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After deliberating for a very long time, I ended up buying a Maschine and not an MPC. I thought the standalone nature of the MPC would be great for getting me o
by SonOfLilit 6y ago
After deliberating for a very long time, I ended up buying a Maschine and not an MPC. I thought the standalone nature of the MPC would be great for getting me out of the "engineering" mindset and into the "playing an instrument" mindset. The Maschine does that, because you can (and should) work with your computer screen turned off. It's not any less portable because (most) MPCs don't work on batteries and laptops are pretty easy to carry around these days. And it lets you perform the "MPC way" (finger drumming, sample chopping) as well as a more traditional way (play notes and chords on synths and edit them live). Playing on its pads like a melodic keyboard is very inspiring for me - there's no priviledged scale or distance like on keyboards, it's all by ear and feel and it helps me be a lot more creative with my melodies.
Anyone into electronic music should have one in my opinion.
- ccsnags 6y agoI have had both. Maschine is awesome. I used to use an MPC and I got to try a Maschine for a bit. I fell in love instantly. It takes the technical power of a full production studio and makes it feel like you’re playing with a toy you’ve had since childhood. Between that and the synths Native Instruments makes, go with Maschine.
- golergka 6y agoNative Instruments is one of the best things that happened to music making in the last 15 years.
- tomc1985 6y agoWith the exception of the original Massive, Kontakt, Reaktor, and (the defunct) Pro-53, I feel like its really hard to get something I like out of their synths. I've bought several of the regular Komplete kits over the years (their black friday sales are always generous, even for upgrades) and as they get more stuff they feel more disappointing. Some of the version upgrades hit especially hard (in a bad way), like Battery 3 to Battery 4. And they keep releasing new versions of things without fixing annoying quirks in the previous versions... As much as I want to like them and their software integrations I find myself reaching for other companies' plugins... like Serum is a way better Massive X, Sytrus is a way better FM8, etc etc
- lostgame 6y agoI had the opposite experience! I had a 3000, sold it for Maschine and MPK49, then just could not stand the Maschine's inability to perform live without a computer. Despite my MacBook's great specs, I would literally experience software issues involving a crash during a performance 1/5 times to the point where my bandmates said they'd help me buy the 3000 back. Based on what I've heard from other touring electronic bands, there's a lot of the same. Which makes all the sense in the world, as we're literally talking about a dedicated piece of hardware with integrated firmware, vs. a VST, in a DAW, on an Operating System. That's three levels of abstraction.
- albertkawmi 6y agoWe went through the laptop pain as well. In our case an MPC 1000 was sufficient for us for playing back samples and keeping hardware synths in sync.
- tomphoolery 6y agoAgreed. I'm in a touring electronic band and I don't use my Maschine live. I find it absolutely essential for certain in-studio things, like tapping out drum beats or doing interesting sample splitting. But I'd rather use my DJ controller (Xone K2) or an Ableton Push live, as it's deeply integrated into the DAW that you're using. There's just nothing better.
- tomphoolery 6y agoIt's awesome, I just wish it could handle pitch shifting a bit better. I want to be able to pitch shift different slices in a sample, dammit!
- SonOfLilit 6y agoI'm... pretty sure you can? Worst case, make a copy.