Yes! Absolutely. I wish people would ask more performance or at least music-related questions rather than just technical stuff.
I am currently working on a tutorial series for Maschine Masters that answers your very question.
What kind of music do you play? This matters a lot.
In terms of just sequencer stuff:
There’s live step sequencing, which is exactly what it sounds like, while mixing out of a track or between grooves / tracks on Maschine. If you’re playing really minimal stuff or most kinds of techno, this works very well.
You could also change the sequence as it repeats, by adding and then removing parts of the pattern (such that they play only once). This is great for techno and can work for drums in all kinds of dance music.
You could DJ between different grooves set up in Maschine by holding PATTERN and switching between them. This is pretty low risk, as it switches between them in legato (in phase, in time, etc).
There’s always the option to work mutes and solos. This can be important if you’re for example playing Maschine over something that does not have hi-hats, but know that hats are about to be introduced, or that the material in the next section will sound not-so-good with hats, so you mute them to avoid hats-on-hats or hats over vocals.
If you’ve sliced some of your favorite tracks, you could do a remix with the sequencer. This works well if you play the original, or part of it, and then drop the sequenced remix in Maschine.
Stuff not in the sequencer:
Stings, transitions, and risers. In Maschine, you have all sorts of control that you can’t get in Traktor.
I use big hits, designed to be used with a MIDI keyboard, with tails controlled by the mod wheel, a lot. An example of one (very, very heavy) set of these is the “Damage Hits MW” instrument in Heavyocity’s DAMAGE.
You could also have a noise-based synth that could be mixed in and out (and the patch of which can otherwise also be fully controlled) with the end of one track and the beginning of the next, or a groove in Maschine. This is great for moving between tempos.
The same goes for risers. You could have it automatically react to the music being played, and/or control it up on the encoders.
Pad drumming is another whole world, but gives one the immediacy of playing an instrument. I have tons of tuition on this coming out over the next few months. It’s worth noting that if you’re drumming, you don’t necessarily need to bother with the sync stuff with which you had trouble.
