Thinking of buying a Maschine, but I need to know…
… Can I get away with using it on it’s own? Or do I need a DAW too? I’ve done some Googling and looks like I can get away with just the Maschine. But, will not running a DAW take anything away from what it can do?
Trying to decide between the Mikro or normal one too. But I don’t know if I can justify £150 for an extra screen and some knobs (did I just say that? hmm…). Plus if I do need a DAW too, that £150 could be diverted off in that direction.
Basically just after using the step sequencer in a more hands on way than mousing (which I have done before and dislike - which is why I never spent the money to upgrade the Ableton trial and didn’t want to faff with all the mapping if I bought a controller), and this will be closer to using the Electribe EM-1 I used to have many years ago.
I have no problem with doing knob tweaks by mouse as they’ll pretty much be static once set and doubt I’ll do much effects automation. So I can’t see why I’d need the full Maschine.
Is there anything I’m missing in terms of differences (besides the obvious)?
I usually do all the adjustments by mouse too, and haven’t really used the knobs and buttons much on my full Maschine. There’s no other difference between the two versions.
that makes a big difference in the decision making tbh.
keep going back to this thread on NI forums too.
I think I will just get the Mikro. Can do all the stuff (with some compromise) and is cheaper/smaller. Not that I plan to travel with it, but if I want to hook it in alongside my DJ setup, space is less of an issue.
Fine on it’s own. I actually find myself sketching things out on Maschine first then dragging into Live or Logic.
Get the Micro if you are short on space or cash. The regular is better if you wish to look more at the hardware and less at the computer. Fantastic piece of kit, though. Hope to see it integrated more with Traktor in the future.
I had the Mikro Mk2 for a while, and then sold it. This is what i think of the Mikro:
Essentially, it does the same that the Normal one does, but with the Normal Maschine you have almost a button or knob for everything. With the Mikro, not quite. It’s annoying when you want to do somethig on the Mikro and you don’t remember the shortcuts to reach it, and if you want to do some specific things, i.e. sampling without using the PC, with the Mikro is very stressful and with the Normal is almost automatic
If you want to make live performances, the Normal Maschine lets you make what your imagination wants in the moment (ex. effects). With the Mikro, not at all.
If the main reason you have to buy the Mikro is the price, there are good drum machine controllers on the market with nice pads and at a much better price than the Mikro (like the Akai MPD 26, it has more knobs than the Mikro, and faders too).
Depending on which you are going to make with it, buying a Mikro could compromise your creative process.
i do keep worrying whether i’d miss the extra knobs and button for everything. but don’t intend to do much live stuff. but if i don’t have them i’ll want them…
got another week til payday. and still leaning toward the mikro. but creeping toward the full one
For what it’s worth, I bought a Mikro over a year ago and barely used it. Decided to return it and get the regular MK2 Maschine, and I use it every single day. There was a HUGE difference for me in the enjoyment factor between the two. If you can swing it (especially with the sale) I would really encourage you to get the full-sized Maschine.
Good ol’ NI and their ever inconvenient “sales”. No sooner did I buy my MK2, Maschine Studio came out and the software was a paid upgrade for me. Now they are having another one of their “sales” and the studio hardware is on sale. While I am tempted, I still can’t justify the purchase to go from my MKII to the studio version for their upgraded screens. Frankly after owning my MKII for over a year now I’ve just used my laptop screen and mouse. I know everyone was excited about their LCD screens on the MKII, I never look at them. As intuitive as they say Maschine is, frankly there are too many shift/shortcut button presses needed and a simple point and click accomplishes the same thing.
I’ve not handled the studio hardware but would say that the ability to not press the shift button to perform certain functions would be a plus but as a hobbyist the extra cash is best left in my pocket and spent on the software upgrade. If I could honestly do it all over again though I would have gotten the studio version, however my MKII is sitting comfortably next to my macpro and I still have a little bit of desk space left Either one you choose you’ll enjoy it and find your own personal workarounds.
I bought my Maschine MkII in November. At first I used the standalone version exclusively. Its library is very inspiring for getting fresh ideas out quickly. You’d get the same library with Mikro. Personally, I’d recommend the full MkII, as the dedicated knobs for practically every parameter really did speed up my workflow and kept the inspiration going. Within a couple of weeks I had a ton of loops and rough song sketches.
That said, Maschine really does shine when used with a full DAW. In my case, I use it with Ableton. Dragging and dropping MIDI or audio clips out of Maschine into Ableton is almost too easy, and is very beneficial for fleshing out tunes. Plus, I play guitar on a lot of my tunes, and Maschine itself doesn’t really have support for audio clips. It treats them as samples, so you either have your audio tracks playing back as one shots or ADSR samples. That can be fun as well, but it isn’t what I’m trying to do most of the time.
To sum it up, it really would depend on what you want to do, but in general…yes, you can use Maschine on its own. And yes, the knobs on the full version are very beneficial to your workflow and inspiration.
Either one you choose you’ll enjoy it and find your own personal workarounds.