Basically, I’m moving to a small room in London and I need something compact and productive. No big studio setup - I just want a self-contained unit which I can sit at and make beats.
So far, I have:
An Analog Four MK1
A Bass Station 2 (Too big - it’s up on Gumtree/eBay)
A Digitakt
A 2015 MacBook Pro with Ableton Live 10
I prefer to use the A4 and DT as instruments to jam and perform rather than to create full tracks. If I got an OT, I’d consider selling the A4 and maybe grab a Digitone instead.
Would people recommend investing in an OT or grabbing a Maschine? I know it would be tethered to my MacBook, but I don’t mind the look of the workflow.
Maschine Mk3, especially since they’ve added excellent audio loop recording and processing support over the last few updates. This means you can continue to use the A4 and DT for jamming and then record the results of that into Maschine if you like.
I’ve owned an OT, Maschine Mk2 and now Mk3 and I can honestly say that unless you mind having to be connected to a computer, the Mk3 has a nicer and more complete workflow than the OT.
Yes, especially on the Mk3. The only time you use the computer is when you want to save a new project and you need to enter a file name. I sometimes also use the computer for naming things in my project, but that’s it.
Maschine mk3 is a bargain for what it does. It needs to be connected to a computer but doesn’t rely on it at all beyond that really, and still you have the option to use the computer for anything you find easier that way. I love OT but if you have DT already I’d say go for the maschine
The only bad thing about MK3 you have to use the maschine software for its tricks. Since it’s a pretty huge software, running it as a vst just doesn’t makes sense. It feels like running an app within an app.
Other than that it’s a steal. I’m planning to sell mine but I can easily get convinced to keep it.
the Digitakt is a totally different creature to the OT.
go for the OT i would recommend.
takes a while to learn but i did my first live show with the mkII tonight and it was so immediate and responsive, really felt like an instrument.
it’s really easy for people at a club or pub to take one look at a computer’s presence wherever on stage and start thinking about work or emails.
also to mention, some space-economical dj-booths might just have room for two things. so you could put the Digitakt and the OT there and play, rather than the Maschine and Computer.
I don’t like using it as a VST, if I run kontakt in maschine in logic it’s an app in an app in an app. That’s begging for instability haha. I’d say use it standalone and export, or I use soundflower to multitrack into logic
There’s really no reason to run it inside a DAW until you want to record a multitrack mix from Maschine for further editing or mixing inside your DAW. And when you do that it’s suddenly really convenient that you can.
Haven’t had any issues. It is of course designed to do just that…
It does help to have at CPU with four cores or more in your computer when you’re running a lot of audio stuff in parallel.
That sucks, but really shouldn’t happen. I’d complain to Apple and/or NI about it. Don’t use Logic myself, but running plugins (including Kontakt) inside Maschine inside Bitwig and previously Live has never been an issue for me.
Is it possible to edit all parameters of a VST from maschine without looking at the computer ?? Or do you still need to use the mouse and keyboard (which is not inspiring at all for me).
Reluctant to say all parameters but you’re able to tweak dozens depending on the instrument loaded.
There are plenty of people out there using Maschine who never look at the screen. Some deliberately unplug their monitors! I prefer as middle ground when I fire it up. Should really get the finger out and start playing with Maschine and OT together
