Where to start with Maschine?
So I’ve been a long time lurker on these forums, but just recently jumped into the whole dj/production thing and bought myself a Maschine a week or so ago figuring it would be a good buy since it works with Traktor. I’ve been reading as much as I can, but still seem lost. Is there anything you guys recommend specifically? Or am I just in over my head for a newbie and should start with dj’ing first to get a feel for the music before I try to make some? 
watch all the videos on Native Instruments YouTube channel regarding the Maschine. You’ll see that hip-hop producers use it like an Akai MPC and that people like Richie Hawtin and Booka Shade use it for DJing live. Get some ideas.
I really want to get a Maschine but broke as at the moment.. 
looks amazing and all my mates keep rubbing it in haha
I agree with watching all the videos, but I’d say to watch them all twice… the first time just to get an overall sense of everything it is capable of, then the second time just pick a particular subject and rewatch that particular video, then practice applying it. The concepts are all split up fairly well and build upon each other.
I’d say the best place to start would be learning how to easily load sounds/kits, then the step sequencer (unless you’re already a pretty talented drummer). Once you know how to make a simple 16 beat pattern on the step sequencer, then it gives you something tangible to start with as you apply the other techniques, such as copy/pasting one pattern to another, applying FX, etc. Then you can start messing around with recording automation and sampling and other goodies.
That’s the way I did it at least… for me, nothing started clicking until I stopped trying to think of everything and just focussed on really understanding one thing at a time. The workflow is really nice, so once you understand a few concepts then everything else is easier to learn because most things work intuitively once you understand the basic principles.
Practice practice practice
The best way is to just learn by doing. As a DJ, I figured everything out just by jumping in and hoping for the best. Watching videos and all is great, but there’s a big difference between knowing how to do something and actually being able to do it. 
Hey Guys,
I’m a new Maschine owner as well, and have been practicing on a daily basis, however the one thing I can’t figure out to save my life is how to sample from another source, say an iPod? I’m pretty sure as I have seen a video from Native Instruments on hip hop producer ‘F Major’ or Justin Myracks sampling an old record from his iPod and recording it into the software to further slice / alter the samples…
I’m using my Apple iMac, have the 1.5 version software, and am using my Audio 4 DJ to route the audio through my studio monitors…I’m guessing it’s a simple problem with my routing of the audio, but I feel like I’ve exhausted all options and am obviously overlooking the problem…
@Tyler Durden, just like they said, watch all the videos you can find, read up on it, and pick out your favorite styles that you can incorporate into your own, I’m doing the same now and I’m making progress every day…Best of luck!
@FascistDonut any ideas what I may be missing with my sampling woes???
I’ve been watching videos daily and practicing, definitely getting better, and I just got Traktor Pro so that’ll be fun to learn with the Maschine too haha. Thanks for the advice.
@russell download soundflower then route the sound through maschine (there’s a tutorial around somewhere). when sampling set it to threshold, press record, and then press play on itunes, ipod, etc. It’ll start recording when the music starts (given it passes the threshold) then just hit stop when you’re done.
Note, SoundFlower is mac only. However, the idea is the same if you’re doing it on a PC. You have to route the audio out channel (the one playing the thing you want to sample - be it your ipod’s headphone jack or whatever) to one of the 2 input channels available. I believe you can do this with Virtual Audio Cable (which isn’t free unfortunately and doesn’t seem to work on my windows 7) or you can use a physical patch cable. I have a cable that runs from my computer’s sound card output to one of my audio interface inputs.
If you are on a mac - here’s more info about how to get SoundFlower working: http://www.native-instruments.com/forum/showthread.php?t=88094
…Thanks for the tips guys, I have read on the Native Instruments forum a while back about Sound Flower but the people discussing it seemed to confuse everyone even more…
I was thinking the solution was a physical cable from say my iPod to the channel inputs on my Audio 4 DJ…
I’ll see about giving this Sound Flower program a try tomorrow PM…
Appreciate the info guys! 
Ive been looking at getting a Maschine soon also.. This video I saw Dubfire using it in looks as if he’s using it to trigger hot cue points he’s set? I may be wrong?
Due to a fire I lost over 85% of my home studio in 2007. Shame is that 10% of that is just some records in a crate (from a gig I had a few days before) I could grab on my way out.
Among the countless pieces of hardware I lost were my MPC 3000 & 2500. Now I had been tired of hardware for a while because they took up a lot of space and I was a gearslut. I wanted to get more into a software based solution. Now that I am financially able to start rebuilding my studio, I needed something like an MPC. Maschine was it. I like Maschine I do but it’s not without faults much like the MPC itself. For one thing, the filters that come with this thing are doo doo. I am not really into them at all. That’s fine though, I will be getting a full version of Ableton Live within a month or so.
The lack of VST support from within the standalone version of Maschine is kind of a turn off to me but its Native Instruments so I didn’t expect as much. However, utilizing Maschine as a VST from within my Demo version of Live has been a dream come true. It’s the kind of workflow I’ve wanted.
I got it as a midi controller as well, I do plan on buying 1200s and my Rane 56 again (not into pure controllerism yet) and either Traktor or Serato…not sure which though. But I had also wanted to be able to have something smaller than my MPC to trigger samples during live sets.
Enough about that though, Maschine is worth while to learn if you have absolutely no experience with samplers/groove machines. I have no personal experience with it as a midi controller as of yet due to not having a DJ set up currently. Your basic filters, reverb, compression, pitch, and EQ are okay but take time to get into them and play around. Compression & reverb are your friend for snares!