Maschine Studio or Ableton Push??
Hey everyone! I am starting to get into the whole production thing and looking to get the Ableton Push or Maschine Studio, possibly the MK2. What should I choose? Anything else I should consider? I have been doing tons of research and i am leaning towards the push because I use ableton. In need of help!!!
Noone can tell you which one you should buy. I got both, using both a lot less than I thought I would. I started producing with Ableton and Push, which helped a bit, but now I invested in a decent digital piano and some piano lessons and rarely need any controller at all. I’m just quicker with my mouse. This does not mean Push or Maschine are rubbish, both are great at their things. However I just don’t need them when making my music.
What I’m saying is: You should think about what you NEED first. What do you want to do with it?
I have an experience similar to tilldrop. I bought the Maschine MK2 wanted to produce in Ableton with it (the Push had only been out for a month or so at the time), but now I’ve ended up just using my midi keyboard, keyboard, and mouse.
I use Maschine for tapping out drum patterns.
I import those into Ableton, with a bunch more sounds to make clips and loops.
I use the MPC-40 to launch the clips and loops to make the outline of an arrangement.
I use a midi keyboard to input chords, basslines, and other music on top of the arrangement.
In the end, I could do all that with a mouse & computer keyboard…but I have found that “more toys == more fun”!!! 
I mainly just want to make beats and produce my own music. Trying to see what I need to invest in.
Thanks!
Push is probably the better investment, but both are very capable.
Maschine studio is a lovely piece of kit but I tend to just use a mouse and midi keyboard even when using maschine or other komplete VSTs in ableton. Push is another nice piece of kit but I wouldn’t say you particular need either
The highlight of both Maschine and Push is that they’re attempts to move away from keyboard and mouse production workflows. But that’s the biggest feature they share. Otherwise they operate differently.
In my mind Maschine is first and foremost a sampler, and this is its upper hand over the Push. Maschine has amazing dedicated controls for editing and sampling from a variety of sources that the Push simply lacks. In this you see it’s affinity with the MPC. This is good if your workflow makes heavy uses of samples, particularly from external sources such as vinyl, CDs, your iPod/Phone etc. Furthermore, the 4x4 layout lends its hand more towards drums (especially with the new drum synths), which is both a strong suit and its weakness. Not to say that it can’t be done on a Push, but my preference for finger drumming infinitely tends towards the Maschine. Yet what it sacrifices in return is the ease with which one can create melodies. With 16 pads you only have access to 1.25 octaves of notes and that can be really stifling if you’re trying to make rich chords, or anything beyond some of the simplest patterns (but don’t knock it, many times a simple 3 notes is all you need). This can also be easily remedied by adding a small midi keyboard, but that’s more money you have to spend. Nevertheless, since Maschine ships with a selection of Komplete instruments, and perfectly integrates with the entire line, you have a plethora of different sounds to choose from to create melodies. Which also leads to another strength of the Maschine: its capacity to integrate with other plug-ins, even from a 3rd party.
The Push on the other hand is the be-all composition tool for Ableton. Although it lacks support for 3rd party plug-ins the Push integrates perfectly with all of Ableton’s instruments and effects. What it lacks in the Maschines sampling controls, it makes up for with its note mode, and the ease with which one can create melodies using Ableton’s software instruments. It’s more suited to workflows that try to build the entirety of a song from scratch, rather than those that rely on a perfectly chosen and manipulated sample. This isn’t to say Ableton lacks the power of Maschine when it comes to sampling, but that it is more of a process to rip samples to the pads, and relies more heavily on the mouse to foster. The downside of Push, in my opinion, is that you are more confined to Ableton’s narrower selection of instruments. You CAN use it to input notes into 3rd party plug-ins but you have to rely on the mouse to control parameters, or do a quick bit of auto mapping, and that brings you back toward the computer. Nevertheless, I think the Push’s note mode can’t be beat when it comes to melodies, and its drum step sequencer may be even easier to use than Maschine’s.
The bottom line is it comes down to you and your workflow. If you’re heavy into finger drumming and sampling, and use a lot of plug ins, go Maschine. If you’re more about composing intricate melodies and step sequencing, and don’t feel limited by Ableton’s instrument selection, go Push.
My 2 cents: Since you’re just starting out with production, it’s not really necessary to get either. You’re fine with just a mouse and keyboard to start out, and if you feel that it starts to impede on your creativity, THEN start thinking about a Maschine or Push. By that time you’ll have a better idea of how YOU approach making a track and the decision will be that much easier. But if you still feel the need to invest in a controller, just buy a midi keyboard. It’ll have everything you need to get the ball rolling, and will give you a vehicle to expressively input notes into the software. You can even pick up one with drum pads if you really want, and for not that much money. That way, if at the end of the day you decide you don’t want to continue, you haven’t lost all that much on your investment. Anyway, in my book, creativity is the very product of the limitations you’re trying to overcome. I think you become a better producer for it.
Hope this helps.
^ And sorry for the essay. I’ve just been down this road before.
I thought Push had pretty good integration with 3rd party VSTs?
What VSTs have you tried?
It’s not that Push has BAD integration with 3rd Party VSTs, it’s just that its not natively supported in a way that it is with Maschine.
To my knowledge, Push’s integration with 3rd party VSTs depends on a workaround where you configure the controls you want to use and save the VST as an Instrument in Ableton. From the horses mouth:
https://www.ableton.com/en/articles/using-push-with-plugins/
Though I know you can now also buy libraries of converted VST presets for push.
However, Maschine will often automap the parameters of a 3rd party VST and organize it in pages for you. From there you can further customize it if you like, but the integration with 3rd party plug-ins is still a little more seamless than with Push.
Not saying that you can’t get everything you want out of either controller with a little effort, just that they come with different strengths right out of the box.
Though, as always, I could be wrong.
I appreciate all the help. Leaning towards the push.