If you load Maschine and Komplete Kontrol as plugins in a DAW, you should be able to do what you want.
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Oh right, nice. Donât know why it didnât strike me to try that, I just assumed if it worked like that with maschine it was just how it was. Any idea about the jam?
Fairly certain Jam and Maschine will be locked. You could open two instances of Maschine up in a DAW I guess which might work around it in certain scenarios but if youâre like me youâd find that a complete pain in the arse.
I dont think so
pretty cool
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Iâm reviving this topic because I think this is the most generic Maschine mk3 topic in the forum.
Iâm growing frustrated with my Maschine mk3 and the Maschine Software, and want to share my experience. Here there are many people that use and like the Maschine, and Iâd like to contrast our experiences.
When I started producing music ~3 years ago, I got a DT. After a while, I wanted to use try using the computer to make music, and I tried a lot of DAWs before finally buying Bitwig. Meanwhile, I bought some more hardware, including the Machine mk3. I basically bought it because, in a thread in this forum, many people were saying the Maschine is highly productive and helped to finish songs.
Although I like the hardware part of Maschine (the pads, the big screensâŚ), I keep getting frustrated every time I try to use it, both with the Maschine software, or as a controller for Bitwig.
These are some of the things I think are contributing to this frustration. Let me say that I talk about basic functionality: events, patterns, effects, arrangements⌠not comparing with bitwig grid, sample slicing, or any other advanced feature:
- Contextual/interactive help: nonexistent, not even a message saying your copy command actually did something. Every time I try to use it, I end up looking for basic functionality tips in the 700 pages manual, which is quite dense as it mixes windows/macOS recipes with controller recipes.
- Intuitive behavior: I can do all basic operations in Bitwig (or Studio 5, or Ableton) without reading the manual or watching a video. Also, I remember most of the basic commands and shortcuts on an Elektron machine after using them a pair of times, because they are logical. I never can do this in Maschine, always got stuck.
- Wasted screens: you have not one but two big screens in the Maschine controller. Why the âFilterâ word fills a whole screen, but we donât get a graphic that shows the shape of the filter we are configuring? Even the tiny screen of the Microfreak does this. The same with any basic effect: compressor, reverb, delayâŚ
- Expansions: I like the expansions samples, but to use them outside Maschine (in the DT for example). Inside Maschine, it seems like they give you half-done songs, and you only have to link some patterns. It kills my creativity.
- Software UI: you canât change panel sizes, only show/hide them; the scrolling/zooming is much more inconvenient than in Bitwig⌠At this point, I really prefer to use Bitwig even with the mouse and keyboard, than Maschine.
So, whatâs the problem? Is Maschine simply not for me? Should I put more effort into it, and then I will see its usefulness? Do you agree with these appreciations? Will I have the same problems if I swap the Maschine for an MPC?
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Well having owned both maschine and mpc live/one I can understand exactly where youâre coming from, imho neither are perfect and both require significant investment timewise to get the best from them, if you like native instruments libraries and itâs tagging etc then the mpc will disappoint on that front for sure, also the mpc workflow is drastically diffent to maschine and requires a considerable amount more effort when building kits and organising projectsâŚ
You mentioned Ableton and bitwig, which is where Iâm at now, have you considered getting a push 2 and really giving either your full attention, itâs really paid off for me once Ableton properly clicked and I enjoy the odd session in bitwig 4 too using the driven by moss script with push 2âŚ
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valid points, though I didnât have any problems here personally.
I feel the opposite here. To me maschine is very intuitive, and far more accessible and direct than the mpc live.
Maybe you could spend more time into learning the shortcuts.
This I donât get. You donât have to use the prepared kits, or patterns. Just use the samples and build your own stuff.
Fully agree here. The software is far from a good user experience .
Fortunately I like using the controller so much, that all I need the software for is typing in the filenames when saving the first time
completely agree. Horrible waste. I canât get it
You can download and try MPC Beats, the free version of MPC Software and make your own opinion but frankly, it isnât better than Maschine from a UI perspective.
Push 2 is great but its functions do not cover the arranger part of Ableton Live, which is a big omission.
Maschine evolves at a very slow pace. It has good ideas but is lacking in some ways.
Honestly, none of these software + controller grooveboxes really fulfill their promises. Doesnât mean they arenât good, but they fall short of being great.
Hopefully it will improve.
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I donât really see the lack of arrangement options as a hindrance in push to be honest, itâs far quicker to just jam in session mode to get your clips recorded into the arranger and edit from there when youâre readyâŚ
Well the point of getting a controller with a screen like the Push 2 is to avoid looking at the computer screen to do anything I think. Maschine MKIII has no problem editing the arranger via the controller, so the Push 2 is a bit behind on that aspect.
Yeah maybe so but only from a technical standpoint, aranging on maschines screens is still a pretty tedious affair regardless but Iâm happy to agree to disagreeâŚ
I love the maschine arranger. Super quick from the controller.
But depends on which type of music you make I guess.
I missed an arrangement option on push completely.
So, you are using the controller with the Maschine software, but you barely look at the screen. I suppose that most parts are recorded live, because using the step sequencer from the controller is somewhat tedious.
And, do you use the Maschine controller with other software (ableton, bitwigâŚ)?
And finally, how do you put together Elektron gear and Maschine?
Yeah I think that was the rub for me, anything complex was quite laborious and I always ended up exporting stems and arranging in Ableton anyhow⌠In fact the the exact same thing happened with my foray into doing everything on the mpcâŚ
Even the clips workflow had me scratching my head I think Iâd have preferred it if they had just added another arrangement window so that you could just have a linear timeline and move stuf around freely etc⌠but hey thatâs what abletons for đ¤ˇ
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indeed, thatâs what I do. I record everything live, because I love the pads and I love recording longer sequences. Elektrons sometimes feel very limiting, with their four bar paradigm. The maschine pads make me feel more like playing an instrument.
I use the variation mode sometimes to auto generate some melodies to get me going.
very rarely. If I use ableton anyway, I just use ableton usually. Maschine controller feels most poweful and standalone with the standalone software imo.
Overbridge. I saved the plugins in my maschine user library so I can browse them from the controller.
Unfortunately the overbridge is not as tight within maschine as within ableton. Thatâs a shame. You have to adjust the midi latency which. can be tedious.
Honestly I prefer to use them separately, maschine just on itâs own. There are more than enough sounds and sample options in maschine to make a track.
I gave up on the master setup, where I use all my devices together seamlessly. I have small setups that I use separately. Maschine is one of them
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Another thing that keeps puzzling me is the sample organization in the expansions. While I like the sounds and find them quite useful, there is a lack of good labeling and organization.
For example, just now, Iâve loaded a group from the Halcyon Sky expansion. It has four piano-like chord samples. Well, I donât know which chords are, because it is not labeled anywhere (just Piano1, Piano2, etc.), I even donât know what the scale is in the whole melodic group. And there are only these four samples, so if, for example, I need a minor instead of a major, I canât use them.
It would be much better if the expansions were organized as useful sets, not as semifinished tracks.
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Just a heads up if youâre still using push 2, I grabbed a neat m4l device that adds some decent arrangent control for the push 2 itâs only a few bucks too, tried it out this morning and there lots to like about it, itâs not arrangement view on the screens but it does bridge the gap somewhat⌠just gotta build some new muscle memory now 
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I use Ni Maschine only as sketchpad for its drum synth, where some are very good sounding, resample some layers and drag it over to abelton. The fx are also very nice, and its easy to try out grooves, i find the sequence approach in MPC a bit more intuitive, a learn curve is there on both maschines. MPC is more a sampler for my other synth. I just use what is not getting in the way of actually making music.