Native InstrumentsMaschine (Mac/Win)

Jul 1, 2009 12:00 PM, By Jason Scott Alexander

           
 

GROOVE PRODUCTION, PERFORMANCE AND CONTROL SYSTEM

You can set different grids and loop lengths (down to 64th-note triplet resolution), making it possible to achieve odd time signatures. Perform quantization at the song level or on any note, including automation events. Quantization can be hard-to-grid or in 50-percent iterations. Sadly, because Maschine can't load (or export) MIDI files, you can't quantize from MIDI groove templates.

For a more human feel, you can nudge sequences and slide notes around freely with Grid mode off. You can also add swing on a part-by-part basis or to the song as a whole. In fact, you can mute, solo, swing notes, shuffle patterns, change arrangement and more entirely on the fly, making for a very interesting performance instrument.

Mechanics Toolkit

Maschine offers an incredible amount of voice-level editing, including velocity (start, decay, cut-off, volume), pitch (-36.00 to +36.00), sample start/gate/reverse/sustain, attack/hold/decay amp and mod envelopes, and variable LFO with phase and sync, as well as multimode filtering and inline effects. You can tweak and record each parameter in real time with the controller or the software interface.

MPC users will love that Maschine provides pad muting and mute groups (up to eight per kit), allowing you to do some really clever things, including the standard open/closed hi-hat trick. Another cool feature is the momentary Note Repeat button. When depressed, it automatically plots the selected sound across the grid at a given quantization for accelerated beat programming. But it's particularly useful for adding live fills, reacting to pad pressure as volume intensity. Four programmable hot buttons let you switch between quantization values in real time, allowing you to fluidly roll, let's say, from gentle 8th-note and 16th-note repeats to 16th-note triplets and eventually 64th-note triplet stutters. It's also a cool way to turn Maschine's tonal sounds into synthesizer-like arpeggios.

The sampler is good and fast at capturing and automatically mapping drums and other sounds, but I found it basic at editing and a bit convoluted (see the bonus material, “Sampling the Goods,” at http://emusician.com/online_exclusive/native_instruments_maschine_bonus/). Initially, I wasn't even sure that you could have more than one drum sound assigned per pad. It turns out that you can — as multisampled sounds. In the Mapping Editor, you can set the root, note and velocity range, tuning, gain and pan for each sample. And although you can slice loops for further manipulation, you can't import Acid files, Apple Loops or REX files. Fortunately, Native Instruments is planning REX compatibility in a future update.

For mixdown, Maschine features eight stereo buses and the ability to export audio as whole Scenes or discrete loop ranges, tapped from the master, group or sound buses. The downside is that bouncing is in real time.

Well Oiled

Maschine is a ton of fun. Its form and function are purely inspiring to work with. I love that you can quickly jam out ideas in a pattern-oriented environment and continue to use them there as the building blocks for a self-contained song or supplement them in parallel with a DAW.

Native Instruments has successfully unified and vastly improved the familiar groove-production workflows. Almost everyone is using a laptop onstage these days; as perhaps the ultimate groove instrument, Maschine bridges the gap between the familiarity and reliability of highly integrated hardware control and the boundless sonic flexibility that software affords.

Jason Scott Alexander runs a mix/production facility in Canada's capital of Ottawa, Ontario.