NI MASCHINE - constantly upgrading. (Ver. 1.6)

the reason id consider maschine is cause i just moved to china. i had to fuggin lug around my mpc2500 + laptop. and the mpc had to be in a heavy ass case.

if i would have realized how much a pain in the ass that was........i would have dropped 600 bucks (already spent like 200 on my mpc case) and just got a bag for laptop + maschine. easy as cake, light weight, and able to carry all in one spot.

seems silly to pick something just cause of portability.............but think about all the bang you get for that, plus think of all the gigging musicians out there. portability is definately a factor.

if the sp404 could do proper pitch shifting, i would get that.

cyrus wrote:the reason id consider maschine is cause i just moved to china. i had to fuggin lug around my mpc2500 + laptop. and the mpc had to be in a heavy ass case.

if i would have realized how much a pain in the ass that was........i would have dropped 600 bucks (already spent like 200 on my mpc case) and just got a bag for laptop + maschine. easy as cake, light weight, and able to carry all in one spot.

seems silly to pick something just cause of portability.............but think about all the bang you get for that, plus think of all the gigging musicians out there. portability is definately a factor.

if the sp404 could do proper pitch shifting, i would get that.

In Asia (and perhaps the states as well) you can get custom made carry on suit case (w/ wheels) that will fit both your MPC and laptop for much less than $200. You may even find a store bought suit case that will do the same.

Askia Shaheed wrote:

cyrus wrote:the reason id consider maschine is cause i just moved to china. i had to fuggin lug around my mpc2500 + laptop. and the mpc had to be in a heavy ass case.

if i would have realized how much a pain in the ass that was........i would have dropped 600 bucks (already spent like 200 on my mpc case) and just got a bag for laptop + maschine. easy as cake, light weight, and able to carry all in one spot.

seems silly to pick something just cause of portability.............but think about all the bang you get for that, plus think of all the gigging musicians out there. portability is definately a factor.

if the sp404 could do proper pitch shifting, i would get that.

In Asia (and perhaps the states as well) you can get custom made carry on suit case (w/ wheels) that will fit both your MPC and laptop for much less than $200. You may even find a store bought suit case that will do the same.

true indeed. but i doubt in the states you can for under 200, maybe you can, but not one that will fit the carry on specs or being some kind of hackish job or without spending alot of time on it.

but the one i ended up getting, the mutha **** wouldnt let me get on the plane with it. at that point it was too late and i wasnt about to put it under the plane. so i ended up taking the thing out of the case and they put the case under the plane while i kept the mpc under my seat in a bag.

fckin disaster. my case fit all the dimensions, etc. but the weight was too much for carry on. i thought they were being dicks about it, but at the time i had to do what i had to do. keep in mind i have 2 kids and shit ton other luggage. so even if you get a flight case for your gear, you can end up spending a shit ton of quid just to get it on the plane and thats if you trust it to go under the plane too (either getting stolen or getting ruined) you can pay extra to keep it safe.

point is, for 600 bucks, its a good deal for a road ready gear that will fit in your laptop bag. my flight case was 200. even if you got a deal on the flight case or got a custom case you still spend around 150 bones. 600 - 150 = 450. add peace of mind your gear will be safe and subtract any other problems you might encounter with having to carray an extra piece of luggage = awesome deal.

and most people, will probably need to bring thier laptop anyways so it ends up being one less piece of luggage.

kb420ps wrote:

emptysea wrote:Then just take a look at the Maschine forum and you'll find plenty of people who used to consider themselves "hardcore MPC users" for years who have now completely replaced their MPCs with Maschine.

That may be the case, but I'm not convinced. I consider myself a software user now, and I'm still not convinced. I don't like the hardware controller.


Obviously you missed my point. I said that the two little screens on the Maschine hardware are much too small to handle all of the data that many vst's throw at a user. So, now that it can host vst's, the screens can't display all of the data you need. That "forces" you to use a computer monitor, which in my opinion takes away from the whole concept of "hardware" workflow. If I have to look at the computer screen, I don't feel like I'm using hardware anymore. Once again, isn't that the point???



Y

The 5000 has wider knobs, a bigger data entry knob, a flip up screen, and four faders. Maschine has tiny skinny knobs, no bigger data entry knob, and no faders whatsoever. It looks cluttered and tight. I don't see how I could ever get used to that coming from an MPC background. Again, this is just my opinion. I may not have all of the hands on control that Maschine gives, but I'm much more comfortable with the MPD 32 and APC 40. I have the same knobs, and faders as the MPC, so I feel right at home.

It's obvious you have never even been in the same room with a maschine. The knobs are wee bit tinier than mpc knobs but they have more space between them. A big knob on maschine would be close to useless except for maybe a quick and easy to grab knob for effect filters.

The vst automap will map every single parameter a vst has and do it near instantly and even though you only have 8 knobs its one button to switch to another 8 knobs of mapped parameter.

And if you want you can map those parameters your self to customize the knobs you want grouped together. The only way this feature could be done better is if maschine had 500 knobs and a visual representation of the vst beamed into your brain. This one feature makes all your vsts instant hardware.

And you say you are a fan of bpm. With bpm and uvi workstation installed you dont even need to use bpm and it's very unintuitive sequencer although you lose its nice and tightness. You can just load the workstation as a plug in and load bpm sounds,filters and effects. and have Bpm,s sounds with machines hardware/sequencer.

SuperKonquer wrote:

kb420ps wrote:

emptysea wrote:Then just take a look at the Maschine forum and you'll find plenty of people who used to consider themselves "hardcore MPC users" for years who have now completely replaced their MPCs with Maschine.

That may be the case, but I'm not convinced. I consider myself a software user now, and I'm still not convinced. I don't like the hardware controller.


Obviously you missed my point. I said that the two little screens on the Maschine hardware are much too small to handle all of the data that many vst's throw at a user. So, now that it can host vst's, the screens can't display all of the data you need. That "forces" you to use a computer monitor, which in my opinion takes away from the whole concept of "hardware" workflow. If I have to look at the computer screen, I don't feel like I'm using hardware anymore. Once again, isn't that the point???



Y

The 5000 has wider knobs, a bigger data entry knob, a flip up screen, and four faders. Maschine has tiny skinny knobs, no bigger data entry knob, and no faders whatsoever. It looks cluttered and tight. I don't see how I could ever get used to that coming from an MPC background. Again, this is just my opinion. I may not have all of the hands on control that Maschine gives, but I'm much more comfortable with the MPD 32 and APC 40. I have the same knobs, and faders as the MPC, so I feel right at home.

It's obvious you have never even been in the same room with a maschine. The knobs are wee bit tinier than mpc knobs but they have more space between them. A big knob on maschine would be close to useless except for maybe a quick and easy to grab knob for effect filters.

The vst automap will map every single parameter a vst has and do it near instantly and even though you only have 8 knobs its one button to switch to another 8 knobs of mapped parameter.

And if you want you can map those parameters your self to customize the knobs you want grouped together. The only way this feature could be done better is if maschine had 500 knobs and a visual representation of the vst beamed into your brain. This one feature makes all your vsts instant hardware.

And you say you are a fan of bpm. With bpm and uvi workstation installed you dont even need to use bpm and it's very unintuitive sequencer although you lose its nice and tightness. You can just load the workstation as a plug in and load bpm sounds,filters and effects. and have Bpm,s sounds with machines hardware/sequencer.

Great post

Recently I almost sold my MPC 1000 to get maschine (2 times in less than a year).I have a 1st gen MPC 1000:Blue screen,pad upgrade,all black case,new volume,rec gain and slider knobs,JJOS 4.9 and maxed out ram! even thinkin bout gettin wooden panels.Its truly a one of a kind Drum machine now that i would hate to give up.Anyways,i felt like i was at a creative block and could do a whole lot more with maschine in mind.I came from a software backround and switched to mainly MPC a couple years back.I still integrate the 2 with midi sync to reason 5 and my pro tools but the one thing i miss from software was the onboard + VST effects and faster tracking.I could use my plug-ins but i gotta track out the beat first which takes awhile (1 sound at a time).A friend that has maschine let me install the software to see how it would run on my dell laptop (was able to use my oxy 25 with it) so i msconfiged to disable most startup progs to free up resources,disabled wifi and antivirus and did a clean startup.I loaded up the software and it was not good (yes i have asio4all,lets get that out the way).my laptop spec are: Intel core 2 duo,3gb ram,2.17 Ghz w/Windows 7! I figure it would handle it fine,i guess not.The cpu meter was jumping up and down already,uses 135mb of ram at startup (over 5 times as much as fl studio) had to up the buffer cause i heard clips/pops.So i was able to program a drum pattern on my oxy and the timing wasnt all the way there! none of my drum hits playback as i programmed them unless i quantize everything but i dont do that.The cpu meter was was up there after using only 4 plug-ins so i gave up quick and decided to keep my MPC 1000.So i went to my friends house who lent me the software to really get the true hands-on with maschine! he has a new imac so he had no probs that i had with my pc laptop lol.At first i thought it was dope but then that started to go down hill.I didnt like the sample editing! the start/end knobs were sensitive so it would zoom in/out too much,didnt like the sequencer,it sounded way too digital to me,the pads were to stiff! felt like they werent there and a couple other things i cant think of right now.The maschine is a dope concept and i do wanna spend more time with it but as of right now,im not completely sold.Ill keep my eye on it in the future but until then,im rockin my MPC.After that i was actually able to get out of my creative block that i had with my MPC and I came up with new techniques + workflow that has brought the quality of my beats up a couple levels( i wont reveal so dont ask).Since im from a software backround,imma integrate my MPC and computer more so than i did before but not take away the complete hardware aspect as ill still be programming all in my MPC with the use of my software synths that are completly midi synced (one of my fav features by the way).Cant believe i just typed all this but as a serious MPC user and Hip-Hop producer/engineer i figure its only right.Im hopin people can relate or elevate my post to this ongoing debate that wont end anytime soon lol.

"Use whats comfortable to you,not what everybody else or your favorite producer is using"

Every time I hear anyone imply that an MPC workflow is slow because Maschine is integrated and keeps all sounds on board.....I laugh. It may do as good or better at one thing, but definitely does worst at other things (wrote numerous threads about this.)

I always tell people to keep their MPCs. If you want to work with VSTs? You can using an MPC. Set-up 64 MID tracks within your MPC assigning each its own MIDI channel. Load up your DAW with 64 tracks with a VST plugin assigned to each track. Assign each track to its own MIDI channel corresponding to the MPC. Its as simple as that. You can record/playback your VSTs using your MPCs sequencer. All the sounds remain within your PC/Mac. You can keep all the MIDI data within your MPC, which means you will have to load an MPC sequence file in addition to loading the project in your DAW. Or, you can export the MPCs sequence you created and import into your DAW. You can do this over USB. Hell, you can "arm' your DAW to record..and simply play your MPC whose data will be directly recorded into your DAW....I am just saying, there are multiple ways to reach the same goal.

optik415 wrote:A friend that has maschine let me install the software to see how it would run on my dell laptop (was able to use my oxy 25 with it)

LOL Running a pirated copy of the software like that is not going to give you any idea of what it's like to actually use Maschine.

optik415 wrote:I didnt like the sample editing! the start/end knobs were sensitive so it would zoom in/out too much

Just because you don't know how to use it properly and get precise control doesn't mean you can't do it.

optik415 wrote:didn't like the sequencer,it sounded way too digital to me

Ahahahahahahaha!!!!

optik415 wrote:didn't like the sequencer,it sounded way too digital to me

okay, what the hell

konc3pt wrote:

optik415 wrote:didn't like the sequencer,it sounded way too digital to me

okay, what the hell

Ahahahahahahahahah
Wowwww

That was just my first impression of it.My friend doesnt know the whole thing in and out yet but i was able to figure things out on my own while he was showin me.I got the software first to see how my computer could handle it THATS ALL.The controller wont magically take away the cpu jumps and all that so relax.I had hands on with the actual unit and i just cant picture myself usin it fully yet.I said i wanted to spend more time with it.That was just my personal opinion/experiment and read my whole post before bashing me.

Well I wouldn't mind taking a look at the Maschine.

But so far, I haven't seen or heard anything that would make me wanna buy one.

If I had one, I'd still have to use the MPC sequencer, so whats the point???

Meaning, I don't really see the USP...

I am going to convince my younger cousin to use Maschine. If he doesn't take to it, I may give away to a forum member for free.

Askia: "Hell, you can "arm' your DAW to record..and simply play your MPC whose data will be directly recorded into your DAW....I am just saying, there are multiple ways to reach the same goal."

Askia is dead on with that earlier post! I was in the same boat as Optik. Had been thinking of downsizing a bit myself.. (had some extra cash come in so i suffered from a bit of gear lust too lol). I came very close to pulling the trigger after going into a guitar center with my ipod and doing some sampling and making a beat with, it trying it out for about an hour. Im not gonna lie....Maschine is DOPE!!! The freakin drag and drop feature where u can do the beat in maschine and then just drop ur maschine tracks into ur DAW WOW!!! and its still in its infancy stage as NI is making it better each update. I came home and asked myself what could it do that my current setup could not? Answer.... Not a whole lot. Yeah its speed/workflow is lightning fast but with some creativity and understanding of your gear you can come close to matching what it does. This can be achieved by templates. I now run my setup as if i had a 100% hardware setup. MPC1k running everything. Vst's midi'ed up from MPC. My DAW Reaper used for str8 audio recording/editing and fx wherever i see fit. I build the beat/song in the mpc and once im done i arm tracks and tell Reaper to record everything as audio tracks (thanks to the homey Dubs for helping me see this). I have templates for fx/vst's that are pre mapped to my mpc and midi keyboard and control surface. I still can achieve a hands on feel with minor mouse work.

So like Optik said "Use whats comfortable to you,not what everybody else or your favorite producer is using" lol. My setup works for me (MPC, S3000, Reaper, Ableton, and a sh!t load of plugins). Dont get me wrong Maschine is SICK, and if i were starting from scratch today building up a new studio, I prob would go with maschine, but what i have works (not to mention i aint ready to part ways with my MPC especially after the money ive invested in it (JJOS2xl, White LCD screen, Pad upgrade and bootleg white trim paint job) lol

Just my$0.02

And askia ill gladly take that maschine if you r gonna give it away lol

faze1 wrote:Askia: "Hell, you can "arm' your DAW to record..and simply play your MPC whose data will be directly recorded into your DAW....I am just saying, there are multiple ways to reach the same goal."

Askia is dead on with that earlier post! I was in the same boat as Optik. Had been thinking of downsizing a bit myself.. (had some extra cash come in so i suffered from a bit of gear lust too lol). I came very close to pulling the trigger after going into a guitar center with my ipod and doing some sampling and making a beat with, it trying it out for about an hour. Im not gonna lie....Maschine is DOPE!!! The freakin drag and drop feature where u can do the beat in maschine and then just drop ur maschine tracks into ur DAW WOW!!! and its still in its infancy stage as NI is making it better each update. I came home and asked myself what could it do that my current setup could not? Answer.... Not a whole lot. Yeah its speed/workflow is lightning fast but with some creativity and understanding of your gear you can come close to matching what it does. This can be achieved by templates. I now run my setup as if i had a 100% hardware setup. MPC1k running everything. Vst's midi'ed up from MPC. My DAW Reaper used for str8 audio recording/editing and fx wherever i see fit. I build the beat/song in the mpc and once im done i arm tracks and tell Reaper to record everything as audio tracks. I have templates for fx/vst's that are pre mapped to my mpc and midi keyboard and control surface. I still can achieve a hands on feel with minor mouse work.

So like Optik said "Use whats comfortable to you,not what everybody else or your favorite producer is using" lol. My setup works for me (MPC, S3000, Reaper, Ableton, and a sh!t load of plugins). Dont get me wrong Maschine is SICK, and if i were starting from scratch today building up a new studio, I prob would go with maschine, but what i have works (not to mention i aint ready to part ways with my MPC especially after the money ive invested in it (JJOS2xl, White LCD screen, Pad upgrade and bootleg white trim paint job) lol

Just my$0.02

And askia ill gladly take that maschine if you r gonna give it away lol

Dope post homie.Im plan on gettin jjos2xl! im currently usin 4.99.How is it? is the upgrade worth it? I wanna get wooden panels and the black thick pads as well.Ill have the dopest 1000 out there lol.