57 thoughts on “Hands On With NI Maschine

  1. I’ve ownwed native instruments maschine for a month now. It is very unstable and crashes all the time. It is not even usable with cubase sx 3 ni stated it was an old program and i need to update. They should have stated that before I purchased the piece of crap. So many features are missing I won’t even get into naming them here. You have to use two sequncer with to make a track no matter what. Laying out the track is a work around nightmare. I’m forced to use it with fl studio its the only program that it works with without crashing every five minutes. but it still crashes I’ve lost countless amount of work due to the crashes. The only good thing about it is it is a good groove box who just needs a $600 groove box for drums only. Good idea poorly excuted don’t buy until serious improvements are made. I’m triing to sell mine and go back to mpc1000 with the jj os can’t beat it. Ni Maschine doesn’t evan come close. A waiste of time and money.

    1. yo i got the same version of cubase as you. if it's cracked that's prolly why it's crashing so much. update to a legit copy of cubase 4 or 5 and you should be good bro

    2. whoever is saying maschine sucks and is unstable must have comp/software issues or just a poor knowledge of how the maschine works. you can use maschine as a stand alone unit and have it control your vst's thru it's midi out. i use maschine only right now and have made some serious bangers. I've won awards for best selling albums, tracks that hit number one and thanks to the NI Maschine. they are continuing to update the maschine and drivers and sooner or later it's going to have the capabilities to do all that you need. There is so much you can do with the Maschine from production to live shows. Yes the Maschine seems a little weak in the sequencing department and has minor rewiring issues but remember it's pretty much the first of it's kind so we gotta work with NI as they make the Maschine more efficient.
      The main reason why I love the Maschine is because it's quick, therefore keeping my creative juices flowing at all times. I create my own drum kits then pop em in when i need em. I hardly ever use the Ni kits cause they just don't do it for me. I need my drums real big and bounced out of SSL's. Here's how you can use Maschine to control VST's:
      http://soundsandgear.com/ni-maschine-sequencing-v
      Hope this helps-Techbeatz 1200
      p.s.- i bought my Maschine for only $450. Already I've made that back selling one track.
      Can't say it's a waste of money.

    3. whoever is saying maschine sucks and is unstable must have comp/software issues or just a poor knowledge of how the maschine works. you can use maschine as a stand alone unit and have it control your vst's thru it's midi out. i use maschine only right now and have made some serious bangers. I've won awards for best selling albums, tracks that hit number one and thanks to the NI Maschine. they are continuing to update the maschine and drivers and sooner or later it's going to have the capabilities to do all that you need. There is so much you can do with the Maschine from production to live shows. Yes the Maschine seems a little weak in the sequencing department and has minor rewiring issues but remember it's pretty much the first of it's kind so we gotta work with NI as they make the Maschine more efficient.
      The main reason why I love the Maschine is because it's quick, therefore keeping my creative juices flowing at all times. I create my own drum kits then pop em in when i need em. I hardly ever use the Ni kits cause they just don't do it for me. I need my drums real big and bounced out of SSL's. Here's how you can use Maschine to control VST's:
      http://soundsandgear.com/ni-maschine-sequencing-v
      Hope this helps-Techbeatz 1200
      p.s.- i bought my Maschine for only $450. Already I've made that back selling one track.
      Can't say it's a waste of money.

  2. Hey I own midi controllers, alpha track, maudio 88 key, e-mu 1820m, and other pices of out board gear and about 10,000 in plugins to boot, there is no prolblem with my system. Every piece of equipment and software works they way it is suppose to with the exception of ni maschine. It is a piece of crap. Since buying it I have read alot of reviews saying ni software sucks I now agree after using it first hand myself. P.S. I’m A certified a technician I know my computer is fine. NI needs to build better drivers and software.

    1. I agree, I sent it back as it was crap for me too, and everything else I have hooked up to my laptop works fine.

      For me, the main issues were –

      1. When scanning across samples (even small ones), the start point took ages to move to where I wanted it to go.

      2. Loading samples seemed to take far too long, and no oway as instantaneous as some promotional videos demonstrated.

      I spoke to several other people who said the 'oh, theyre working on those bugs'….! THOSE BUGS?

      WTF, if it cant execute simple, fundamental things it's supposed to in a correct and efficient manner, why didn't NI wait till they fixed them before distributing an otherwise bullshit product!!!?!?!

      So I ended up buying an MPC 1000, works amazing with Reason as a sound module. : )

  3. Hey I own midi controllers, alpha track, maudio 88 key, e-mu 1820m, and other pieces of out board gear and about 10,000 in plugins to boot, there is no prolblem with my system. Every piece of equipment and software works they way it is suppose to with the exception of ni maschine. It is a piece of crap. Since buying it I have read alot of reviews saying ni software sucks I now agree after using it first hand myself. P.S. I’m A certified a technician I know my computer is fine. NI needs to build better drivers and software.

  4. welcome the never ending age of using the consumer as a beta tester. It grinds my gears that they take our money then expect us to wait a year before it works! Well I suppose theres a lesson there….

    1. Owned Maschine, behaved like a piece of shit. : (

      Replaced it with an MPC 1000 – amazing peice of kit. : )

      Funny how different things work for differnet people eh?

  5. I'm a long time mpc user and lover but can't see the 5000 being worth much… however this maschine looks really enticing. I'll post my review in a few months once it's delivered and I've had time to learn it.

  6. I bought Maschine & hated it. Using the hardware didn't make any sense to me, appart from the drum pads. Everything else was easier to do with the mouse, which defeats the point in paying so much more than a software only solution like Digidesign Transfuser, which I bought. Maschine is a toy for beginners – who will love it because it's got everything you need to make average sounding dance music. If you're serious about your productions then this toy won't cut it. I lost money re-selling & if you're a pro – you will too. You have been warned!

  7. I like it overall and it's fun. But as far as stability goes, I'm definitely frustrated. I've crashed using Pro Tools 8, Reaper and Acid 7 demo version. It's just a matter of time before the plugin locks up the DAW and the drivers hang the application so badly you can't kill it off in the Process manager! As a plugin, it's not often not smooth when tapping in beats. I'm running on a very good Windows machine with plenty of RAM left over and my system is tuned well. It has been pretty frustrating. Every time I finally get a groove going, it locks up and crashes.

    Without a DAW, you can't run Reason side by side with it and track from both (since Reason nor Maschine acts as ReWire hosts). I'm pretty sick of Pro Tools in terms of its MIDI support. Acid so far is the best I've discovered for routing multiple devices, but MASCHINE's plugins are not stable!

  8. Guess I'm glad I went the Live 8 / APC40 route instead. I've been using it for a month now with no issues, including a DJ set out at a club. I'll be using it live next weekend also, and I have no worries about the rig. Now, me on the other hand…

  9. I've switched away from Pro Tools (for reasons other than Maschine) and went to Cubase. I am now running everything through my Roland Fantom ASIO driver. When I run Maschine as a plugin in Cubase, anything in the low end (kick, toms) pops and crackles on that sound, even at very low velocity. That's driving me up the wall! Hope I figure it out.

  10. I bought NI Maschine when it first came out and the first problem I had was it took an hour to install the damn thing. The drivers didn't work and it got stuck during the installation. After I rigged it to work/nstall by stopping the process in task manager during install I was able to use it. That was until I installed the update which got hung up again on the driver/services install and what do you know. It wiped out the entire 1st install and I couldn't re-run the update. UNBELIEVABLE. I had to start all over again and it was a pain and a big waste of time.

    Now if that's not enough NI wants you to use their sequencer with no option to trigger the internal sounds from my DAW of choice. How old school is that? OK so let's proceed with using the NI sequencer anyway…..

    Linear editing was not fine tuned enough. I found myself erasing entire melodies instead of notes. Scrolling throughout the bars to find notes was like looking for a needle in a haystack. Anyone who has used a good DAW will be dis-satisfied with how long it takes to program and also quantize your notes. It's a pain.

    I kept asking myself why am I going backwards and not forwards after spending $600.00! for a midi controller??

    Anyway some of the things I liked about it were.

    Nice feel on the drum pads, sounds are HOT!, knobs for tuning and volume control excellent, sampler was sweet. Lights on the pads are a nice touch as well.

    Well after all of this I decided to sell it on ebay and I was lucky to find someone out there who was willing to pay 100.00 less than I paid for it so I made out o.k.

    My advice to NI who by the way blew me off about my install troubles, is to not use me as a BETA TESTER for your hasty releases. If your going to make something to compete with the MPC series it better work and integrate just like an MPC flawlessly. You had a good idea but that's all it is…. Nothing is worse than trying to be creative and having to be a technician and destroying my focus… NI get your stuff together!!!!! I went out and bought a used MPC4000 for $400.00 more that's what i thought about your new product!

  11. No, he obviously meant pro as in professional – Maschine is more of a toy than a professional piece of studio gear, NI claims it can do many things but cant do them yet, or at least correctly. NI should have waited till it was fixed as it is full of bugs, and the software is so limited.

    I had one, it was shit. I bought an MPC 100 instead, it is fantastic. Simple as that.

  12. @ the last two guys who posted (4 weeks ago), these guys were posting this stuff like 6 months ago, since then they've patched a LOT of things (aka fixed these issues). I've had it since release, it wasn't anywhere near as buggy as they're claiming, but it is kind of strange to use and it did have some strange issues in Ableton (so does Kore 2 on a side note).

    They've implemented a lot more ability to bring things in and out of Maschine like dragging out audio, though there is a slight delay while it's rendered, and at least in Ableton you have to warp it (doesn't auto-warp/loop correctly that I've been able to tell, maybe I'm just doing something wrong). I LOVE it as a MIDI controller, it works great for DJing with a VCI-100 and Traktor, you have plenty of knobs and options to map it so you can control 4 decks, the sounds are great that come in it as well. Maybe I just haven't gotten the hang of it yet (I've been using it solely as a midi controller and am just now getting around to using it again now that it's more patched/stable) but it still has a lot of things that need to be addressed as far as being able to seamlessly work with Ableton (which they ARE working on, one of the advantages of everything being in software).

    Bottom line: Really cool toy, very versatile, in standalone mode it's great, integrated in a DAW it's getting better but still could use some improvement. I wouldn't sell it, and am glad I bought it, I think some of these guys are just too set in their ways with what they're used to to overcome the learning curve (some of its' best features you kind of have to dig for when you first start using it, I suppose if you're a manual reader that might not make them quite as hard to find though). As with every tool, it has it's strengths and its weaknesses. Always be wary of fan boys (like the MPC fan boys up there), maschine and an MPC aren't exactly the same thing, so you can't really compare them to the degree they are.

  13. @ the last two guys who posted (4 weeks ago), these guys were posting this stuff like 6 months ago, since then they've patched a LOT of things (aka fixed these issues). I've had it since release, it wasn't anywhere near as buggy as they're claiming, but it is kind of strange to use and it did have some strange issues in Ableton (so does Kore 2 on a side note).

    They've implemented a lot more ability to bring things in and out of Maschine like dragging out audio, though there is a slight delay while it's rendered, and at least in Ableton you have to warp it (doesn't auto-warp/loop correctly that I've been able to tell, maybe I'm just doing something wrong). I LOVE it as a MIDI controller, it works great for DJing with a VCI-100 and Traktor, you have plenty of knobs and options to map it so you can control 4 decks, the sounds are great that come in it as well. Maybe I just haven't gotten the hang of it yet (I've been using it solely as a midi controller and am just now getting around to using it again now that it's more patched/stable) but it still has a lot of things that need to be addressed as far as being able to seamlessly work with Ableton (which they ARE working on, one of the advantages of everything being in software).

    Bottom line: Really cool toy, very versatile, in standalone mode it's great, integrated in a DAW it's getting better but still could use some improvement. I wouldn't sell it, and am glad I bought it, I think some of these guys are just too set in their ways with what they're used to to overcome the learning curve (some of its' best features you kind of have to dig for when you first start using it, I suppose if you're a manual reader that might not make them quite as hard to find though). As with every tool, it has it's strengths and its weaknesses. Always be wary of fan boys (like the MPC fan boys up there), maschine and an MPC aren't exactly the same thing, so you can't really compare them to the degree they are.

  14. @ the last two guys who posted (4 weeks ago), these guys were posting this stuff like 6 months ago, since then they've patched a LOT of things (aka fixed these issues). I've had it since release, it wasn't anywhere near as buggy as they're claiming, but it is kind of strange to use and it did have some strange issues in Ableton (so does Kore 2 on a side note).

    They've implemented a lot more ability to bring things in and out of Maschine like dragging out audio, though there is a slight delay while it's rendered, and at least in Ableton you have to warp it (doesn't auto-warp/loop correctly that I've been able to tell, maybe I'm just doing something wrong). I LOVE it as a MIDI controller, it works great for DJing with a VCI-100 and Traktor, you have plenty of knobs and options to map it so you can control 4 decks, the sounds are great that come in it as well. Maybe I just haven't gotten the hang of it yet (I've been using it solely as a midi controller and am just now getting around to using it again now that it's more patched/stable) but it still has a lot of things that need to be addressed as far as being able to seamlessly work with Ableton (which they ARE working on, one of the advantages of everything being in software).

    Bottom line: Really cool toy, very versatile, in standalone mode it's great, integrated in a DAW it's getting better but still could use some improvement. I wouldn't sell it, and am glad I bought it, I think some of these guys are just too set in their ways with what they're used to to overcome the learning curve (some of its' best features you kind of have to dig for when you first start using it, I suppose if you're a manual reader that might not make them quite as hard to find though). As with every tool, it has it's strengths and its weaknesses. Always be wary of fan boys (like the MPC fan boys up there), maschine and an MPC aren't exactly the same thing, so you can't really compare them to the degree they are.

  15. Let me re-phrase that (because I know someone's going to come in and say "yea, it's just that: a toy") it's a professional piece of equipment and is very stable at this point. Compared to some of the other stuff I've seen fan boys use and call "the ultimate end all tool" and how buggy as crap they were, this is definitely on par or ahead of most professional equipment in its category (which is a very new category at that).

  16. Let me re-phrase that (because I know someone's going to come in and say "yea, it's just that: a toy") it's a professional piece of equipment and is very stable at this point. Compared to some of the other stuff I've seen fan boys use and call "the ultimate end all tool" and how buggy as crap they were, this is definitely on par or ahead of most professional equipment in its category (which is a very new category at that).

  17. @ the last two guys who posted (4 weeks ago), these guys were posting this stuff like 6 months ago, since then they've patched a LOT of things (aka fixed these issues). I've had it since release, it wasn't anywhere near as buggy as they're claiming, but it is kind of strange to use and it did have some strange issues in Ableton (so does Kore 2 on a side note).

  18. @ the last two guys who posted (4 weeks ago), these guys were posting this stuff like 6 months ago, since then they've patched a LOT of things (aka fixed these issues). I've had it since release, it wasn't anywhere near as buggy as they're claiming, but it is kind of strange to use and it did have some strange issues in Ableton (so does Kore 2 on a side note).

  19. there is no learning curve the is easy touse just completely unstable still today it is better but still not good enough if u push your stuff with alot of plugins or not maschine is highly likely to crash it is better but not good enough ni still sucks i've owned maschine for a year and it rarely gets used. i know my mpc 2000xl isnt going to lock up or controller stop responding. the controller on this thing loves to just stop working. im constantly reinstalling the drives trying to make this work. I'm sick of ni they don't care that they are selling junk theres no help thier. their additude is f u its not our drivers, but is there driver. they suck and so does maschine 3-19-2010.

  20. there is no learning curve the is easy touse just completely unstable still today it is better but still not good enough if u push your stuff with alot of plugins or not maschine is highly likely to crash it is better but not good enough ni still sucks i've owned maschine for a year and it rarely gets used. i know my mpc 2000xl isnt going to lock up or controller stop responding. the controller on this thing loves to just stop working. im constantly reinstalling the drives trying to make this work. I'm sick of ni they don't care that they are selling junk theres no help thier. their additude is f u its not our drivers, but is there driver. they suck and so does maschine 3-19-2010.

  21. I've been using Maschine hooked up to my Macbook Pro for 6 months now without any problems.It has completely streamlined my workflow. I highly recommend it. It is by far the most intuitive programming software i've ever used.

    P.S To the angry little man who needs to state his "professional technician status" …Cubase and a PC?! Really!?

  22. does that mean i have to get a MAC pro .. ny pc us intel quad core , 4 GB ram i think its enough to run the mashcine with out crashing right ?

  23. should be fine… i run mine on an dual core laptop.

    O and don't listen to the first few posts. They posted when maschine was still new…. most problems and feature requests were dealt with. Have fun.

  24. I know my child posted first on these reviews. Please forgive me son, for he not knowith way he talketh. He's a bafoon. We though he had been taking his medicine, but he has been sliding it to our dog under the table. Mashcine is a beast. That boy goes down in our basement and plays with it (and some other things) for hours. I never heard him complain. Then I realized it was the cheap, cheap computer he's been using. Its a piece of crap. I wont buy him another one, but when he saves up his allowance, I am sure he will. Then and only then can he see what Maschine can do. Just for the record, the boy never owed an AKAI MPC. He just wanted one so bad, he began to believe that his BOSS drum machine was one.

  25. I know my child posted first on these reviews. Please forgive me son, for he not knowith way he talketh. He's a bafoon. We though he had been taking his medicine, but he has been sliding it to our dog under the table. Mashcine is a beast. That boy goes down in our basement and plays with it (and some other things) for hours. I never heard him complain. Then I realized it was the cheap, cheap computer he's been using. Its a piece of crap. I wont buy him another one, but when he saves up his allowance, I am sure he will. Then and only then can he see what Maschine can do. Just for the record, the boy never owed an AKAI MPC. He just wanted one so bad, he began to believe that his BOSS drum machine was one.

  26. I know my child posted first on these reviews. Please forgive me son, for he not knowith way he talketh. He's a bafoon. We though he had been taking his medicine, but he has been sliding it to our dog under the table. Mashcine is a beast. That boy goes down in our basement and plays with it (and some other things) for hours. I never heard him complain. Then I realized it was the cheap, cheap computer he's been using. Its a piece of crap. I wont buy him another one, but when he saves up his allowance, I am sure he will. Then and only then can he see what Maschine can do. Just for the record, the boy never owed an AKAI MPC. He just wanted one so bad, he began to believe that his BOSS drum machine was one.

  27. I know my child posted first on these reviews. Please forgive me son, for he not knowith way he talketh. He's a bafoon. We though he had been taking his medicine, but he has been sliding it to our dog under the table. Mashcine is a beast. That boy goes down in our basement and plays with it (and some other things) for hours. I never heard him complain. Then I realized it was the cheap, cheap computer he's been using. Its a piece of crap. I wont buy him another one, but when he saves up his allowance, I am sure he will. Then and only then can he see what Maschine can do. Just for the record, the boy never owed an AKAI MPC. He just wanted one so bad, he began to believe that his BOSS drum machine was one.

  28. I know my child posted first on these reviews. Please forgive me son, for he not knowith way he talketh. He's a bafoon. We though he had been taking his medicine, but he has been sliding it to our dog under the table. Mashcine is a beast. That boy goes down in our basement and plays with it (and some other things) for hours. I never heard him complain. Then I realized it was the cheap, cheap computer he's been using. Its a piece of crap. I wont buy him another one, but when he saves up his allowance, I am sure he will. Then and only then can he see what Maschine can do. Just for the record, the boy never owed an AKAI MPC. He just wanted one so bad, he began to believe that his BOSS drum machine was one.

  29. I know my child posted first on these reviews. Please forgive me son, for he not knowith way he talketh. He's a bafoon. We though he had been taking his medicine, but he has been sliding it to our dog under the table. Mashcine is a beast. That boy goes down in our basement and plays with it (and some other things) for hours. I never heard him complain. Then I realized it was the cheap, cheap computer he's been using. Its a piece of crap. I wont buy him another one, but when he saves up his allowance, I am sure he will. Then and only then can he see what Maschine can do. Just for the record, the boy never owed an AKAI MPC. He just wanted one so bad, he began to believe that his BOSS drum machine was one.

  30. You guys need to run on OS X. Use Apple only. PC's really are a piece of junk. I use Logic for my DAW, Axiom Pro 61 along with MAschine. Ive been killing it ever since. I gave away my MPC to a friend thats been begging me for it. Now that he's seen how quick I work with Maschine, he realize it cuts your workflow into about a 1/4 of the time the Akai would take. Plus its too big to take on the road with you. With N.I, I can go to a park, open my macbook…BOOM…beats gallore; 5 gigs of stuff, cmon, you aint getting nowhere close to that on any MPC . Let it go ppl. We have a new successor.

  31. You guys need to run on OS X. Use Apple only. PC's really are a piece of junk. I use Logic for my DAW, Axiom Pro 61 along with MAschine. Ive been killing it ever since. I gave away my MPC to a friend thats been begging me for it. Now that he's seen how quick I work with Maschine, he realize it cuts your workflow into about a 1/4 of the time the Akai would take. Plus its too big to take on the road with you. With N.I, I can go to a park, open my macbook…BOOM…beats gallore; 5 gigs of stuff, cmon, you aint getting nowhere close to that on any MPC . Let it go ppl. We have a new successor.

  32. You guys need to run on OS X. Use Apple only. PC's really are a piece of junk. I use Logic for my DAW, Axiom Pro 61 along with MAschine. Ive been killing it ever since. I gave away my MPC to a friend thats been begging me for it. Now that he's seen how quick I work with Maschine, he realize it cuts your workflow into about a 1/4 of the time the Akai would take. Plus its too big to take on the road with you. With N.I, I can go to a park, open my macbook…BOOM…beats gallore; 5 gigs of stuff, cmon, you aint getting nowhere close to that on any MPC . Let it go ppl. We have a new successor.

  33. You guys need to run on OS X. Use Apple only. PC's really are a piece of junk. I use Logic for my DAW, Axiom Pro 61 along with MAschine. Ive been killing it ever since. I gave away my MPC to a friend thats been begging me for it. Now that he's seen how quick I work with Maschine, he realize it cuts your workflow into about a 1/4 of the time the Akai would take. Plus its too big to take on the road with you. With N.I, I can go to a park, open my macbook…BOOM…beats gallore; 5 gigs of stuff, cmon, you aint getting nowhere close to that on any MPC . Let it go ppl. We have a new successor.

  34. You guys need to run on OS X. Use Apple only. PC's really are a piece of junk. I use Logic for my DAW, Axiom Pro 61 along with MAschine. Ive been killing it ever since. I gave away my MPC to a friend thats been begging me for it. Now that he's seen how quick I work with Maschine, he realize it cuts your workflow into about a 1/4 of the time the Akai would take. Plus its too big to take on the road with you. With N.I, I can go to a park, open my macbook…BOOM…beats gallore; 5 gigs of stuff, cmon, you aint getting nowhere close to that on any MPC . Let it go ppl. We have a new successor.

  35. You guys need to run on OS X. Use Apple only. PC's really are a piece of junk. I use Logic for my DAW, Axiom Pro 61 along with MAschine. Ive been killing it ever since. I gave away my MPC to a friend thats been begging me for it. Now that he's seen how quick I work with Maschine, he realize it cuts your workflow into about a 1/4 of the time the Akai would take. Plus its too big to take on the road with you. With N.I, I can go to a park, open my macbook…BOOM…beats gallore; 5 gigs of stuff, cmon, you aint getting nowhere close to that on any MPC . Let it go ppl. We have a new successor.

  36. i’m scared of pc computers.almost had nervous breakdowns a few years back,. now my smart phone is going bad. all of my five pc’s are broken. only my two mac computers work. with that being said i’m interested in the maschine running with my mac book pro intel with protools and my axiom pro 49. i was just doin’ due dilligence by checking fourms before buying. weve all have been tested on by all these companies at some point. you just have to hold out and use what works till something else has been proven by others before taking the plung. it’s suppose to be about making music now we have all gotten side trackec in computer hell. it stops once you go with mac and be slow about upgrading to the brand new what ever. stay a couple years behind and spend all the downtime saved practicing your instruments or working overtime to get stable proven gear. mpc’s, mac, logic,reason,protools,ableton,etc.

  37. i use cakewalk sonar 8.5…..and a akai rx20…i also drop loops in the cakewalk cyclone..and im kicking everybodys beats in the ass……….its all in the programing….and im a guitar player ..lol

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