MusicRadar

Get more from your Maschine.

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Native Instruments' Maschine products have sparked something of a mini revolution in the world of hi-tech music making. Thanks to them, the groovebox/sampling drum machine concept has been reborn for the computer music age, and it's far more powerful than ever.

Maschine boasts vast sound libraries and total hardware control. It benefits from the well-structured workflow of a unit designed to be controlled without a computer screen, while also providing the power and in-depth editing only made possible by the use of a computer interface.

In later version updates Native Instruments has even added neat features such as hardware modelling, which allows us to capture the sound of old-school grooveboxes.

Here, we present 16 tips for anyone who's using Maschine or Maschine Mikro - either in the studio or on stage.

Cut out the middle man

To avoid problems when performing live with Maschine, disable any third party plug-ins you aren't using for the show. You can even switch them all off and deselect Scan On Startup for instant boot-ups without the risk of a crash…

Picking up plug-ins

…But do make sure Maschine is set to scan for new plug-ins on your system. To be sure it will pick them up and avoid frustrating headaches in the future, run Maschine in standalone mode straight after installing a new plug-in.

Tidy up your beats

Maschine can quantise the drum pad inputs (or other incoming data). When making beats in the studio, it's nice to have this off for more natural timing; but when creating rhythms and triggering samples on the fly, turning quantise on ensures a tidy performance.

It don't mean a thing…

If you've had fun creating cool drum buildups using the Note Repeat button and various effects, try using the Swing control to add and remove syncopation. This works really well on repeated 16th-notes.

Think past the obvious

Try not to use Maschine for just one thing; try to use it in as many different ways as you can. It's an instrument, so don't lose sight of that. However, don't feel like you have to use it on everything for the sake of it.

A case in point

If you regularly take your Maschine hardware on the road, get a case. The unit is tough, but it's not indestructible. After all, nobody likes having a broken knob, do they?

Save first, experiment later

When you're creating glitches and patterns with Maschine as a plug-in, render your best results as audio right away, before you keep making edits. This way, you won't ever lose your first idea, plus you can re-import the rendered version and mess with it some more!

Hip-hop inspiration

Nothing beats taking a sample from an old track and spanning it across the pads, then playing your own melody with the snippets. This classic hip-hop trick has never been so easy to pull off, so have a go yourself!

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