yet it has all the power of modern software.

[beats me]

Looky here

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZxbhLmQjv0

[SubFunk]

Looky here

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZxbhLmQjv0

yeah, it is just a real sexy product, i am so sold, gonna grab one real soon.

and it serves so well as a general controller as well for live and everything else... especially on the road... IT IS BUSPOWERED!!!, has every knob illuminated and two not to shabby screens and rotaries which feel real quality and sturdy, Hooray!!!

i am so hooked on the built, the first time i touched it was like yum, german built quality, me likey very much.

seriously the first piece of kit in years that makes me really craving for it.

[beats me]

Looky here

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZxbhLmQjv0

yeah, it is just a real sexy product, i am so sold, gonna grab one real soon.

and it serves so well as a general controller as well for live and everything else... especially on the road... IT IS BUSPOWERED!!!, has every knob illuminated and two not to shabby screens and rotaries which feel real quality and sturdy, Hooray!!!

i am so hooked on the built, the first time i touched it was like yum, german built quality, me likey very much.

seriously the first piece of kit in years that makes me really craving for it.

The only thing I was curious about in that video was the inclusion of the Kontrol X1 other than just to showcase more NI gear because I've seen other videos where you have access to everything you need in Traktor including effects with just Maschine. Maybe you need it to get more detailed access to the effects parameters.

What I wish these controllers had was some kind of jog wheel to help with setting cue points when you don't have them preset or Traktor doesn't detect them accurately.

Regardless, so many useful things can be done with Maschine and it really is amazing how it inspires you to never have to look at the computer. It's almost frustrating when you do, but not everything is accessible on the controller (yet) or it's just more convenient to do whatever it is with a single click of the mouse.