I’m not opposed to the idea of maschine+.
The price tag makes it non trivial to play with.
Also, there’s a camp who seem to complain it’s under powered? Any truth to that? Not sure what that even means.
I heard that depending on how many and which instruments/plugins you use you can easily reach CPU spikes causing audio dropouts. But that really depends on your production style, a friend of mine didn´t report about any of these issues while another sold it for the initially mentioned reason.
While I like the Maschine hardware it still feels too restricted without a computer as you apparently can´t create patches from scratch on the plugin instruments but merely just play presets loaded from the computer. So for me personally that´s a deal breaker but that´s personal preference.
This might be of interest to some, you know how on Maschine you can have a kit that triggers other synths and midi? Now you can do the same on the Mpc, so you can setup a drum kit that is a mix of drum synths, other synths plug-ins, samples and midi out. Not as straightforward as it is on Maschine but still something
Maschine has amazing pads.
Has anyone tried the Nektar Aura Beat Composer that can comment on the quality of the pads for finger drumming? Looks similar to Maschine without the tie to a particular software ecosystem.
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I, too, am curious about the quality of the Nektar pads
I like the pads on the Rytm. I like how they rebound my fingers. It’s going to sound a bit silly, but I approach it like tiny drums and my fingers are the sticks.
Okay, I know that’s the point, but I really think they nailed the stiffness of the pads. They let your fingers rebound like drum sticks on a drum.
Of course playing any music or instrument, the idea is “no pain, NO PAIN!” So don’t hurt your fingers trying to make them into tiny drum sticks. If you spend time approaching the rytm like I said, I think you can get some good results, and it’s fun.
Almost like drumming on one of those rubber/wood practice pads…
Anyway, it probably sounds ridiculous, but that’s why I love the pads on the Rytm.
And keep your wrists loose!
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Thanks to whoever suggested to record and listen back. I’m using the Mpc retrospective recording function so after I play I can see how I performed on the grid. It’s a frustrating exercise but I think it’s helping me quite a lot.
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and now i got proper 2-handed full-sized input.
some techniques are just hardly usable on smaller pads (like Launchpad or Circuit)
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And here’s an update on my finger drumming progress, this is something I’m currently practicing, recorded directly from the Sp-404.
I’m slowly getting better, slowly being the keyword here. Structure is still very basic…
Any suggestion/feedback? Maybe you can hear something obviously wrong?
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Godfather Jel
Mic the best to ever do it
Mr.invisible can see you
Exile banishing his opponents
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Bro you threw all the people who got me into finger drumming back then. A trip down memory lane.
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Am a drummer first and really got into finger drumming for a while. The Jeremy Ellis courses are dope. Justin Aswell has a cool pad layout which is similar to the above posts with left and right pads mirrored like kick on 1 and 4 hats on 2 and 3 etc and also he would stack pads so he didn’t have to play more than one at a time which is useful at times.
I used different layouts for different stuff. When I had to trigger samples too I would separate drums on bottom, sample second row and bass/samples on 3rd and 4th row sometimes split like this.
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bt3RB8SHwaM/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=
So eventually after doing a lot of tracks like this I started getting into one handed stuff which is fun cause it forces you to develop a bunch of techniques.
Here’s a house/techno beat example one hand handling beats. I can’t find the clip but you can do Drop It Like It’s Hot with one hand, lots of fun.
https://www.instagram.com/p/B3EEkMdlh_D/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=
I started really trying to swing beats as well with one hand. And eventually moving to using both hands with drums on one and samples on the other. This isn’t complicated on the sample side as I’m just playing quarter notes, but I think I started slowing down with finger drumming at that point so I didn’t really push it anymore.
https://www.instagram.com/p/B1c14_alVNL/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=
Maschine has the best pad design and sensitivity though. Though I moved to MPC Live after Maschine crashed right before a show.
Anyway, anything you can do that drummers do will be beneficial. Playing multiple pads at the same time is a big thing. But ya any questions I d be happy to help and offer perspective.
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Personally, I try to learn and practice different techniques in order to gain the flexibility that comes from that — some rhythms are better played two handed, other things are not possible if the beat isn’t played one handed etc. So what I’ve got thus far can be organised in One handed vs two handed playing:
One handed:
One handed playing would mean I play the drums with eg my right hand only, leaving the left hand free to play samples etc. Usually here I use my index finger on the kick, ring finger on the hi-hat and middle finger on the snare. Layout for this one tends to be the standard MPC layout, ie pad 1 & 5 = kicks, pads 2 & 6 = snares, pads 3/4 = hihat closed/open, pads 7/8 = ride & maybe a crash. I will have samples & bass on the other 8 pads.
Two handed:
Two handed playing means I play the drums with both hands, two ways to do that:
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either the hands alternate to the beat divisions (eg if alternating at 1/16, the right hand would strike on 1 and &, while the left hand would strike at e and a). This is great for faster playing and for “rich/full” compositions, ie beats where a lot is happening and is constantly happening. Layouts to use with this are the standard mpc layout, although that can get a little awkward, or the layout @chaocrator shared earlier in this thread (Finger Drumming Techniques - #42 by chaocrator) which can also be adapted to 16 pads.
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the other two-handed approach I know of I’ve learned from David “Fingers” Haynes, one of the greats in finger drumming. He uses the right(dominant) hand to play the hihat and the left hand to play the kick and snare. So in a way he emulates playing on a drumset, minus the pedals/footwork of course. The layout he uses is pad 1 & 2: kicks, pads 5&9: snare, pads 13/14 hihats (closed open), pads 3/6/7: toms (high mid low), pads 8&12: ride (open/closed) and the rest is covered with diverse crash sounds. This one is really great for intricate drum imitation and also for rhythms were the hihat does something more complex.
Another thing I’d add is that I personally do the opposite to what a lot of people do/want with their pads, which is, I keep the threshold low but also keep the sensitivity low — which makes the pads responsive but then one has to hit them hard to get to full velocity. The reason I do this because it allows for more intricate dynamics in my playing. This is another thing I learned from David Haynes and after getting used to it it’s really great!
This is one of the reasons why I don’t love the Maschine pads, they tend to be TOO responsive/too sensitive.
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I do the same on the Mpc Live too so it reduces the double triggers. I don’t worry on the sp-404 as I usually play it on fixed velocity.
After 43 years without a metronome I finally got to the point that it doesn’t get in the way anymore, but my accuracy is still quite low, especially on the sixteenth.
On thing I noticed is that everyone has their technique in both how to use hands and how to use the non-drum samples.
I realised I lean towards one shots so I need to keep playing stuff all the time, not leaving me enough time for fills or any niceties. Maybe I should start adding a loop or 2 to my layout…
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Personally I have a mix of samples that are gated and one shots…I almost never use melodic/harmonic loops to drum over…simply because I feel it takes away from the thing I like best about finger drumming, which is flowing with the groove I feel and making adjustments on the fly 
Re metronome, it’s such a powerful tool and I think one can learn all life long with a metronome at 60bpm lol. I use the metronome not so much to learn how to be perfectly “on grid” rather I use it to develop my inner clock so that I can hold a groove. A great way to practice is to have the metronome sound for three bars and then have it go mute for the fourth bar and so on. That’s also why I love practicing at 60bpm, because rushing/speeding up is the main issue for many and what keeps them from holding a groove (certainly true for me).
Re playing 1/16th, What has helped me a lot in improving my playing of sub-divisions has been just practicing basic rudiments. I do a little sequence of 1/8, 1/8T, 1/16, 1/16T at 60bpm using different striking patterns. For example:
I’ll play 1/8ths alternating left and right hands (ie “1” right, “and” left etc), then I’ll do the same double striking (ie “1” “and” right hand double strokes, “2” “and” left hand double strokes), the paradiddling (ie “1” right, “and” left, “2” right, “and” right, “3” left, “and” right, “4” left, “and” left) and so on, moving through all the divisions.
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Nice, I’ll try this in my practice today.
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tried it. too difficult if you need 16th fills/rolls on kick or snare.
so i decided to stick with alternating hands.
You’d use your thumb on your right hand for that to double up on kick and snares check out David Haynes finger drumming on YouTube, it’s a lot more intricate than what I shared here, but the basics are as posted here.
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Jeremy Ellis is pretty unstoppable
There’s finger drumming lessons on YT as well….
I just start it with lesson 1. You can dig up the rest.
noting: when I had maschine I never suffered double trigs
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