pros and cons of maschine

The question for many is: should i get it? There's tons of short reviews around, but why not ask you.

What are the pros and cons of using Maschine. What makes it good? What is it good for? What irritates in it? What is it that it lacks (and you have to do with other gear/software)?

 

Get it. It is amazing. That is all.

 

Pros.
1.6 is coming soon with VST Hosting.
You can use in Standalone VST RTAS
It has SP1200 Emulation as well as MP60
Very user friendly easy to setup and get to work
Great workflow
MPC like feel
Very stable
Amazing price point
Lotta pros

Cons.
Still no Timestretch yet (But sure to come most likely in 2.0)
No seemless integration with Traktor yet
Still not up to par with the JJOS Edtion MPC OS
GUI stays the same color
No ReWire
Midi is limited (1.6 will make it great in standalone with VSTs)
No multi core support
Not setup for dual display as far as seperating modules and moving to screen 2. Like if you wanted your scene page on one screen blown up and your midi editer/sample editor on another.
No jog wheel

The good out ways the bad I love this thing due to the fact it's hybrid and they can update everything how they see fit. Judging from 1.5-1.6 updates NI is on there job to make sure that Maschine is around for a long time and will be a solid contender to Ableton Live. The hands on feel will just get better and better as time progresses. My review is just how I feel about some things off the top of my head. My suggestion is to buy it and try it for a while and see how you like it. I believe in the 15-30 day trial period.

 

I love it and couldn't be happier but this might not be your best place to ask. Maschine Forum may be a bit biased.

 

buy it..... it will bring the fun back into making music, work flow is great. It does lack quite a few things but i use it inside abelton- which has workarounds for these...timestrech etc etc.... Ive just got used to bouncing down in audio to get past the abelton midi limitations.

 

Pros: It's really fun to use, gets ideas down quick, good work flow. You can have a dance while you play?

Cons: It's not an all in one solution. But what music equipment is?

I think it really depends 1) What you have now 2) What you want to do.

There are more pros and cons but it's late, I'm going to bed now

So... what do you want to do...

 

+1

Hanging out for Time-stretch and Traktor integration...

 

I found it made a big improvement to my workflow

 

waiting sucks

 

pros

worflow amazing feels good to use fun making music

cons

SP1200 Emulation as well as MP60 both suck balls

 

pro:

its optimized for creating sounds and arrangements:
there is no faster solution to find and fit your sounds. and to rec and edit your arrange.
with maschine it makes fun to create a new kit and shape sounds till they fits.



cons:

its optimized for creating sounds and arrangement.
that means there is no dedicated "performance" mode. u cannot realy well jam with it. eg u cannot use mutes and knobs at the same time, and and and. anything is too wide-windowed and un-direct.
no compair with this "anything in direct-acsess" with live+apc.

 

sorry, but Maschine is great for jamming.

sowari

 

is it?

how set u mutes for group A and tweak eg a master knob at the same time (or even a knob in the same group)?
how can u your drums gaten and your bass fx-tweaken and play another pattern for groupC at the same time?
u have to handle this sukzesive, but music is high time-critically, most of tweaking lives from simultan-doing.
well, u could prepar dozens of scenes with all the right paras, but this wolud be playback not jamming or on-the-fly-arrangment.

but its ok. i use maschine for create 2x8 bars and jam and tweak it in live.

 

even with the above-stated limitations, it is still the greatest thing i have ever owned. i look forward to all of its future development

 

If you make beats - You need to get Maschine.

 

Con- No Time Stretching. still smh

 

Yeah, but look how enthusiastic it is. I tought that this would be a good way to get a quick inside view. And it was. Keep telling your experiences! And no one knows the real cons and caveats better than true users.
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Do you think that Maschine does or will in the near future be a replace for Live?
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I'm pretty much starting on a fresh table here. Have played a Roland handsonic, percussions and guitars and now getting into producing. So I'm interested: I get the impression that Maschine holds a central place in many people's workflow. What exactly is needed to suplement it?

1) I have the oportunity to start fresh and with the best gear that is most future proof. This includes the fact that I have no prior love-bond with any equipment (like the MPC). Also have no bonds with any particular software workflow. You all praising the intuitive and fast Maschine workflow is getting me interested. Having nothing but a Win7 corei7 comp means that I will be needing a center piece for my drum/bass programming and all DAW controlling.

2) Of course, I want to produce the best beats in town and to live wealthy ever after. This said, I have some reservations for Maschine since most of its promo seems to be a la hip hop / rap / DJ. My style is nearer to classical soul / funk, and pop / rock. I'm mainly a percussionist, so rhythm producing is important. On top of this I will have guitars (maybe throufh guitar rig, don't know yet) and softsynths (have thought the Komplete package). Ableton Live is the DAW that I'm considering, I would just really like to know how far Maschine would get me.

 

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3PjV6CIutA"]YouTube - In the studio with Bryan Ferry and Maschine[/ame]

 

I have to disagree with Maschine is bad for jamming. It's too good for jamming! - to the point I don't get any work done, I just jam for hours... and hours... and hours

Muting pads between groups can be fiddly but with quick hands it's possible, or more intelligent layout.

 

Maschine is not there to replace Live, but it does, and will in the future provide an alternative way of coming up with stuff fast and creatively.

i agree that the promos have been aimed at the hip hop[/rap/dj community, but there are loads of sounds that are suitable for soul/funk/pop/rock and with the integration of VST in the 1.6 update that means you can use Kore and Komplete inside Maschine. both Kore/Komplete Libraries are very suited to the music you want to make.

to be honest, i feel that Ableton is best for House/Dubstep/IDM stuff. i wouldn't want to use it for the styles of music you want to make - just my personal opinion. if you have a Mac then Logic would be my choice.

sowari