Maschine advise - Contemplating switch from MPC

Hi

I’m a MPC 2500 user and I use it (along with an elektron machinedrum, waldforf blofeld, dave smith tetra and future retro revolution) to do electronic live-sets (techno-electro-acid). The MPC works as the midi-master and provides a nice stable midi-clock and sequences and sends program changes to all the equipment above – with the exception of the machinedrum for which it just sends program changes). I love this set up and for live-use I obviously don’t have to worry about laptop stability, sound cards glitches, latency and sync – the MPC keeps everything rock solid.

However, I’m getting more into writing studio tracks and I find working solely on hard-ware I end up “grooving” for hours and effectively wasting time and never recording anything. Whilst a big part of this is obviously down to a fault between the computer and my hardware (ie. Me!) I do find that something like Maschine, where I can browse all my samples, automate easier than MPC, add decent FX and drag out audio to DAW could benefit me somewhat.

I have a couple of questions regarding Maschine however (I can’t get the 1.1 manual online!):
1. Sequencing external midi hardware synths. I’m aware that at present continuous controller cc’s are not supported but will be in next update. Can Maschine send program changes to my synths? If not, how would you select different patches on the synths?
2. When you select to sequence external midi-gear – will I be able to select different midi ports or are you restricted to one midi out (with the 16 channels of course). I.e. I will have my tetra on one midi-port (either USB or Midi DIN), my blofeld on another etc..This way I don’t have to daisy-chain my gear that will add latency. Will I be able to sequence all my synths basically?
3. Will Maschine send midi-clock as master in stand-alone mode? What sync options are available – ie. Sync offset etc, MMC etc? Anyone syncing external drum maschines etc to their Maschine in a stable way?

My computer is not the best:
Dell Inspiron 1721 with the following:
Base
AMD* Turion™ 64 X2 Mobile Technology TL64 (2.2Ghz)
Memory
2048MB 667MHz Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM [2x1024]
Video Card
ATI Radeon* Xpress 1270 HyperMemory (integrated)
Hard Drive
320GB (5400RPM) SATA Hard Drives RAID 0 Stripe (2X160GB)
Windows XP (SP3 I think!).

I have both a Korg Zero 8 mixer (with integrated firewire souncard) and a NI Audio 8 (soundcard from Traktor!) at my disposal.

Anyone else running similar? – what kind of latency/track and effect restrictions can I expect? I’m aware Maschine is quite CPU hungry?

Any help, advise would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks for reading!

 

any answers guys?
thanks

 

I would recommend getting a DAW, then all your problems are solved.
You can send Programm Changes in your DAW
Sequenzing your synths with maschine is I think possible, but its much more flexible in a DAW.
About the 3rd Question im not really sure, because I mostly use Maschine in a DAW

EpikureeR

 

we'll see when the public beta is there, can't tell atm.

Maschine supports multiple midi outs, unfortunately you can't decide for a pad to which one it shall send (maybe put this in feature suggestions?) so it sends out to all of them.

see pic.

 

hey!

Thank you - really helpful!

I have ableton 7 and Cubase 5 so can use DAW but basically I'd be trying to run as little on the computer as possible (especially for live-sets) to max stability.

I know each computer is different but..with my laptop set-up, do you think my computer will struggle? Anyone running maschine (stable) on a similar set-up? I'm very interested in other people who are running maschine in combination with other drum-machines/groove-boxes/tb-303's etc...

Thanks for help - i'm just trying to work out whether I just have gear-lust and should stick to the MPC and tracking audio in to DAW!

Cheers

 

Try making some music @ home with your laptop with ableton live and test its stability.
Put it to its max. workload, then you'll see if your laptop still runs stable.
I recommend ableton live, I use it also for live-setups

EpikureeR

 

Keep your MPC! I have used an MPC 2000, MPC 1000, and thought Maschine would be great replacement. Nope. It is ok in a daw, but it does crash quite a bit. It is also not nearly as streamlined as using an MPC to sequence other gear.

I'd say hold on to the MPC, I miss mine, and am actually shopping for an MPC 5000. I am no NI hater either, I have Komplete, and Kore, and love their other stuff. The Mashine is great if you are a heavy DAW user looking for a more live like sequencing tool, but if you are an MPC user, you are going to miss alot of features, and the workflow is very far apart.

 

Thanks Baron...i think I'm going to do just that.

I checked out Maschine when it came back and was hoping they'd tune it more towards being able to sequence other gear more seamlessly but it seems it's just not there quite yet!
When they improve stability, introduce proper external midi-sequencing (Program/bank change / full cc/nrpn etc capability) it might be a bit different!
Thank you for the advice!

 

Smart move! Give them your hard earned money only after they finish the job.

 

MPC Maschine Comparison

Maschine Pros
- Easier sample navigation
- Awesome view of sequences
- I like the double and duplicate pattern features
- Easy and really good sync with DAW which can be a pain with MPC.
Maschine Cons
- Difficult and limited ability to control external midi gear
- It has crashed multiple times, and for some reason eats a ton of CPU to just load a few small kits. I can load 4 instances of Kontakt 3 with multiple nkis, but just a small amount of samples in Maschine crushes me. I am on a dual g5 2.5 ghz.
- I really miss multiple pad banks per program that the MPC has. You have the 8 banks in Maschine but they are all 16 pads. In MPC you have unlimited programs, and 64 pads via 4 banks of 16 pads per program.

MPC Pros
- 4 banks of 16 pads for each program, and "unlimited" programs
- Really fast navigation of multiple midi outboard gear
- 2 midi ins, and 4 midi outs
- multiple audio inputs and outputs.
- Stand alone unit, not reliant on external software or hardware
MPC Cons
- Not as easy to get sync locked with DAW
- Smaller screen for editing midi events
- much smaller built in sample library - extensive library available via 3rd parties
- Smaller screen for editing samples

So Maschine is great for some people, but my recommendation for this user was based on the fact that they play live, and have experience with MPC workflow.
If you primarily work in a studio, and have never used an MPC then I would recommend Maschine.

 

I would stay with the mpc is because maschine is ALL pc. You just use the controller to control the software is all. Just being honest is all. It's all great when you have no computer errors and driver problems, hardware issues etc. but if a person runs into those kind of problems computer based instruments can be a pain in the butt. But, it doesn't sound like your having any problems like that. So that is really good. since that is the case. use both, the mpc and get yourself a maschine. If you don't already have one. I know i like my maschine.

 

I would never sell my mpc. even though i really don't use it anymore due to maschine. but still.... I don't think I could ever sell my mpc. it's just to dear to me.
that said. for working with techno and dance like you wanna do, maschine is way better than an mpc. different yes. better definitely for groove productions.

 

the best thing over the mpc, is the speed, of loading your kits projects ,

the speed of tracking out of maschine, in vsti mode, you click a singe button hold it down then drag and drop into the host, no more then a second.

the library with maschine is some of the best drum samples i own.

the design of maschine and the layout is in my opinion great, love the way everything is layed out.

maschine's pads are a pleasure to use and highly sensitive.

the effects in maschine kill anything out of a mpc.

also native instruments have shown great support for there product and have taken us as users seriously trying to implement many of our suggestions into the product.
so for customer services i would give NI a 10

maschine is still in its infancy but for us early adopters it is still highly useable and its the heart of my production environment.

 

Speed

There are clearly two user types.

Maschine is faster at loading programs, but not super fast, and you can do the click and drag, however, that stops audio. But very cool when writing in your studio on your daw.

Now - MPC is much faster at working with external midi gear, and much better for live performances.

 

depending on your hardware, i got all my sounds coming from my ssd drive and its superfast, lightning fast,

the drag and drop feature is intended when you want to track out of maschine,

same way a mpc user wants to track into pro tools or a daw of there choice , maschine does this in a fraction of the time a mpc user would take .

this is one of the huge plus points of maschine, whether it be a single scene solo'd sounds, groups , its effortless.

or you can simply route all your audio into differnt outputs and track out traditionally, a whole mix for example.

there are many ways to achieve this using maschine

 

And just think, when i bought my maschine. it was in a tie with mpc 500 vs the maschine. the maschine won. i was really close to buying a mpc instead of maschine until i stop by N.I.'s site and seen alot of people creating music with maschine on youtube. and that's what sold me on maschine. but, later on down the road i will buy myself a mpc though. i'm just the type of person who loves gear too. and like things simple. like being able to plug up just the midi cables and that is the only part you have to mess with. and spend more time making music or in my case trying to make music lol. instead of worrying about drivers and sounds cards and software upgrades etc. in the old days, all i used my pc for far as music goes with to record the midi stuff and that was it. Loved it. until my old pc i used to use for it quit. then i stayed away from making music too long and now you have to deal with my pc stuff then ever. but, once you get used to it. its not to bad.

 

hey, I rely on a mpc for live and also beatmaking, and I also use maschine.
I often end up using the mpc - but thats beause I know it so well my workflow
is good and I know the sound I can get.

maschine is a beautiful thing, and it will get even better. right now I dont see a reason to
change to it. but I keep coming back an try to learn new things - automation of swing is awesome,
the whole thing is very well thought out. then again I have a fast computer.
what I love to do is tweak a sound in kontakt/absynth/massive and sample it to the mpc!

to the threadstarter: I dont get how "grooving around" for hours is something bad and how maschine is supposed to help you better get stuff recorded? You´ll have to focus and take decisions just as well

as for syncing the mpc to a daw, thats a problem I never get. get a click up on the daw and press play on the mp. voila. for synced timebar (like having an acappella on the daw and the beat on the mpc) use ableton and the mpc as midimaster.

If you have the money though, see what maschine can do for you!