This seems like a poor update even by NI’s low standards. Admittedly it’s cheap at £29 and I can see how the stem separation seems like a “big ticket” feature but the results are patchy to say the least. Based on that Loopop video above, the stems can sound pretty mushy with either Maschine or the MPC software.
I always felt it made much more sense in the context of DJing. If you can do a DIY acapella on the fly or use the drums from one track with the bassline from another that makes sense for DJs but, with production, if the stems are mushy then they’ll sound crap and be hard to mix.
I can’t speak for everyone else but I feel like NI stopped being an innovative software company and became a sampled content provider long ago. I think it’s a shame but it seems like their best days are behind them.
After watching part of the loopop video, I kind of don’t understand why they’re touting stem separation as such a major feature. I understand that it could be incredibly useful for remixes, but the test results didn’t sound great at all. Beyond that it’s only really useful for people who regularly produce remixes. The couple times I’ve made remixes, I produced the original parts in Maschine, but then I routed the tracks into Ableton and used that for editing the audio files because it was so much more intuitive. It feels more like a gimmick than a widely-useful feature, so it makes this update even less impressive than I initially thought.
It’s not just NI, it’s worse.
They were bought by Soundwide, they’ve stopped to be innovative.
iZotope was bought by Soundwide, it has stopped to be innovative.
The same happened with Brainworx.
Low investments (after purchase), high returns because of brand name. Sell when it squeezed.
Not from what I heard… sounded to me like the Maschine sonics are way better.
There’s a huge difference/discrepancy between the Stems sound quality in MPC Software vs Standalone too… Standalone MPC Stems sound awful.
I’m a bit underwhelmed by the update personally, a few handy new things but some are thing you would have thought would already be in there anyway.
I wonder if not supporting the older hardware may be a GUI based decision? Maschine Studio is fairly old now, but at least has the two screens.
I wonder also if making it a paid update is a testing the water approach, working out how strong the existing user base is as a gauge for putting resources into further development of the platform vs content packs.
I’ve had Maschine for 10 years now, and besides a komplete bundle upgrade I haven’t spent any further money on it. I don’t think it’s unreasonable for DAW-like software that at some point a new release becomes a paid upgrade. Sure, there have been some way more significant 2.x updates, but hey, hopefully this means there will be some cool 3.x stuff coming down the track.
I think NI is currently in either one of two modes (depending on the product.)
If it’s a legacy product (Maschine, old synths like Massive X etc) these are all on maintenance. They might be updated, but not in a drastic way. In the case of something like Reaktor, that is being strung out as far as it will go but for all intents and purposes it’s on life support. For the most part what we’re seeing is iterative upgrades, new MIDI controllers with moderate spec bumps etc.
If it’s a core product (which at this point is basically Kontakt) then it will get investment, features and new updates. The main business as you say is the sound packs. It’s not a huge step removed from the way UVI now has Sonic Pass, which has a synth/sampler and a range of effects and sample based instruments as the core. I woudn’t say this is an NI only trait. Both Output and Minimal Audio have both begun life as effect makers and turned to subcriptions, sound packs and that sort of thing for ongoing income (and there are others of course.) In some ways its understandable.
Yeah I don’t want to completely shit on NI, $30 is fairly cheap for a new major software version, and overall I think it’s a better value than Ableton in terms of how much you get for what you pay (even though I think Ableton is far superior as a DAW, for me anyway). And new features are always a plus, but none of the new features feel substantial enough to warrant a “3.0” update. I think if this was just another 2.x update the reaction wouldn’t be so negative, but a full numbered version gives off the expectation of some major upgrades, and these are all just good minor features.
Lets be honest. Most stuff that gets released these days are half baked.
Name one piece of software or gear that is flawless on release and have all the features.
Lets just hope that NI will release a constant stream of updates and listen to their customers.
I think if they now continue to keep the updates coming in a more reasonable time frame and keep the communication more open, like they started doing, I would trust their commitment to the platform again.
It has just been years of nothing which killed a lot of community goodwill. Even if Maschine is a great little device, there is still so much more negativity in the comments around it than with any Elektron product, for example.
I was Maschine user since it’s first iteration in 2009. I had MK1, MK2, mikro mk2, bought MK3 twice and decided to sell it last year. It’s a great tool, I made many tracks on it but I decided to move on.
To anyone comparing it to Push 2/3 + Ableton, sorry, it is delusional - Maschine is faster, less clunky and costs way less - for the price of Ableton Suite alone you get Maschnie MK3 hardware, software and great library of sounds.
Try to play live on Push where suddenly you decide, you would like to load a track that is not preloaded in your Live Set.
I’m happy that gears started to move more in Maschine software land with v.3 release, but for now, I will observe if NI will finally deliver on promises. I’m also waiting for the future Maschine HW iteration.
I see stem separation as a tool to create some background atmosphere or short loops rather than using the complete track and replacing drums with other drums or something like that. Otherwise you would end up with copyright issues in a big time.
I won’t update to Maschine 3. I feel strongly about good user interface design, and the new black M3 GUI is just terrible for my eyes. It’s to dark, but mainly it has no contrast at all. It’s missing a lot of lines and separations also. Basically it’s giving me a headache. There is just something “off” with the new UI design, same with traktor 4.
Plus I don’t have need for the new features, I need better automation recording and editing, improved step note recording Roland sh101 style, a proper clips implementation, and a meta-automation track to record mutes and solos and mixer movements.
Push 2, same price range, and so definitely not WAY more.
Push 3, more expensive, but way more advanced than the MK3 controller.
Live 12, more expensive, but a much more complete DAW (if you need it). Maschine is available as a plugin, there’s a reason for that.
Live 12 comes in multiple editions, including very complete libraries. If you want to do a comparison, you should add a Komplete license to Maschine.
Don’t get me wrong, I think Maschine is very capable and has a fast workflow. Same goes for Akai MPC software. It all comes down to personal preference. Same goes for Live and Push.
That’s what we’ll need to see. Given the current update pricing I think they’re switching strategy: could be more frequent, but paid upgrades and/or more paid add-ons and expansions.
How’s that…? Communications didn’t improve a bit in the last couple of years. Polls and countless requests for user input (none of it was used), and some quarterly updates (mostly containing what was already released), but nothing about delays, fixes, etcetera.
Maybe communication still isn’t amazing yet. But years ago there was basically nothing. And now we have at least the announcements by the product manager on a somewhat regular basis.
Off course it depends on preferences. But if anyone is groovebox head like me, Maschine feels more like standalone HW and there is more controll over every aspect of Maschine software. Personally I would not like for it to become overblown DAW.