Jeremy Ellis’ Maschine Studio Jam

Finger drumming master Jeremy Ellis performs a live routine on the new Native Instruments Maschine Studio

Technical Details:

All the drum sounds you hear come from the new Maschine 2.0 Drum Synth plug-ins. Melodies and harmonies come from Massive and Reaktor Prism.

See the Native Instruments site for more info on Maschine Studio.

24 thoughts on “Jeremy Ellis’ Maschine Studio Jam

  1. .It is weird when there are things made to look like hardware , but alone they produce no sounds?
    Computer dependency is what we want to get away from, how many controllers are there?
    It is comical to see midi ports on this thing.
    Long live Akai.

    1. Nothing in Akai’s MPC range produces sound without first sampling it just like Maschine.
      Also, it looks like Akai have abandoned the stand alone MPC which I think is a huge mistake.
      I agree that ultimately computer free is the most inspiring but my experience with Maschine
      has been nothing but good. I would say it’s one of the best sequencers out there and while it
      is just a controller, it’s a controller made to integrate with specific software which is quite a bit different than say a trigger finger etc. Also, I don’t quite understand your midi comment, I for one am really looking
      forward to 3 midi outs.

  2. I laugh every time I watch a video of someone like this, just amazing really. I can only imagine how long it took to achieve that sort of mastery. I also wonder about the medical implications for these controllerism guys in the future.

    1. It’s not so different than being able to play the piano really fast, is it? Maybe even easier because of the light touch ability on these pads.

  3. What goes unshown in a demonstration like this is: A. the hours of preparation is required to create the limited “palette” from which melodies, chords, and drum sounds are derived; and B. how tired those elements get once the various ya-ya’s have been released from the urethra.

  4. Jeremy Ellis has always impressed me… until now. I totally agree with stub on. But really, most of NI teasers are most of the times pretty lame. I love Maschine, and I have a MKI. I would buy this one, if I didn’t have the MKI and a whole bunch of controllers. Not buying any other controller, just pure hardware and software. But I am definitely upgrading the software. I really dig maschine and JE, but I really don’t like this video.

  5. Cool Maschine. But I’ve made the switch to hardware, which has been hugely inspiring. Maschine would probably be the next best thing though, due to it being integrated with the software soooo tightly.

    Jeremy is wearing GoogleGlass. Was he reading his email during this performance? That shit is just too goofy. And imagine the cancer people are going to get from having a WIFI antenna sitting ON their face!

    1. Agreed, and they used the shots from his little face-calculator-watch once or twice, you can tell because it was the worst looking footage in the video. 🙂

  6. Yeah. What you are about to hear was performed in one take. Not what you are about to see. Unless they were shooting close-ups with a bunch of invisible cameras. 😉

  7. I agree that NI should really consider a different approach to demo vids. I’ve always been underwhelmed by Jeremy Ellis and the like but mostly because it’s not what I do with Maschine and it’s probably not what most people do. What would be a lot more interesting is actually showing people how Maschine integrates with their studio. Having access to all your hardware synths, samples, plug-ins etc at your fingertips via unlimited groups of 16 pads is a beautiful thing. I’ve gone back and fourth between software and hardware for years and there are pluses and minuses to both but besides MPCs and workstations I don’t know of many hardware options that will allow you to sequence even 10 midi channels of external gear in non standard time. Also, try making a realistic, evolving, free jazz rhythm on a Machinedrum, not going to happen and that’s not the point of the Machinedrum. My point is people should be less concerned with hardware vs software and more concerned with features vs features and what suites their needs. Often it seems people are comparing apples and oranges.

  8. Samples, samples and more samples. It’s so easy to sound like so-and-so if you have the right sample set. It seems that arm-chair musicians are having their heyday. I prefer Analog synthesis, unique sound design and CREATIVE sampling. Anyone and their grandmother can sound like Skrillex, just buy the next Vengeance sound pack. MAschine as a piece of hardware is simply a control surface, tied to a PC that acts as a sampler\sequencer. Having done sound design for over 20 years, I’ll tell you that the screen burn-in factor on my eyeballs has driven me to hardware based performance and creation. The only time I need to look at a screen is when I’m checking Facebook and looking at internet porn.

    1. While there is certainly truth in what you’re saying about samples you could say the same thing about hardware. It’s actually not too hard to sound like more recent Autechre with a Machinedrum and Monomachine and I think the same could be said regarding various bands and their gear. I’m not going to go out and sample organs, Rhodes, drum sets and I can’t afford 808s, 909s, etc. so I use samples along those lines fairly often but I do tend to stay away from samples that are genre specific. Also as far as creative sampling goes you can do some amazing things with found sounds, plug ins and automations etc. in Maschine. Also, there are financial considerations to consider; not everyone can afford $5k-$10k of hardware. With Maschine and a DAW you could actually make a record within your laptop, without need of a mixer or audio interface. Also, Reaktor and Absynth interface with it wonderfully.

  9. I think its kind of weird that people say “it’s just a controller” regarding things like Maschine or Monome. I mean a toaster is just a toaster until you put bread in it, am I right? A Wacom tablet is a paper weight until connected to a computer. A keyboard is a paperless, ink less typewriter until connected to a computer. Anyway, it’s as if these people don’t understand the need for hardware when interfacing with software, I guess they should abandon their mice and keyboards.

    1. Well, you are kind of proving their point with your argument. If I understand your point, you are saying that people should not be too dismissive of controllers, since they are the important interface between artist and software.

  10. very similar to the Ableton Push
    next Push will have a touchscreen display thunderbolt connected and used as 2nd monitor.
    NI Maschine Studio displays are tiny, I would prefer a dock for the iPad and a software similar to the Logic Pro X Remote.

  11. I enjoyed parts of it, thought the playing was a little sloppy at times though, and there was one pointless wailing arpeggio stutter section.

    Anyhow, looks like an interesting bit of kit.

  12. Computers are necessary for the processing power these things are capable of. Unless you want the processing power built in which would more than likely double the price.

  13. “what you are about see requires a sexless life. However, with the addition of Google Glass™ you can look at images of nude women and pretend you caressing them as you diddle the Maschine™ .”

  14. Haters gonna hate… I appreciate the talent, rehearsal time he must have put in to produce such a song, and the quality of the hardware, software, and sounds from Native Instruments. If you watch any of Jeremy’s tutorials on AskVideo, you can see that this is an instrument just like any other, that takes research, practice, and deep acquired knowledge to master. I like him, the video AND Maschine. He’s playing in Austin this month, I’m going to go see him…

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