I DON'T Hate Maschine, Just Song Mode

I started out with mpcs,asr's sequencing mainly with hardware...building patterns naming each one,then printing to 4 tracks, adat,take it to the studio,do my edits..,etc..

When I got a cpu - dp v1.0 and logic.. I looked at the linear way of making music and said wait.. yeeeeah, and honestly never looked back.. a daw kills this tetris way of making music, to me it's overly complicated for no reason.. the daws where it's at for me.

 

+1

 

Ok you guy's got me thinking, the Op is right to a certain degree, I also felt the song mode was a little out dated. I also felt some writers block once my beat's were put together, I kinda got lost. So I pulled up a track and used just the Maschine song mode. I gotta say I started to get inspired. If I didn't look at it as a Daw but as all the other Drum machine/ Samplers I have used it made sense! Would I want them to update it? Yes. Do I need it no, (I would rather have time stretch/pitch shift).

 

Just give me the transport button support for my daw,and they can have any song mode,abelton/clip view whatever that stuff is.. I don't see a need for a song mode really.. I mean your already building patterns, why is it so hard to visualise this stuff in a linear format?
eg:
kick ----cut kick ----------------
snare ----cut snare--------------
hats -------------------------------------
perc --------------------------------------
samples ----------------------------------
vocals --------- -------- --------
hook --- ---

lol what's more simple then viewing it in a linear fashion?

Different strokes for different folks I guess.. I don't care do your thing, just allow my maschine to work like it works in standalone,within my DAW meaning true transport control!

 

I don't think peeps are actually asking for a songmode that equal to a daw, I think they want a songmode that's equal to most drum machines for the last 20 years. ability to record some mutes, change some tempos, and record some performances, more akin to the mpcs, or rolands with rps functions, or most simple drum machines with the ability to string together different tempos so your song doesn't have to sound like one long house track, unless that's your thing of course.

 

It helps to explore the many different ways of working with Maschine. For example, you can already use Maschine in standalone mode (which obviously means true transport control) AND have it sync as a master to any DAW's sequencer.

 

f..k machines for the last 20 years. we have something best and its going to grow

 

+1

Maschine song mode is inflexible and counterintuitive. It feels like it was tacked on as an afterthought.
I think even the machine drum/MPC song list mode is easier to work with. Ie. Being able to choose the number of times the loop plays and the length of the loop.

Ideally a master/conductor track with the ability to sequence sequences/patterns and mutes would be great.
It's definitely Maschine's Achilles heel- a sequencer that is pain to sequence..

 

Fully agree on basically all points in this thread. GIVE US A BETTER SONG MODE, PLEASE!

 

A arrangement view is better than bouncing off each group for most people . and situations. Id think native would go along these lines to keep things standalone. Which is a good thing for the customers as well.

 

No clue where you guys are in this conversation (I only half read the first page) *but* to add my voice to the chorus: I'd like this too.

NI, I'm a producer with close to 20 years of experience focused on experimental electronic music (off and on). I started all DIN synch and CV/Gate before learning MIDI and even more arcane stuff like OSC, Supercollider, subtractive modular synthesis, Cscound and even Reaktor. That said, I'd LOVE to use Maschine as the center of my production studio and a dedicated arrange view is exactly what this needs.

Personally speaking, I wouldn't bat an eye if this were entirely a PC GUI enhancement. I couldn't care less whether I used a mouse of the controller for this purpose (I see the controller as a conduit for the "live" experience and the "live" experience is a synonym of a "jam".. I wouldn't expect a meticulous and micro-edited arrange view to approximate this jam functionality one bit ).

So.. umm.. Yes. I'd love to see a "song mode" added at some point. I mean, how hard would it really be, honestly?

/PSA to NI

 

I agree that I see a separate dedicated song arrange as more a mouse and GUI thing. It would still allow control from the hardware as it is now plus the ability to copy and paste scenes from the pads to the arrangement but I see it being more mouse and GUI focused.

 

I'm in full agreement there. If NI's scratching their heads about how to make this something that can be easy to control with the hardware, I think they should make the feature as good as possible with little or no regard to have it working via hardware. I already think that Maschine is pretty good for live performance/beat creation and I've come up with ways that make it pretty fun, but I think what we're taking about is DEEPER control that would mostly be needed in studio performance where some mouse usage is par for the course.

 

If you don't want to use your daw for editing midi .
And want a more intuitive song , you can probably use a second maschine that
controls scene changes of the first. Here is a good template in mprj format that controls another maschine in your daw. (on midi channel 16)

View attachment SEQUENCER.zip

I have a question : i've tried midi batch setup feature with reaper and it seems to
write in the daw only notes i play , not the content read by maschine.

This is normal?

 

I think if maschine was to have a sequencer similar to ableton, logic etc, with automation lanes in the sequencer, I would kiss my DAW goodbye. I for one would be willing to pay for that update. This would, however, place maschine in full blown DAW territory. I'm sure this is a market NI would wish to enter. The question is, will the product be brand new or maschine based? The prospect of buying a DAW with a dedicated controller would surely entice a lot of folk to part with their cash.

 

Maschine is an intrument and have not the sound quality and powerful editing
of reaper,cubase or studio one
The lack actually (even with drag&drop midi or midi batch setup features ) :
There is no way actually to directely record the midi events when we are changing patterns on the fly and create the song in same way as patterns.

If maschine become a daw i say go !
But it'means that it will be very complicated and less reactive : it's the major danger.

I prefer a "light maschine" or a "maschine midi only" !

 

I don't agree on the mouse centric GUI that people are suggesting. Sorry but if I wanted a mouse centric GUI for song arrangement I would use something that at this point in time is far better than Maschine in that respect, Ableton. If I have to use a mouse and keyboard to navigate through maschine that defeats the purpose of it imo. All of you who are clamoring for it should look elsewhere at far better, more mature alternatives that can do what you ask NOW as opposed to some future update that may or may not work like you want. What i want from arrange mode is something that can be access from the hardware without needing a mouse or keyboard. I mean if I'm going through the trouble of using my mouse and keyboard I might as well just use Logic/Ableton/etc. Maschine is not really bringing anything to the table at that point, imo.

 

I don't think anybody is "clamoring" for it, as you put it. I'm just saying, if such implementation would be easier then I'd be fine with it, presuming this also translated to the feature being put in faster.

The problem with doing it in the controller is it would be nigh-on impossible to get a quick glance overview of the structure. Much like how the computer currently offers a concise overview of the patters, I imagine the song structure mode would be similar.

That said, I don't object to doing it in the controller... I'd just rather not have that hold up the feature.

 

I think the scene mode is very well done for live.
Have you seen that you can simply loop and arrange song at the fly !
Ni can probably improve this mode but it works for live.
With reaper i think your edition , audio recording and automation is very efficient and with a touchscreen and/or keyboard shortcuts it is very fast.
32 or 64 bit floating point wav.
Rearoute ( incredible internal asio driver ) You can record maschine stand alone in
reaper tracks or the inverse !
ReaStream and ReaMote : lan networking
Open source
Audio and midi routing
Powerful modulations !
Quality,stability,cpu management !
Even maschine isn't as impressive.
Low price 150 e max ! 40 e for a non-business man.
more than 10x cheap !

I wait for maschine song improvement but keep quiet with reaper

 

Zeoka, my problem is that I write fast music with lots of changes, nearly one every bar (and that's not including weird fills). If I wrote hip hop or Amber era AE like music this would be less of a deal breaker.. but, yes, marrying Maschine with Reaper or Ableton will suffice for now.

Wait, since most DAWs are still 32 bit, doesn't that limit Maschine to the same when hosted?