Need help with Maschine / Ableton MIDI Configuration

[Lukynumba7]

BIG POST WARNING

So one major turn off for me from using my Maschine on a regular basis is how difficult it seems to be for me to arrange and play my patterns back whilst playing on top of them ONLY using Maschine. A few years back I bought an APC40 as a way to start making beats, knowing absolutely nothing about what I was doing and not realizing that it came with literally no sounds on it. So I kinda just let it sit in its box and forgot about it. I had a Kontrol S2 before that and when looking thought the NI site for updates I stumbled across the Maschine. After delving deeper, it seemed like it was everything I didn't have in the APC40, (sounds, a way to play what I was thinking without using my computer keyboard) and I picked a Mikro up right away. After playing on it awhile and making some patterns I thought about my neglected APC40 that I had used like a total of 5 times. Upon looking up stuff on how to connect the two programs I realized I could play out patterns on my Maschine and arrange them in Ableton. However, I have a very specific way I want to connect the programs and a few goals I wish to accomplish. I want...

• To be able to control Maschine individual group audio levels, patterns, and effects through a group specific track in Ableton

• To be able to play a pattern in Maschine and transfer the MIDI notes to Ableton, so I can adjust tempos and everything sounds right

• To be able to take all of those and arrange it with other plugins I now have

So the main roadblock I have experienced is getting multiple groups to be able to be played through MIDI. The current setup I have is that I have a MIDI channel in Ableton that sends my MIDI notes (that I have transferred using the MIDI drag tool in Maschine) through a channel into the Maschine 2 plugin. Then, Maschine sends the audio playing from the specific channel in the plugin into an External Instrument track in Ableton that is linked to the specific group. That way I can have control over the levels of each group, Ableton effects on each group, and still be able to play and sequence my patterns. My issue is that only one of these MIDI channels is working. My drum group works completely, sending the MIDI to Maschine and outputting the audio to the correct channel. However my synth group does not work. Below I have the steps I have taken in order to do this, if you want to read it.

Maschine Portion:

• Group A: In my group section under Inputs I have MIDI active and set to channel 2 with my root note C1. In Output I have audio destination to Ext. 2, cue off, and didn't touch levels or pan.

• Group B: In my group section under Input I have MIDI active and set to channel 3 with my root note C1. In Output I have audio destination to Ext. 3, cue off, and didn't touch levels or pan.

Ableton Portion:

• Track 1 is the Maschine 2 Plugin

• Track 2 is an External Instrument Plugin. Routing target is the Maschine 2 Plugin and MIDI To is 2-Maschine 2. Audio From is Maschine Out 2 / - Maschine 2

• Track 3 is an External Instrument Plugin. Routing target is the Maschine 2 Plugin and MIDI To is 3-Maschine 2. Audio From is Maschine Out 3 / - Maschine 2

• Track 4 is a MIDI Track

• Track 5 is a MIDI Track

• Under the I/O section, For MIDI From, Input Type is All Ins and Input channels is All Channels for tracks 1-5. For Tracks 1-3 Audio To output type is To Master. For Track 4's MIDI to Output Type is Maschine 2 Plugin and Output Channel is 2. For Track 5's MIDI To Output Type is Maschine 2 Plugin and Output Channel is 3.

Still with me? So, to reiterate what is going wrong, when I drag and drop the MIDI notes from Group A to Track 4 and play it in Ableton (with Maschine's tracks cleared) it plays it through the plugin and outputs on Track 2. However when I put Group B's MIDI sequence into Track 5 and try to play it in Ableton, there is no playback on Track 3. What is weird though, is when I play on the Maschine, Track 3 works. Any help would be appreciated. Or if you know of a simpler way to do all of this whilst still accomplishing my goals I set earlier, let me know.

I am using Maschine Mikro Mk2 with Maschine 2.3.1 and Ableton Live 9 on a 2011 13-inch MBP running OSX Yosemite.

[MaxOne]

I can't really help and slightly TL;DR but what i do is sketch out a good loop in maschine standalone with all the elements i like... then i sort of rebuild that loop in ableton.

I do this using a few methods:

1) For the drums say, I drag the midi notes to multiple empty midi slots on ableton using drag and drop. If you are in group in maschine it will drag al the drums midi notes to new, separate slots in ableton. Then I go back into maschine, go into sampling and right click and reveal the samples in the finder (kick, snare, HH, etc). i then add those into the empty midi slots with their corresponding midi pattern, kick sample to the kick midi pattern in ableton etc etc.

2) For the VSTs i used in maschine, i save off the preset as a new preset in the VST inside maschine (Say massive, sylenth, etc) and rename that preset as the name of the song i.e. (Max Jazzy Garage Loop Bass v2)so i can easily find it. I load an instance of that VST in ableton and drag across the midi from maschine to corresponding midi track in ableton and load the saved preset.

3) I then load the instance of maschine as a vst inside ableton and mute all the tracks that have been copied over, then normally drag any other bits across as audio or i do the same process above but from inside ableton.

it sounds a bit long winded but honestly only takes about 20-30 mins to rebuild a loop. i find it quick now i've done its couple of times

dunno how clear that was and maybe it doesn't help but there u go

[Shevlok]

Could you post your Ableton set that you created? It would be much easier to troubleshoot rather than trying to recreate it.

[MaxOne]

Well... that's sort of not what I'm saying. I use maschine in stand alone to make my groove, then rebuild it ableton... so there isn't an ableton set exactly.

[Shevlok]

Well... that's sort of not what I'm saying. I use maschine in stand alone to make my groove, then rebuild it ableton... so there isn't an ableton set exactly.

My mistake MaxOne! I was asking Lukynumba7 for his Ableton set.