For discussion about setting up your studio and advice on the gear and equipment within it.
By doctah wizard Sun Nov 24, 2013 9:53 pm
I may want to buy NI Maschine but that depends... Can I use it to sequence Machinedrum? I want to use Machinedrum for drum synthesis and step sequencing but want to be able to hook it up to the NI Maschine so I can just trigger the machinedrum sounds via the Maschine sequencer.
Is that possible?
User avatar
By Metatron72 Sun Nov 24, 2013 10:11 pm
With minor MIDI setup yes totally. The MK I and II Maschine units only have one physical MIDI out. But if it's only the one Elektron piece you need to sync up should be fine, just set Maschine to send the right MIDI note numbers to the Machinedrum for triggering and have the Maschine software or DAW in hosted situation control the Machinedrum with Maschine as the MIDI master.
User avatar
By tapedeck Sun Nov 24, 2013 10:18 pm
yes you should be able to do it, but i would say to think about it a little bit.

not using the machinedrum sequencer is missing a huge part of what makes the machine so great. also, the new maschine software has a drum synth it, so you might be fine with that.

if however you want to sync them, i think that would be a good setup. i just could not personally use the md as just a drum module - the parameter locking of the internal sequencer is what does it for me. :mrgreen:
By doctah wizard Sun Nov 24, 2013 10:20 pm
tapedeck wrote:if however you want to sync them, i think that would be a good setup. i just could not personally use the md as just a drum module - the parameter locking of the internal sequencer is what does it for me. :mrgreen:


That's true, the MD sequencer is good from what I hear. But I thought you can't record a pattern realtime without quantize like on MPC or Maschine? Or am I mistaken?

FYI: I don't own neither of them, but I definitely want to buy a MD and I wondered if a NI Maschine would be a nice addon.
User avatar
By tapedeck Sun Nov 24, 2013 10:42 pm
yea you make a good point so let me clarify - what you gain from the md sequencer as far as automation, you lose as far as timing flexibility. coming from an mpc, which is the king of timing adjustments, that is what i miss most.

the md sequencer on it's own is not what i think is really great or anything, again, as a heavy mpc user. it is the combination of the sequencer within the md that makes it so powerful.

you could really do both - use the internal when you need and at the same time sequence some hits externally with all the timing adjustments and everything.

the md sequencer is definitely more a programming tool while the mpc is much more for live playing in.

let me say though that you cant go wrong with an md :mrgreen:
By doctah wizard Sun Nov 24, 2013 10:52 pm
Good to hear! And yeah, I definitely will be getting it.
So the answer is yes, I can sequence the MD sounds on the Maschine. But the Maschine has to be hooked up to a computer iirc? Could the machine have latency issues or should that be fine since all the FX for the drums are done on the Machinedrum and the Machinedrum would theoretically ouput the sound.
User avatar
By Metatron72 Sun Nov 24, 2013 10:58 pm
I thought you already knew Maschine needs the computer running, but yeah that's a big thing to consider.

Maschine's latency whether for pad input, or FX processing is dependent on your interface and buffer settings. Or if you have no interface and you're on PC there's a free emulated ASIO driver called ASIO4All that can really improve matters woth a PC's motherboard sound.

But yeah like you said if you using the internal sound generators in the Elektron box and it's FX should be cool.
By doctah wizard Sun Nov 24, 2013 11:16 pm
Cool, guess I'll be buying both when I start working my new job ;) Thanks a lot for the input guys, I appreciate it! Further input is welcome too of course!
User avatar
By tapedeck Mon Nov 25, 2013 12:14 am
if you do get a machinedrum, go all out and get the uw with the sampling. it is so great for sampling stuff in real time, or loading your own samples for a unique twist you can't get with the mpc.

really great machine. show i played last night was all machinedrum and i looked up at one point and folks were taking their damn pants off. god people love a filter sweep. :mrgreen:
By xibalba1875 Mon Nov 25, 2013 4:08 pm
I'd wait to get the Machinedrum because elektron are set to announce a totally new item. They just announced the Analog 4 Keys edition and they had a brand new instrument in a box behind frosted glass. It might be a new drum machine, might not but they said they will announce it very very soon.
User avatar
By tapedeck Tue Nov 26, 2013 5:45 am
depending on the kind of sampling you do, an md could be perfect. i have no need for an octatrack and i sample with / into the md all the time (i pitch all my samples up, get real nasty on the ram conservation).

perfect as a drum sampler - pretty damn good for a few lo-fi loops (or even fewer hi-fi ones). with the plus drive you can do this 128 times.

if you use it strictly like a sp, you'd be in heaven. :mrgreen: