The Maschine

[DigitalDevil]

They also have drum pads much like the Maschine and the MPK has probably the best known out there pads at that in terms of quality and response

Maybe if you're using a sledgehammer... The MPK pads are obnoxious for finger drumming.

[mostapha]

Why has nobody given him a better alternative of picking up a midi keyboard which has some spare knobs and 8 drum pads?

With the money you could spend on the Maschine or Mikro I recommend you get a Akai MPK 25 or 49 key or Novation Nocturn 25 or 49 key.

Not only will you find yourself wanting a midi keyboard in 3 months but you'll also want some knobs to control parameters which both of these come with. Assignable knobs!!

They also have drum pads much like the Maschine and the MPK has probably the best known out there pads at that in terms of quality and response.

This is just my 2cents but just think when your producing your gunna wanna write your own melody in piano roll (midi keyboard part here **hint**), want something for controlling parameters in filters, synths and mixing (assignable knobs part **hint**) and the drum pads for drum racks or drum programming (I think you get it now...)

I hope I gave you some insight!!

I disagree with you wholeheartedly.

First, the Maschine controller can act as a keyboard. Second, Maschine can use a keyboard. Third, the point of Maschine is the software.

Yeah…the hardware is pretty darn good. The pads are soft and extremely responsive and have the best aftertouch that I've used. The LCDs and all of the control layouts are amazing, they're good enough that you kind of forget it's attached to a computer most of the time.

But, it is still–primarily–a groove box that happens to reside on a computer application instead of hardware. There really isn't a great alternative for exactly what it does, except for pure-hardware stuff that costs a lot more and is more difficult to integrate with a DAW.

If you're just using it as a controller…absolutely. Buy a controller. Don't spend $600 on what is essentially a trigger finger with better components.

If you want the groove box that integrates incredibly well with a DAW, buy a Maschine.

Oh…and set the Maschine Mikro on fire…it's a piece of crap that's missing basically every useful feature.

I have to disagree [about using the Maschine hardware as a controller for Traktor]. Recently i lost the power chord for my mixer so i have been forced to work with my audio 4, my maschine, and my kontrol x1. Let me tell u it has opened a whole new world of controllerism for me... I have midi mapped everything possible to the maschine thqat i would want and remapped the x1 one a lil. It makes me more creative and has broadened my understanding of midid mapping. I use a mapping that has the instant gratification mapping, eq and filters. All of the x1's shift features have a separate place now on the maschine. And i have a hot cue juggling page which allows me to replay tracks the way i want them to. And finally my most recent exploration has been integrating the maschine software in my sets. The way i can go from song to song when i can always make drum beats that would fit perfectly or adding in a synth at a drop to add drama it's great... I would have agreed with you when i knew nothing about mapping and was using endo's mapping but now i must disagree....

I see what you're getting at…I just don't like it. It's a personal thing. If nothing else, the Maschine is pretty expensive for a pad-controller with a few knobs, some pages, and after-touch. Akai, M-Audio, and a few other companies make cheaper alternatives with what I think are equal or better feature sets for that purpose, especially if all you end up doing is cue point drumming and stuff that should be on a mixer anyway.

If you've already got it, that's one thing, but I just can't see spending that much money on Maschine if you're just going to use it as a controller.

Incorporating Maschine into a DJ set sounds brilliant to me, and is something I'm working on in my spare time. Frankly, the brilliance of Maschine's hardware is what I think makes it possible. You really never have to look at Maschine's software UI at any point to use it like this…you can do everything straight from the hardware.

Apart from actually writing songs and finding the right samples, the issues to me are mostly figuring out audio routing that makes sense. I also haven't even really gotten around to testing MIDI sync b/t the applications…I just kind of assume that it works.