Can you sequence sounds from external keyboard inside of Maschine?

Hey folks,

I'm brand new to Maschine and I'm loving it! After working on my Roland 909 for 10+ years, it was time for a change. While I'm happy with the Maschine so far, it is a little lacking in the pianos/strings department as far as the stock sounds are concerned (IMO). I plan on getting Komplete 8 Ultimate soon, so that should not be a problem for too long. In the meantime, I'd like to use the internal sounds from my Kurzweil K2500 to sequence inside of the Maschine software, alongside the stock sounds from Maschine. Is this possible, and if so, how can I do that? Thanks in advance for your help!

Angelo

 

This is possible and easy. Fist make sure your mid cables are connected ie.. Out maschine into external synth. Now make sure midi port is on by goint to maschine midi settings , choose midi then outputs change maschine controller midi on. Now Choose an empty sound, hold shift hit browse, select midi out, exit browse, page 1 of that sound gives you midi channel options, choose the appropriate channel for your external gear.

 

No sound?

Thank you for your reply. I did everything you said, but I'm not getting any sound from my K2500?

 

Have you used a midi controller or another sequencer with your K2? I found a link to the manual and I cant seem to find much about using a controller with it. It did seem to have a lot of options for being used as a controller itself. Here is the link for the manual lhttp://soundprogramming.net/synthesizers/kurzweil_0

 

You do know that Maschine comes with a free license to Komplete Elements, right?

Yes, as explained by kamikaze1980.

 

Hey kamikaze,

I have only used my kurzweil's midi to use it as a controller for my 909 Groovebox (to trigger the sounds inside the 909). I never figured out how to record my Kurzweil sounds into my 909's sequencer. The only thing I figured out how to do was to "replace" a track with an instrument from my Kurzweil, but the Kurzweil would have to be on in order to play back in sync with the 909 - in other words, I wasn't actually recording midi notes into my 909 sequencer, but just playing the two in sync. That's the extent of what I've accomplished with using my Kurzweil with another sequencer.

When I go to my k2500's midi page, everything seems to be pretty straight forward. There's a "local" "midi" or "both" option, there's a setting to change the channel (1-16), velocity and press map, and a few other settings. I figure if it's set to "midi" and has a matching channel to my Maschine track that everything should be all good. But nope. Keep in mind that the K2500 is almost 15 years old, so it's probably not as intuitive as more modern machines are. But I know that it can obviously be done
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Hi noiserot,

The new Maschines actually come with an Elements disk, and I just bought mine last week. So yes, I was aware of that. But, unless I'm missing something in the banks or did my install incorrectly, there's only like 5 or 6 acoustic pianos on the Maschine, including stock and Elements sounds - and all of them, quite frankly, suck (IMO). I find the banks a little cumbersome and confusing to sift through, so maybe I am missing something. The 909 has 10 or so banks that include all the sounds - very simple. And, like I said, getting used to anything else after using grooveboxes for almost 15 years is going to be a learning curve! That said, the minor frustrations I've had with the Maschine so far are heavily outweighed by the potential I see in what this thing can do!

While I'm on sounds, can someone explain the difference between "sounds" and "instruments"? Also, do instruments/sounds always take a few seconds to load, or is that just because my computer is crappy (can't wait until I get my tax check!)?

 

if you don't spend 199 on the komplete crossgrade you don't deserve maschine omg it's superduperlicious and you won't have any of the headaches you have right now, hurry up times almost out!

 

haha! Yeah man, I'm on it! I'm ordering mine today! And actually I'm getting the Ultimate crossgrade - $399 minus my $30 e-voucher. $369 for 240 GBs of content? ARE YOU KIDDING ME? That's a no brainer!

 

Ok just because I'm not sure of your knowledge on midi Ill start with basics. Midi itself is not capable of sending actual audio instead it send directions . So your your k2 audio still has to be routed via its audio outputs. I seem to remember some older synths would not react to midi if local control was set to on so I would leave it set to midi , local controll tells the synth to either use it's own keyboard or an external control. I also believe some synths have specific types of instruments on specific midi channels like drums were often only acceble via midi channel 10. Sounds vs instruments, sounds are maschines self contained instruments while instruments are your vst's. If none of this helps give us a detailed discription of how your system is hooked up.

 

Actually I'm just really learning the different ways that midi functions. It's amazing, because I've been producing music for 15 years... But with a set up where I used a groovebox with a midi keyboard, I never really had to worry about how to do it the other way around. I understand that midi doesn't record audio, but if I can get the kurzweil sounds sequenced in the Maschine via midi, and if I have it routed via its audio outputs to my interface, won't I be able to record that audio so that it syncs with my Maschine whether or not my kurzweil is on and running? That's what I could not do, as far as I could figure out, on my Roland. The Roland just read the midi data, but would not record the kurzweil sounds in real time. I would think that Maschine could simultaneously use midi to sync - or "send directions," as you say - while recording the audio via the interface. I hope I can do this...

As far as my setup goes, right now I have a pretty basic rig. I my machine is connected to my cpu via usb. I have a midi out going into the kurzweil's in. I have an mbox connected to my cpu via usb. And I have two audio outputs from the kurzweil going into my mbox. Channels are matched up. Midi setting on kurzweil is set to "midi."


OH WOW. After this big long post, I just figured at least one thing out! I don't know why this would be, but the only way it'll work is if I have both midi out of machine going into k2 in, AND midi in on machine going to midi out of K2! Have you ever heard of this? Well, it recognizes the k2's midi signal in machine and i can hear the audio play back in the headphones that I have plugged into the k2. HOWEVER, it's not playing through my monitors! I'll keep searching away...
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Okay, so I have audio now and am able to record into Maschine I guess my only remaining question is whether I can somehow convert this Midi data to audio. In practical terms, I want to be able to take my laptop around with me and tweak/play my beats when I'm not home connected to my k2. I'm sure I can do this with today's technology (and preferably without using Pro Tools)... I just don't know how. You've been a huge help so far man! Thanks so much!

 

So if I understand you correctly you now have the maschine sequencer playing the sounds on the k2. In order to not carry around the k2 and your laptop you will want to sample the k2 parts.
1. write your sequence lets call it groupA Pad1
2.select an empty pad for the sample to go to. I prefer to do this in a new group say groupE Pad1
3.press the "sampling" button located at the top left of maschine
4.check the following settings in the left lcd:
source=external
input=in1L+R (provided that this is where the k2s audio is going)
mode=sync
length=? this will depend on how long the piece you want to sample is.
5. hit the "start" button just above the right lcd. maschine is now waiting for #6.
6.hit play maschine should now be recording the audio from k2.

 

I started a new project, and now I'm not getting audio again. Man, I've been messing with this for too long. It's too late and my brain is at about 20% right now. I'll come back to this tomorrow, try to figure out my audio problem first and then try out your tips on sampling the midi sequence. Thanks again man. I'll let you know how it goes.