Maschine, The Center Piece to My Studio
I get a lot of questions from friends of mine and people that want to start recording music. It can be daunting to know where to start, what language people are using and often times you get more confused and you end up not even starting. So I have been giving a lot of thought to this and I have come to realize the Native Instruments Maschine is pretty much the center piece to my studio. More importantly to my creative process.
Maschine is usually the first thing I will go to in the studio when I am starting to create something. It is also what I use to arrange and write songs. It is truly a powerful tool. And to be fair I am only using it to 10% of its capability. So if you make primarily electronic based music (hip hop, techno, loft etc) you are going to want to read on. If you want to add something to your traditional instrument process this will also be great for you.
It’s a great drum machine:
This was the main reason I bought one year ago, I wanted to easily be able to make beats to go along with guitar parts I was writing
I quickly found out that there was almost limitless possibilities and the ability to create custom sounds is very powerful
If you want to use stock kits available there are plenty to choose from and the range is huge. You can go from a 808 to a Studio Kit
You can create custom kits easily. If you like elements of a kit but want to add say a different snare or hi hat you can easily accomplish that
You can make your own sounds from scratch. That’s right with Drum Lab, a build in “VST” you can create various different sounds from analog electronic you a more natural “real” sounding parts you can easily do that
You can add Plug Ins to any sound to really make it your own. If you want to add a little reverb to a snare you can. Compression perhaps? Easy money. Also, you are not limited to Native Instruments Plug Ins! I have a ton of Universal Audio plug ins as well as Izotope and various others. You can use almost all of those in your work flow as well
You also have the ability to program to a grid or play free hand
It’s a lot of other things too:
It’s a MIDI controller so you will be able to program and use this with other VSTs
Do you have a bass sound that you love and want to program it? Maschine will allow you to use almost any VST inside of the software.
You can also use outside plugins when working with VSTs
You will be able to move from simple sounds on a grid to creating complex textures and sound design
You can create your rhythm based projects from start to finish
You do not need an outside DAW to record and export your songs
IT’S A GREAT PRACTICE TOOL! As I mentioned before I bought this for a drum Maschine to record. I very quickly realized I can use this for practicing guitar and being in time, not more using a metronome!
It’s inspiring. There is no better feeling than getting my guitar out, making a simple practice beat and then with the help of Maschine take my practice session and make a full fledged song. Trust me, it’s happened to me
You do not need to buy an audio interface
It’s a DAW, well kind of. While I think there are much better options this is a great tool for arranging songs, adding effects, mixing and even to a certain extent mastering (provided you have the right plug ins)
The software and hardware work seamlessly with each other. So if you buy one, I would consider Maschine to actually be software. However, as part of the package you get the Maschine controller. This really helps it feel like it’s an instrument
It’s a sampler. That’s right, do you want to sample YouTube clips? Record something on your phone? You can easily record those into Maschine, slice them up, add effects and add into your songs
Keyboard mode! I am not a piano player at all. But when you click on keyboard mode the 16 pads become note values for instruments and sounds you are playing!
You can easily select what key and scale you want to perform in making it even easier for you to create without having to have deep music theory. Or you can just throw all that out of the window and play chromatically. Pro tip, I find that because of the layout I will tend to do things I am not accustomed to which adds more variety to my playing
It’s not just for one type of music. You literally can use this for every form of music there is.
You can use outside samples of different drum kits or just sounds you find
It can get costly, but you can also buy expansions that give you more kits, more presets etc
You can buy it in two* different sizes
So here are some things it’s not:
This is not a synth, there are not sounds or engines built in. That means you will need it plugged into your computer to work
There is a LEARNING CURVE ! So while there is a lot you can do, it might take you a while to get there. I would really recommend going into the getting started manual, it’s not the full manual but it’s nearly 200 pages on it’s own. It also have great written tutorials that help you wrap your head around the basics. Then you can go into the real manual which is about 950 pages long!
It’s a DAW but it’s not. As stated before there are a lot of DAW like qualities but I would not call this a DAW. If you want to record full guitar parts in here it’s not really a good idea. Sure you can sample a long guitar part but…yeah just leave it alone
Maschine mkiii
Here is the Maschine mk3 and what I use in the studio. When this came out I immediately upgraded from the mk2. With the two hi res screens, the Factory Library (8 GBs) and much easier to find group buttons. This really gives you a lot to work with and you will be able to do a lot without even looking at your computer.
Maschine Micro mkiii
The Maschine Miro mk3 is the smaller sibling of the mk3. It is a down and dirty version of the controller. You will still be able to access all the main parts of song creation from this controller. However, since is does lack options like the two hi res screens you will need to be relain on the software. This version also comes with the Factory Selection library with 1.8 GBs of samples, kits and projects.