Two Maschine instances running in Windows!

Hello all,

I had the best Christmas gift: I discovered by chance how to run two different songs at the same time in my Windows computer!
This is easy on Mac (they say) but it seemed impossible in Windows because it doesn't allow two installations of the same Maschine software. But...It does allow to install different *versions* of the software! The trick is to rename the maschine.exe file to whatever.exe (e.g. maschinev1.exe) and then go update the Maschine software. The update will create a second maschine.exe file and there you go! You will be able to open and run both versions independently. Only take care because now if you save a song with the new version it won't open with the 'old' software version.

I've been struggling so much to have this feature and I had already thrown the towel. A solution was to run two ableton live projects just to have an VST instance of Maschine in each one. Now that pain is gone!

Now that this has proven to work well, please Native fix it properly soon!

Cheers!

a

(These posts are somehow related to the issue:
https://www.native-instruments.com/forum/threads/open-2-projects-at-the-same-time-for-live-set.362173/#post-1836495
https://www.native-instruments.com/forum/threads/link-two-maschines.322449/
https://www.native-instruments.com/...-maschine-as-a-plugin-in-ableton-live.355937/
https://www.native-instruments.com/forum/threads/most-requested-features.318826/page-3#post-1722757
https://www.native-instruments.com/...hine-version-older-installer-possible.374003/
)

 

Oh... Interesting, so as long as they are different versions they can run at the same time in windows. Thanks for sharing.
Does the instance switch button on the controller also works fine with two instances in windows as it does on mac?

I wonder if changing the version number of a duplicated exe using ResourceHacker can circumvent the version problem, it might, not curious enough to test it tho.

 

I do not know how exactly NI did it that only one instance of program may run. But I think that they look if Maschine.exe is running, or 'TheNameOfProgram.exe' is running.
So, I guess, it might work if you také current version of Maschine, make a copy and rename it. Or rename the both - e.g. Maschine1.exe, Maschine2.exe.
If they do more precise check, it might be needed to change certain information also in resources.....
But, there must be a reason, why NI does not allow run two instances of Maschine.... So, certain things possibly might not work.

 

This is most likely also triggered by your audio interface. Use ASIO and that will lock the interface, start a new instance and you're in trouble. (edit: or could be).

 

It has nothing to do with NI afaik, it's how the OS handles certain types of applications.
It works fine in macOS even with the same version, the only thing it requires is different app names, works flawlessly, it might not be intended behavior but i am pretty sure NI is not actively trying to stop people from using two instances, they got more to worry about.

 

Well, I am not sure if it is Windows. I doubt it. Recently I needed to ensure my program runs only in one instance and I had to do all the programming. At the start of the program I search list of all running programs and if my program already runs I terminate second instance of it. I guess NI does the same/similar.

But I tested my suggestion and found that renaming the same version does not help. :-( Maybe the resources would have to be modified. But I do not need to run two Maschines anyway.... I am happy if I have enought processor power for one. :-( Time to upgrade to more cores than 4.

 

I have had two instances of Maschine running at the same time a few times but by accident not design on Windows so it is 'possible' though I don't think in such occassions there's any way of using controllers on both instances nor did I try to pursue working in both while open.

 

Not sure what the problem is - maybe I misunderstand the question. I run as many instances as I wish on Windows and easily control them with just one Maschine controller or the Komplete Kontrol keyboard or both. This works by running as many Maschine VSTs as you wish in a DAW host. The hardware controller and also the KK keyboard have an INSTANCE button. If you press it you can choose which Maschine Instance you want to focus on. Works flawlessly, do it all the time

 

If you pro-actively write code to prevent multiple instances than yeah... it will do what you programmed it to do, what I am saying is that maschine has no such implementation unless NI somehow is so bothered by this super niche thing that they spend time including that sort of check in the windows build exclusively (since it doesn't check for it in macOS) but it sounds like a lot of work for no reason.
The same version is known not to work in windows as stated by the OP, that's the whole point of this thread...

 

I believe it is running two instances as stand alone outside of any DAW

 

The instance switch button works for both my MK3 and Jam.

 

Yes, exactly that.

 

Well, NI would have to say. But, as far as I know, Win does not care at all how many instances of program runs on it. If it is limited to one, it is to my best knowledge work of programmers of that application. Why, NI (almost certainly) decided to limit Maschine on Win to one instance, I do not know, but there must be a reason.

https://serverfault.com/questions/426267/enable-a-program-in-windows-to-run-multiple-times

 

That's fully correct. You can easily see this feat for yourself somewhat if you open your task or process manager (press control-shift-escape on Windows).

In fact... if you want to ensure that only one copy of your program is active then you actually need to add a check for other instances yourself and then give out an error if you detect those to be active. If you don't then Windows easily starts a new process, no questions asked.