Maschine vs mpc

Does anyone use maschine?
How is it for creating your own sampled instruments, and sampling stuff?
I would like to maybe use it as something to sample and play back ambiences, pads etc.
Is the workflow very different from an mpc?
I am not really looking at using for drums so much as for sampling
Thx.

I think x fader possibilities (to loop drones without a click) are compared to ableton limited. Maybe it is possible, probably, But for me ableton feels 10 y ahead

So you can edit in ableton and export / record to maschine

I don’t use ableton live

I Just saw they updated this… So I dont know. It used to suck But might be cool now

The maschine is an amazing thing. Why I never went akai? Because of lack of p locking

I have the Maschine Mk3…1 reason I like it is it has a similar workflow to an MPC (different…but similar). There are things I don’t like about Maschine software & it’s not comparable really to a DAW, but the Mk3 is a great groovebox. I love it. I don’t use any of the sounds Maschine software comes with, but my brother loves them…comes with A LOT of sounds (vst’s & samples).

I only use Maschine with samples, but never made a sampled instrument. Do you mean sample a sound in a few different notes, so you can play the sample chromatically without it affecting the quality?

The Maschine workflow can be different depending on what controller you have… the Mk3 & Studio allow you to do everything on the controller without using the computer screen, mouse or keyboard. The Mk3 also has a built in audio interface (it’s the only audio interface I have ever used, but it’s pretty good quality, people compare it to a $100-$200 audio interface). The Mikro is small, so more portable, but you can’t do everything on the controller & the screen doesn’t give a lot of info, so you’ll need to use your mouse & computer screen.

If you don’t care about the built in audio interface in the Mk3 & if you don’t plan on using any of the vst’s Maschine comes with, you might want to check out the MPC software & controllers…
Since I work on a computer, not using 1 for music was important to me (so the fact that everything can be done on the Mk3 AND it has an audio interface sold me on it).

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Cool, thanks man.

So I have an interface, so 100% don’t care to use the mk3.
My current options would be either a second hand mk2 or a new micro.

I currently have an mpc live, and have used older MPCs in the past. So I am familiar with that workflow.

I do mean using key groups for making new instruments from samples. With the live, and warp mode sometimes I can get away with only 1 sample and loop it really short and play it across the keyboard, kinda enjoy how sometimes it sounds a little off.
Is that possible in maschine?

I also have an odd workflow, where I mainly do my drums in studio one, with some small loops or layers in the mpc. Then I add my samples (guitar and iPad sounds I sampled) and basically sync the mpc to studio one for arrangement. And I then play guitar and bass parts over that.

The idea of trying out maschine would be to simplify my setup, where I would replace a tangle of cables to just one USB cable. And I already have a NI keyboard and a few of their plugins.

The downside is that I would now have to go between 2 software sequencers on the same laptop screen.

Just curious if my workflow would be viable with maschine.

How good is maschine for using hardware synths? Can you use the scale and chord stuff with other synths?
Thx.

Sorry for the delay with my reply. You might have already found the answers & unfortunately I don’t have a lot of knowledge on the things you’re asking.

With respects to warping a sample, Maschine has something similar to warp, but it works different from Ableton. You can definitely loop a sample really short & play it chromatically. It also has time stretch and pitch shift. The way it warps is you have to put the sample (loop) in Maschine’s audio player & it will adjust the loops bpm to match the bpm of the sequence. Maschine’s software could have had a few updates making the process easier, I haven’t updated the software in awhile (I probably should tho).

But if you make drums in Studio One & want to sync with Maschine, I’m not 100% how that works. I do know the audio player in Maschine allows you to warp the bpm of loops to match the bpm of the sequence, so if for some reason you couldn’t sync Maschine with Studio One or if it is a pain, you have the option to dump your Studio One loops into Maschine & sync them up quickly. If the loop has the same bpm as the sequence it’s of course extremely easy.

With respects to sequencing hardware synths I’m sure it’s midi implementation is pretty good, you might want to do some research on that. I have a MPC 2500 that I use to sequence my hardware synths & I just haven’t messed with sequencing my hardware synths with Maschine. Partially due to the fact that I also love to use hardware synths on their own, un-synced & I just sample my playing or I sample each individual note. Then I further manipulate the sound &/or melody from there.

I tend to do a lot of things “manually” even if there is a way to get the equipment to do it for me. Could be a control issue :thinking:

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Yea, a lot of people do this, so I would think it works well (read some complaints in the Native Instruments forum, but also read a lot of praises with respects to using Maschine as a vst in Ableton).

A great place for info would be of course the Native Instruments forum. I was on there a lot when I first got the Mk3, last November & got a lot of good info. I admit there was A LOT of complaining…which is actually why I walked away from that forum… but still, I learned some good stuff.

My brother really likes his Mikro (1st version). I think it’s a GREAT bang for the buck. The new 1 as well. Personally I would think the price is worth it for the software alone. The Mikro was actually my first taste of Maschine & got me interested in it.

Maschine still doesn’t have plugin delay compensation.
Depending on your complexity of the Maschine project running inside Ableton or any other daw as a vst you may have minor sync issues

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Thanks for all the replies.
I am still humming and hawing about this, but tbh I am leaning towards not getting the maschine.

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