Have the itch to buy some gear... what you think?

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BASEDVATO

Judo Chop ur Spirit
May 8, 2002
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#1
My history of gear started with hardware. I had boards such as motif, fantom, rs7000 and sound racks. Yet I started making good music in Ableton, and Acid Pro and started thinking why I needed the hardware, and sold it all - because a lot of it was collecting dust when vst came of age.

Granted I love Ableton, but I'm wanting at least a piece of hardware that I can mess with to change up my flow a bit, I'm leaning towards a MPC2000XL becuase I miss the rs7000 sampling groove box.

The logical side of my brain tells me that zips suck, and it'll be a pain in the ass, and just to go for Maschine because I mainly sample from mp3's, and my whole libary is on the computer its convenient. Only thing about maschine is it's still computer, but at least I can get a long usb, and pretend I'm not at the computer looking at a screen lol.

I just get annoyed with midi controllers because my luck i'll be trouble shooting drivers, and shit like that. How stable is maschine? I just want to plug and play, and not worry about shit. Which what leans me too mpc.
 

GHP

Sicc OG
Jul 21, 2002
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#2
Maschine is pretty much plug and play, especially on a mac. Every so often I get freezes on a PC mainly from when I leave a session unattended for hella long. Maschine is partly designed to be a performance tool so it is pretty stable As an abelton user i think you would probably like the machine alot, ive seen youtube videos on the integration between the hardware and live software and it seems real smooth. They did a price drop on the full maschine and the mikro so you can get a good price on one right now.
 

BASEDVATO

Judo Chop ur Spirit
May 8, 2002
8,623
20,808
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#3
I like the ableton video's where they shift back and forth from controller to maschine.

I've gotten good with "abletons drum rack", and have all the maschine drum expansions. From what I been reading, drum rack, and maschine can pretty much do everything the same.

The difference is in efficiency, and not having to look at a cpu screen. How does pads feel?
 

GHP

Sicc OG
Jul 21, 2002
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#5
i think the pads on the maschine feel and respond great. I did get some aftermarket pads that are thicker. They aren't like mpc pads, i'd describe the feel similar to the pads on the fantom keyboards but more on the stiff side. There isnt a whole lot you need to look at the cpu screen for aside from midi editing. you can control vsts from the knobs on maschine but i prefer to use the cpu screen and a mouse for most plugins with hella perameters. sweetwater has the original maschine for 399.00 and the mikro for 249.00. Thats a steal, I paid 600 bucks when maschine first came out.
 

GHP

Sicc OG
Jul 21, 2002
16,280
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#6
I played around with the new maschine and it feels alot better than the old one which is saying alot. The buttons click whe you push them and the knobs and pads feel alot better too. Ill probably pick one up once I get my tax refund.
 

BASEDVATO

Judo Chop ur Spirit
May 8, 2002
8,623
20,808
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#7
GHP @GHP So I was on the fense of Ableton Push vs maschine mk2...

Being ableton user I almost went with push until I saw a video with the ableton template on maschine. I've had the maschine for about a week now and it's def sick. I love how when I have it as a vst in ableton I can switch back and forth, and feels like hardware rhythm box.

I'm learning how to use it wo really ever looking at the computer screen. Only time I click a mouse is to change some of the 3rd party vst presets. The way it maps to the parameters are dope.


I feel I made a good choice. I could easily create beats with it, and dj a entire ableton set with this piece. I think all I'm gonna grab Is a mpk mini for like 50 bucks, I find keys a little hard to play- but learned how to make pads different notes so you can build your own scale without having to be in keyboard/pad mode.

The think that also sold me vs the push was crearing drum kits from on the hardware... Drum rack in ableton is nice- but is a bitch and time consuming to create your racks.

Main gripe is no browsing disk, I have a huge sample library. Also it not taking mp3, but I found a work around in ableton for this.
 
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GHP

Sicc OG
Jul 21, 2002
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#9
I would love a new maschine. Mine is old and I think i might have messed it up a little when i changed the pads.

There are ways for the maschine to read your personal sample libraries if all of your stuff is already broken down into folders.