Getting the Akai apc40 or NI Maschine?

I know there very different from each other, one is a dedicated midi controller for abelton and the other can be used as a stand alone production unit, I have a copy of abelton live and want the apc to control it but I also want to be able to sequence drum sounds n real time and I don't think the buttons on the apc would be as responsive as the pads on machine.
Besides that I'm pretty much ignorant as to the rest of the features of both negative or positive so just looking for a little feedback from those who have used either.

ed wrote:I know there very different from each other, one is a dedicated midi controller for abelton and the other can be used as a stand alone production unit, I have a copy of abelton live and want the apc to control it but I also want to be able to sequence drum sounds n real time and I don't think the buttons on the apc would be as responsive as the pads on machine.
Besides that I'm pretty much ignorant as to the rest of the features of both negative or positive so just looking for a little feedback from those who have used either.

You are correct, the buttons on the APC are not velocity sensitive. As you alluded to, they are two completely different beasts. I personally work with a computer extensively so I really like Maschine, it's extremely intuitive and logical. It has the benefit of working standalone, as a VST/AU and has a MIDI controller mode for when you want to control Ableton's Drum Racks and other VST's. Keep in mind you will have to create your own controller maps in NI's editor app though. Quite simple if you're familiar with MIDI, dead easy to learn if your not.

How important is total control of Ableton to you? This is of course is the APC40's forte (faders, knobs, buttons automatically mapped to your Live session). The reason I ask is I personally opted for a Novation Launchpad, as clip/scene triggering was the main thing I wanted, and saved cash and conserved space in my rig. The APC40 is an excellent controller all around.

It sounds to me like you want both but may not have the cash to go big like that. Hope this helps your decision.

forget that bootleg of live, buy maschine and start making music

konc3pt wrote:forget that bootleg of live, buy maschine and start making music

Lol @ bootleg bro. My Live 8 is legit, but you know what, it crashes just as much as the crack

+1 if you're already computer based on konc3pt's Maschine suggestion. It's so quick I could probably teach my grandma to make a beat on it in 20 minutes

The other day I made fire with Maschine in like 15 minutes after not sleeping for a day. It seemed too quick, I was looking to see if my clock was broken

I think I'd go with with Maschine. There's something about Maschine appealing to me.

Metatron72 wrote:

konc3pt wrote:forget that bootleg of live, buy maschine and start making music

Lol @ bootleg bro. My Live 8 is legit, but you know what, it crashes just as much as the crack

+1 if you're already computer based on konc3pt's Maschine suggestion. It's so quick I could probably teach my grandma to make a beat on it in 20 minutes

The other day I made fire with Maschine in like 15 minutes after not sleeping for a day. It seemed too quick, I was looking to see if my clock was broken

Ha Ha, you using pc or mac ? Im on mac get occassional crash but it's rare...i made some cool drums with the maschine myself and somehow in the process of trying to squeeze some extra space from my hard disk I deleted them all...fortunately some were rewired into live and still can be recovered but unused stuff is gone.

Upright wrote:I think I'd go with with Maschine. There's something about Maschine appealing to me.

it's a good deal if you think about it you get controller and daw for under 500...second hand go for as low as 3 bills or so I seen on local cl

Still not sure what route to go but thanks metatron for your insight, Id take Abelton over maschine any day as a main production unit, if only the Apc had some damn mpc pads this post wouldn't be here.

With Maschine u can use it as a APC in control mode with Ableton live.
With Maschine u have a sequencer and a controller. With APC u only have a controller to control live.

Ya but the sequencer's already in live being controlled by the apc, I'm going with the apc, n if I want pads Il get the akai lpd8.

ed wrote:Ya but the sequencer's already in live being controlled by the apc, I'm going with the apc, n if I want pads Il get the akai lpd8.

You might wanna go with a KORG nanoPAD, pad sensitivity is way superior to the lpd8 and the new iteration has 16 pads as well as a user defined chord mode using it's editor. It's the same price as the lpd8.

Nice one Metatron, looking at the nano pad2 on youtube, 16 pads and a x-y pad.

ed wrote:Still not sure what route to go but thanks metatron for your insight, Id take Abelton over maschine any day as a main production unit, if only the Apc had some damn mpc pads this post wouldn't be here.

It ultimately depends on your preferred workflow. Live will force you to click around with the mouse even with controllers like APC40. Maschine is all about the total integration between its dedicated hardware and software that allows you to ditch the mouse completely and even turn off the computer screen. It feels more like you're using hardware.

The thing is though, Maschine is in many ways an improved version of Live's session view. For example, it doesn't have Live's unfortunate flaw in not being able to record realtime automation into clips. In fact, I have replaced Live completely with Maschine as my main production tool and I could never go back personally.

Wow, ok. That gives me something to think about, thing is I kinda want the Apc to DJ also now that abelton can be controlled via Serato so its not just to be used as a controller for music production but how the hell does Abelton not include real time recording?, kinda obvious necessary feature.

Ableton has a dedicated template that works very similarly to the APCs. There's a video of it over on Dubspot somewhere. You can even run Maschine as a VST in Ableton and switch back and forth from your Maschine template to the Ableton template with the push of a button, controlling either one on the fly.

Easy choice yo.

ed wrote:Wow, ok. That gives me something to think about, thing is I kinda want the Apc to DJ also now that abelton can be controlled via Serato so its not just to be used as a controller for music production but how the hell does Abelton not include real time recording?, kinda obvious necessary feature.

He's saying you cant record automation in session view clips which is true...but what he didnt mention is you can do it in arrange view like in any other daw