Machine 2.0 upgrade worth it for older Mac, hardware?

Hi all,

I have a first generation Maschine and a higher-end MacBook Pro from 2012. I was wondering if it's worth upgrading to 2.0 with the older hardware and an older computer like this? To be honest, I am a (former) MPC user that bought Maschine years ago and never bonded with it at the time, and it has basically been sitting in a closet for years. I decided to hook it up today to see if I could sequence an external sampler, but soon realized that the version I have couldn't do this and I would need Version 2.0. I had a play around with Version 1 and it was better than I remembered. I have no plans to upgrade the computer any time soon and was actually planning on buying an MPC Live, but was thinking that if Version 2.0 would run decently on my computer, maybe it was worth giving it a shot.

Any advice or opinions would be welcome. I apologize if this has been covered before.

 

Yes. Its fine. I have MacBook 2011 and Maschine runs strong on it. most people have to remember is that you can have the minumum recommend standards but most of us (I would think ) use our laptops/cpus for more things than just music. Just got take care of your laptop.

 

Thanks! This is probably a silly question, but is V2 a big step up from V1?

 

Its definitely a big step. Lot of upgrades included. The most important factor is the upgraded audio engine and the included and free Komplete 11 select.

 

IMO upgrading is a no brainer, it will feel like have a brand new controller with the amount of stuff that was aded.

Spoiler: 2.0

2.0
In brief:

• No more Group limit. Let’s just linger on that one for a while. Having only 8 Groups was a huge pain in performance and the studio. Now you have direct two-button access to 64, and an unlimited total number of Groups. (The Scene limit has also been lifted.)
• No more plug-in limit. Add as many plug-ins as you want (built-in or third-party), limited only by the capabilities of your hardware.
• There’s finally a mixer page. This makes Maschine look a little more like a DAW, yes, but it’s essential , and something hardware drum machines have. Whether using plug-ins or drum parts, you can finally keep your parts in balance without losing your mind.
• Cue Bus. No more auditioning samples as you play live (eep!). You can now route to a cue bus. (Sadly, not from the mixer yet, but this is still useful.)
• Arranger timeline, easier arrangement features. The Arranger now has a proper timeline. And undo by step is back, as on the original Maschine, for two undo modes.
• Arranger follow. Yes, you can actually have the wiper (on both hardware and software) follow your position in the arrangement.
• Note Repeat has gate.
• Smarter Control Mapping: multiple Sound/Group selection and editing, “improved MIDI handling and parameter mapping” (details on that soon), and macros on all Sounds, Groups and Master.
• New acoustic and electronic drum synth models. Covering both modeled analog, electronic instruments and acoustic drum kits, the new synth models give you more than just sampled sounds. These are grouped into Kick, Snare, HiHat, Tom, Percussion, with most having a choice between electronic and acoustic models.
• New plate reverb.
• Updated UI. The UI functions in the same way, but it’s been significantly refined, with a cleaner, easier-to-read, flattened look. Oh, yeah, and:
• Retina Display support. Confirming this one, but it appears NI supports your nice, new laptop — bizarrely, Apple has left this out of Logic Pro X, but at least NI has a cure for blurry UIs now in most music products on Apple’s machines.
• Custom plug-in interfaces now make nice custom displays for the Maschine modules and other Komplete additions. (They’re similar to the new pages in Logic, but oddly, these aren’t viewable on the Maschine Studio hardware – you see only an icon.)
• Easier browsing. You can now call up sounds with tags.
• Sidechain anything. Yes, that includes side-chaining third-party plug-ins, another feature sorely missing in many DAWs.
• New audio engine. In addition to side-chaining, thorough multi-core support enhances performance and 32-bit float summing improves mix quality. And things load more quickly, too. (We verified this with some of the bigger instruments in Komplete.)
• Better Sampling: Various sample mapping improvements, plus zero crossing detection and overlapping samples.

More features: MIDI file import, a Record Prepare mode and metronome customization for easier takes, MIDI Program Change for plug-ins (VST/AU), a Pad View that makes it easier to see where your pads are mapped.

Unlimited scenes alone would make me never want to use Maschine 1.x again. Sigh of relief – cue here.

It adds powerful Smart Play™ features – a new scale and chord engine, a powerful arpeggiator, and more. And if you use MASCHINE STUDIO, it unlocks the touch-sensitive knobs for super-fast browsing, intuitive routing, and accelerated workflow.

Spoiler: 2.2

2.2

• New ‘Arp Mode’
• New ‘Scale Mode’
• Komplete Kontrol hardware and software Integration; including on-screen library browser inside Maschine, and hardware navigation via Komplete Kontrol hardware
• Pop-up overlay menu displayed on Maschine Studio’s with the latest firmware versions using touch-sensitive knobs
• Performance improvements and bug fixes

Spoiler: 2.3

2.3

USABILITY IMPROVEMENTS:

• Empty Sounds are exported as MIDI when exporting Group Patterns. (ie. Sound one is always on MIDI channel one, sound two is always on MIDI channel two, sound three is always on MIDI channel three and so on, even if the group contains sounds with no MIDI.)
• Komplete Kontrol Keyboards can now be connected to a Maschine instance using a toolbar icon.
• MIDI input options have changed. "None" now actually means none (ie. no MIDI input even if the sound is in focus), and a new "Focus" entry has been added which allows MIDI input only when the sound is focused.
• Scene changes can now be recorded in the DAW.
• It is now possible to navigate between plugin slots when in the browser by pressing SHIFT.
• A timer has been added to the page numbers on the Maschine classic HW, meaning that the page number no longer blocks the display of sections names.
• Macros and plugin parameters can now be cut and pasted between pages, as well as renamed.
• Plugin pages can now be cleared and deleted.
• Events can now be quantized from the software (using the right click context menu in the pattern area)
• Root note is automatically selected when slicing sounds to a new group (partial fix for a bug introduced in 2.2)
• NIS roundtrip (saving presets in KK will update Maschine and the standalone version of the plugins browser with the preset)

NEW INSTRUMENTS AND EFFECTS:

• A new "Analog" mode has been added to the distortion module (based on the Skreamer module in Guitar Rig). The old distortion is the "Mulholland" mode.
• A new Cabient Emulation effect has been added (based on control room from Guitar Rig)
• A new "Breaker" engine has been added to the snare drumsynth.
• A new "High" engine has been added to the Tom drumsynth.
• A new "Cymbal" drumsynth has been added, with two modes "Crash" and "Ride".
• A new "Hybrid" engine has been added to the Hi-Hat module.
• The limiter has been updated. The old limiter is available as a "Legacy" mode.
• Two new reverb modes have been added "Hall" and "Room". The plate reverb has been moved, so it is in the reverb module. The old reverb has been renamed as "Reverb (Legacy)"

SHARED CHANGES FROM KOMPLETE KONTROL 1.1

• PluginHost refactoring
• Arp Hold added
• Scale Key Mode "Guide"
• Master/Sound Volume Control added
• Octave Display added
• Touchstrip Modes "Tempo", "Spring" and "Stepped"
• Touchstrip Controller Page added
• Kontakt Key Switch String Display
• Foldable Tag Clouds functionality added
• Common Abbreviations Update

MASCHINE 2.3 also includes KOMPLETE SELECT – a premium selection of instruments and effects (free for all registered MASCHINE 2 software users):

• MASSIVE - definitive synth for basses and leads
• MONARK – iconic monophonic syntheisizer
• THE GENTLEMAN– vintage upright piano
• DRUMLAB – acoustic and electronic drums
• REAKTOR PRISM – vibrant modal synth and effects
• SCARBEE MARK I – classic electric piano
• RETRO MACHINES – vintage analog synth and keyboards
• VINTAGE ORGANS – five drawbar legends reborn
• WEST AFRICA – polyrhythmic percussion and melodies
• SOLID BUS COMP – versatile compressor effect

Spoiler: 2.4

2.4
New and improved features:

• Full support for the new Native Kontrol Standard (NKS): content for NKS plug-ins will show up in the factory tab of the Maschine Browser
• Third-party NKS plug-ins show up in the Product selector tab
• Products can be instantiated directly from the Product selector tab
• Third-party plug-ins are grouped by vendor in the hardware plug-in browser and the instantiation context menu
• Support for Komplete Kontrol S88 hardware
• Fixed an issue where Maschine could crash on loading if certain plug-ins in the project are missing
• Fixed an issue where modulation rings on certain parameters did not update while writing modulation
• Improved consistency in waveform zooming
• Fixed an issue where scroll bars would become inaccessible after switching between Mixer and Arranger views
• Fixed an issue where certain plug-in views were not recalled correctly
• Fixed an issue where it was not possible to save a Kontakt preset when a Kontakt Multi was loaded
• Fixed an issue where Japanese text input was broken on Mac OS
• Fixed crash in Sonar after save then reopening

Spoiler: 2.5

2.5

The following improvements are included in Maschine 2.5.0:

• Support for MASCHINE JAM and it’s associated features
• Perform FX effects
• Maschine Factory Library update (available in Native Access)
• Fixed Velocity is now unified between Pad and Step entry modes
• A detailed list of missing plug-ins is now presented when trying to load content which requires plug-ins that MASCHINE cannot find.

Fixed Issues:

• REPLIKA is embedded correctly in MASCHINE’s plugin strip
• Improved Loop behaviour when deleting and moving scenes

Numerous bug fixes

Spoiler: 2.6

2.6
LOCK available on Maschine Studio and Classic (MK1 and MK2) including Extended Lock with the ability to morph between your snapshots.
VARIATION, Maschine's new randomize and humanize feature will come to all 4x4 controllers.
Step modulation, allowing you to modulate any modulatable parameter per step via Jam.
Send midi CC's to external gear.

 

Thanks so much for the info!

 

This might be a silly question, but I see support for cc messages was added with the 2.6 upgrade. Is it possible to use the step sequencer to sequence an external sampler? I searched online, but couldn't find much info. I probably need to break out the manual.