Maschine license needed

Greetings all! I have a request for the community:

I have just been initiated into the NI ecosystem by purchasing a second-hand S49 Mk 1. After some help emails to Native Instruments I finally got access to some of the software, namely Komplete Select. However, when I inquired about obtaining Maschine as well, they explained to me that my since my hardware was so “old” that they wouldn’t include Maschine as they do with the current Mk 2.

If there is anyone out there with a spare Maschine license, or even better a Maschine Essentials license (I’m just a beginner) that they would consider transferring to me? I do plan on purchasing Maschine hardware (Mk 3) in the future when finances allow, but in the mean time it would be so great to be able to use it now.

Thanks to all in the Community! I have already benefited from reading countless posts that have helped me decide to commit to the NI ecosystem and troubleshoot my keyboard!

 

I would highly recommend against this, in fact... I'm not even sure you can purchase the software separately, to my knowledge it's tied to a controller (and for good reasons). But I could be mistaken here because I do recall having read about this before.

Even so... I wouldn't go there. The software is fully tied into the controller and honestly? As much as I enjoy the Maschine software it's most definitely not very useful when used as a DAW, also because it isn't. I'm not sure what you hope to gain from this but I think you're better off grabbing a simple DAW such as Reaper and start experimenting with that for now. You should be able to use it with your keyboard & Komplete select pretty easy.

And if you need more then there's tons of free yet good quality VST's out there which you can use to enhance your setup even further.

For the record.. My comment is based on personal experience. I started with the Maschine Mikro controller (and the software obviously) and for me it was a disaster at first. Looking back it is fair to say that a lot of that confusion was caused by certain expectations in combination with being unfamiliar with the Maschine workflow. But even then... I'm currently using both the Mk3 & Mk3 Mikro (different locations) and the latter requires a lot more "hands on" usage of the software. But even then I still heavily rely on my Mikro to actually play everything I set up.

Seriously... Using Maschine stand alone without a controller makes little sense. Together with a DAW.. maybe, but even then it's stretching it.

 

Thank you for your reply. While I don't have "Maschine" hardware I do have a controller Komplete Kontrol S49 Mk 1. I understand that, while not ideal, you are able to use keyboard-based controllers with the Machine software. Certainly this is why Native Instruments currently bundles their S Keyboard controllers (Mk2) with the "Maschine Essentials" software. Perhaps this was not the case when they released the Mk1 and this is the reason NI refused to give me a license key for "Maschine Essentials" when I asked them (they did give me a key for "Komplete Select").

I do hope to purchase Maschine hardware in the future, but until I am able I wanted to be able to use the software with my S49 Komplete Keyboard controller. Thanks again for your help, I appreciate you attention.

Best,
Brett

 

I think the issue will be there are just some functions that are either not possible or very clunky without the hardware, one of the side-effects to having both controller+software developed in tandem.

The MK2 keyboards have more functionality on them to allow better control over Maschine and it was basically offered mainly because of complaints from Komplete owners that there was no "Daw" included and no way to record playing so easiest way was to include Maschine.

I personally feel you would be better off with a DAW unless you are really into the Maschine MPC style of working which really needs the hardware, most hard core users of Maschine would probably not want to use it at all without the hardware.