Great video, Woody. Interesting they put the 4 note limitation on some of the plugins. Same on MPC One, too (with the exception of the plugins you can purchase as addons, those come with higher polyphony). Having 8 encoders instead of 4 and two screens instead of one seems nice.
The new gen MPCs are great. I was close to Maschine + but I’ve heard they were extremely buggy. Not sure if that was fixed yet but I’m happy with my Live 2.
Presumably it can also run the Maschine application on a computer via usb like the non-plus version (e.g in the same way as Maschine 3) which can run all vst/AU plugins as well as all Kontakt libraries. Perhaps it can only run in standalone mode. The absence of a ‘native’ acoustic piano or other Kontakt popular pianos would be a very decisive point for many. The Maschine 3 once connected via usb to a laptop does however require no further interaction with the computer (which obviously you’d need to have) which can be largely ignored
@@WoodyPianoShack I'm sure the Maschine software will allow to 'freeze' or render to audio file to save up CPU. I would be tempted to vote this over the AKAI MPC alternative.
Agreed. It’s weird N.I. didn’t include a good piano or good EP like Scarbee. However, the Auto Sampler works brilliantly. I sampled pianos, EP’s and clavinets from my Spectrasonics Keyscape plugin and it sounds and performs amazingly. All of that coupled with the Maschine+ workflow makes a great music making experience.
indeed, NI told me themselves to try the auto-sampler, but I'm sceptical if it can handle pianos, with sustain pedal, key off noises, realistic sustain etc... better with a kontakt lib which handles all that.
@@WoodyPianoShack You can get pretty close with the auto sampler. Imperative that you set the “Stride” parameter correctly. Yes, it takes a little longer, but the results are really worth it. With that said, it would be better if it were an included NI Instrument for the Maschine+ with all the parameters to tweak. Here’s wishing there’s more to come. Updates aren’t often, hopefully NI continues supporting it.
Actually there are quite good pianos and a Mark one in the Maschine, somewhere hidden in the Sounds category. Of course they are not Scarbee quality but still quite useful. Edit: And there are some sounds called "Scarbee" incl. Wurly and Rhodes.
it is non-trivial, you have to find a library that is built for the same version of kontakt as on the maschine. there are some on pianobook then just drag it over to the sd card. you cannot tweak any of the plugin gui controls, sadly. although there are hacks to do it, very complicated. jef gibbons covers some of the process on his channel.
As a graphic designer for print/audio/video/websites/ I use computers all day, went digital back in the late 1980s when powerful computers cost 250,000 to a million dollars. But for some reason for playing and recording music I only use hardware, instruments and even the 24 track recorder is hardware, no computer at all. Yes, you can have almost unlimited instruments on a computer, but to actually learn a synth/groove box/sampler/digital piano, takes me about a year to know the synth so well I can hear a sound and know how to create it before touching the synth. Like that piano you liked so much, I created one just like it on my Yamaha DGX-670 in about 10 minutes, plus I have the familiar key action and even more important how the key action relates to the firmware of the piano for velocity and control of each key. The DGX feels like an instrument in every way, much like most my synths do. Only rarely do I get hardware gear that has an impossible communication with the instrument, most the time the manufacturer is serious enough to have great musicians test their gear before release. And, obviously when an acoustic piano or guitar is available, I prefer this over digital, but in my tiny apartment of 70 square meters, my studio exists in a tiny space, and my neighbors would never allow me to practice on an acoustic piano. As bad as computers are for instruments, hybrids of hardware to computers seem to be so much worse. It has taken me 55 years of performing on all instruments to find this out, we have to be extremely critical of our purchases with hardware.
I have a FP60x at home and a DGX 660 at my work. The 660 was purchased used for peanuts, and I think it’s great. Overall, I prefer the Roland, but I would be happy with DGX 660 if I didn’t know any better. There is a lot to say about the immediacy of a digital piano, and how it doesn’t allow for option paralysis. You turn it on and just play.
I am a pro solo pianist, have been waiting for a great digital piano for headphone practice in my apartment for over 35 years now, the DGX-670 has finally appeased my desire. Make no mistake the 670 version has NOTHING in common with all the previous DGX series. Totally different instrument and the finest Dpiano I have ever played. A good Dpiano has to have extensive editing to create your own sound, good samples, and great interaction between the mechanics of the keybed and the firmware; the 670 delivers and for such a low cost, I am flabbergasted. @@BensMusicDojo
well said, i agree with that. well worth investing the time to learn a piece of gear inside out, and then you may find you don't need anything else. and yes, if i could only have one keyboard, it would be a DP, preferably one without any controls at all.
Cool to see that you can run those plugins without a computer. I've always wanted that. A little bit embracing that NI couldn't send you one of their latest MIDI keyboards.
vst plugins in a sound module, it´s what we always wanted,right? stay tuned on the latter... not embarrasing anyway, i expect nothing of any company, anything else just a bonus.
If possible Woody you think you could display more kontakt samples like guitars and brass i know there's very little but if you could it would be so appreciated.
I didn't realise it didn't have ANY pianos at all, that would seriously put me off. I agree, a cut down version of The Gentleman (my fave software piano too!) would be great for something like this.
@Woody Piano Shack I tried to connect M+ to MODX+ by USB to send MIDI from M+->Modx. No success. The same failure with Audio sending to Modx through USB. Could you please try yours devices?
I picked up a Maschine Mikro, about a month ago, but I’m a guitarist, and just got in to digital pianos a year ago. I bought the mikro to get access to the Komplete Select package of VSTs to try. After checking out Select, I have been underwhelmed with komplete select. There are a lot of presets that come with it, but not many that are all that useable in my context. That creates a situation of a lot of searching and not a lot of playing. That said, the mikro is cool, but I wish the maschine software it came with had more drums that would work in the context of rock/indie/jazz. Unfortunately, the mikro also doesn’t work very intuitively as a midi controller outside of maschine either. I would love to be able to use it with a video game too for my son. Melodics is close, but I don’t think it can captivate a 4 year old. I want to connect it to a tv, and play a whack a mole/space invaders type of game with it.
the mikro is quite stripped down, just a good start I guess into the whole maschine ecosystem. you need to look into the NI abbey road drums libraries, or ezdrummer.
thanks! i made an entire video comparing all the grooveboxes and how they fulfill my requirements, or not! the MPC ONE was a strong candidate, and I hope to get one too, so i can compare for myself and pick a fav!
Woody, I just finished watching that video again all the way through. And I agree it would’ve been hard to not choose the Maschine your investment in native instruments already. That had not been the case for me.
NI please 🙏 please release some more instruments, both Kontakt and Reaktor. (And make it easier to port Reaktor patches - i.e. stability with Reaktor versions and a being able to map UI parameters better). Don’t sleep on the auto-sampler and the multi-velocity drum sampler.
Very interesting, Woody. So this form factor is a capable replacement of the old school "sound modules" (with some additions, like you mentioned, of standard real world instruments)?
yeah, that is my train of thought here, is this a sound module with some incredible sound engines, and the most kick-ass sequencer and sampler built-in, plus a sample library of sounds that are extremely fresh. time will tell.
Akai is stingy, and Native is diving into new territory for themselves, but they will likely play a cautious game, so they won't try too hard to outdo Akai. That said, would it kill them to at least have the RAM socketed so we can upgrade it ourselves?
After all the excitement you drummed up before getting this, it,s disappointing to see you run into all these restrictions, as you pointed out yourself in the end
A talking hands video! Okay that thing is cool. I know there are many great Kontakt patches, including lots of free one's. The virtual interfaces of software synths are very unappealing to me, so this is cool. I'm trying to make videos again, but I always feel a bit like a massive idiot whenever I try to make one.. I guess I'm bringing it up because you recently were on a break from making videos. Was it hard getting back into it?
Great video, Woody. Interesting they put the 4 note limitation on some of the plugins. Same on MPC One, too (with the exception of the plugins you can purchase as addons, those come with higher polyphony).
Having 8 encoders instead of 4 and two screens instead of one seems nice.
Hello Woody, i had the choice between the Akai MPC Plus+ and the NI Maschine +, and narrowly decided on the MPC. But both are great instruments.❤
The new gen MPCs are great. I was close to Maschine + but I’ve heard they were extremely buggy. Not sure if that was fixed yet but I’m happy with my Live 2.
No socks. Woody goes hard! Cheers and keep having fun.
yeah, apologies for the naked feet!
As always, an inspirational video- I just have the mikro version, but I’m going to dive in a little deeper now
Presumably it can also run the Maschine application on a computer via usb like the non-plus version (e.g in the same way as Maschine 3) which can run all vst/AU plugins as well as all Kontakt libraries. Perhaps it can only run in standalone mode. The absence of a ‘native’ acoustic piano or other Kontakt popular pianos would be a very decisive point for many. The Maschine 3 once connected via usb to a laptop does however require no further interaction with the computer (which obviously you’d need to have) which can be largely ignored
Have over 60,000 Massive patches from various libraries.
Massive included in this bundle alone is worth it as a DAW-less box one can bring to a gig.
my thoughts too!
@@WoodyPianoShack
I'm sure the Maschine software will allow to 'freeze' or render to audio file to save up CPU.
I would be tempted to vote this over the AKAI MPC alternative.
Agreed. It’s weird N.I. didn’t include a good piano or good EP like Scarbee. However, the Auto Sampler works brilliantly. I sampled pianos, EP’s and clavinets from my Spectrasonics Keyscape plugin and it sounds and performs amazingly. All of that coupled with the Maschine+ workflow makes a great music making experience.
indeed, NI told me themselves to try the auto-sampler, but I'm sceptical if it can handle pianos, with sustain pedal, key off noises, realistic sustain etc... better with a kontakt lib which handles all that.
@@WoodyPianoShack You can get pretty close with the auto sampler. Imperative that you set the “Stride” parameter correctly. Yes, it takes a little longer, but the results are really worth it. With that said, it would be better if it were an included NI Instrument for the Maschine+ with all the parameters to tweak. Here’s wishing there’s more to come. Updates aren’t often, hopefully NI continues supporting it.
Actually there are quite good pianos and a Mark one in the Maschine, somewhere hidden in the Sounds category. Of course they are not Scarbee quality but still quite useful.
Edit: And there are some sounds called "Scarbee" incl. Wurly and Rhodes.
thanks for the tip, i will def check those out!
@Woody, please explain how you did imported the piano library... would be great!
it is non-trivial, you have to find a library that is built for the same version of kontakt as on the maschine. there are some on pianobook then just drag it over to the sd card. you cannot tweak any of the plugin gui controls, sadly. although there are hacks to do it, very complicated. jef gibbons covers some of the process on his channel.
As a graphic designer for print/audio/video/websites/ I use computers all day, went digital back in the late 1980s when powerful computers cost 250,000 to a million dollars. But for some reason for playing and recording music I only use hardware, instruments and even the 24 track recorder is hardware, no computer at all. Yes, you can have almost unlimited instruments on a computer, but to actually learn a synth/groove box/sampler/digital piano, takes me about a year to know the synth so well I can hear a sound and know how to create it before touching the synth. Like that piano you liked so much, I created one just like it on my Yamaha DGX-670 in about 10 minutes, plus I have the familiar key action and even more important how the key action relates to the firmware of the piano for velocity and control of each key. The DGX feels like an instrument in every way, much like most my synths do. Only rarely do I get hardware gear that has an impossible communication with the instrument, most the time the manufacturer is serious enough to have great musicians test their gear before release. And, obviously when an acoustic piano or guitar is available, I prefer this over digital, but in my tiny apartment of 70 square meters, my studio exists in a tiny space, and my neighbors would never allow me to practice on an acoustic piano. As bad as computers are for instruments, hybrids of hardware to computers seem to be so much worse. It has taken me 55 years of performing on all instruments to find this out, we have to be extremely critical of our purchases with hardware.
I have a FP60x at home and a DGX 660 at my work. The 660 was purchased used for peanuts, and I think it’s great. Overall, I prefer the Roland, but I would be happy with DGX 660 if I didn’t know any better. There is a lot to say about the immediacy of a digital piano, and how it doesn’t allow for option paralysis. You turn it on and just play.
I am a pro solo pianist, have been waiting for a great digital piano for headphone practice in my apartment for over 35 years now, the DGX-670 has finally appeased my desire. Make no mistake the 670 version has NOTHING in common with all the previous DGX series. Totally different instrument and the finest Dpiano I have ever played. A good Dpiano has to have extensive editing to create your own sound, good samples, and great interaction between the mechanics of the keybed and the firmware; the 670 delivers and for such a low cost, I am flabbergasted. @@BensMusicDojo
well said, i agree with that. well worth investing the time to learn a piece of gear inside out, and then you may find you don't need anything else. and yes, if i could only have one keyboard, it would be a DP, preferably one without any controls at all.
Cool to see that you can run those plugins without a computer. I've always wanted that. A little bit embracing that NI couldn't send you one of their latest MIDI keyboards.
vst plugins in a sound module, it´s what we always wanted,right? stay tuned on the latter... not embarrasing anyway, i expect nothing of any company, anything else just a bonus.
@@WoodyPianoShack Just imagine if NI would release a S88 MK3 keyboard with Kontakt built in. That would be enough to chock Yamaha, Roland and Clavia.
If possible Woody you think you could display more kontakt samples like guitars and brass i know there's very little but if you could it would be so appreciated.
I didn't realise it didn't have ANY pianos at all, that would seriously put me off. I agree, a cut down version of The Gentleman (my fave software piano too!) would be great for something like this.
there might be a piano or two in the kontakt factory selection, but rather weak, i would imagine, compared to a full piano library.
@Woody Piano Shack I tried to connect M+ to MODX+ by USB to send MIDI from M+->Modx. No success. The same failure with Audio sending to Modx through USB. Could you please try yours devices?
I picked up a Maschine Mikro, about a month ago, but I’m a guitarist, and just got in to digital pianos a year ago. I bought the mikro to get access to the Komplete Select package of VSTs to try. After checking out Select, I have been underwhelmed with komplete select. There are a lot of presets that come with it, but not many that are all that useable in my context. That creates a situation of a lot of searching and not a lot of playing.
That said, the mikro is cool, but I wish the maschine software it came with had more drums that would work in the context of rock/indie/jazz. Unfortunately, the mikro also doesn’t work very intuitively as a midi controller outside of maschine either. I would love to be able to use it with a video game too for my son. Melodics is close, but I don’t think it can captivate a 4 year old. I want to connect it to a tv, and play a whack a mole/space invaders type of game with it.
the mikro is quite stripped down, just a good start I guess into the whole maschine ecosystem. you need to look into the NI abbey road drums libraries, or ezdrummer.
Congrats on your new Maschine, Woody! Curious if you also considered the MPC. And if so, what you found more attractive about the Maschine. Thanks.
thanks! i made an entire video comparing all the grooveboxes and how they fulfill my requirements, or not! the MPC ONE was a strong candidate, and I hope to get one too, so i can compare for myself and pick a fav!
Woody, I just finished watching that video again all the way through. And I agree it would’ve been hard to not choose the Maschine your investment in native instruments already. That had not been the case for me.
NI please 🙏 please release some more instruments, both Kontakt and Reaktor. (And make it easier to port Reaktor patches - i.e. stability with Reaktor versions and a being able to map UI parameters better). Don’t sleep on the auto-sampler and the multi-velocity drum sampler.
thanks for the tips, also looking forward to trying reaktor on this!
I think i will stick with the regular Maschine, given the limitations. Thanks for sharing.
maschine controller + laptop is still unbeatable for power!
Very interesting, Woody. So this form factor is a capable replacement of the old school "sound modules" (with some additions, like you mentioned, of standard real world instruments)?
yeah, that is my train of thought here, is this a sound module with some incredible sound engines, and the most kick-ass sequencer and sampler built-in, plus a sample library of sounds that are extremely fresh. time will tell.
@@WoodyPianoShack Sounds good to me! 👍🏻
Why don't NI and Akai just provide 8 or 16 GB of RAM? So much more room for instruments and audio.
Akai is stingy, and Native is diving into new territory for themselves, but they will likely play a cautious game, so they won't try too hard to outdo Akai.
That said, would it kill them to at least have the RAM socketed so we can upgrade it ourselves?
After all the excitement you drummed up before getting this, it,s disappointing to see you run into all these restrictions, as you pointed out yourself in the end
not sure what you mean, the possibilities are endless! i'm not disappointed by any restrictions, so sorry if I seemed that way :)
A talking hands video! Okay that thing is cool. I know there are many great Kontakt patches, including lots of free one's. The virtual interfaces of software synths are very unappealing to me, so this is cool.
I'm trying to make videos again, but I always feel a bit like a massive idiot whenever I try to make one.. I guess I'm bringing it up because you recently were on a break from making videos. Was it hard getting back into it?
not hard at all, just a lot of work, go for it and best wishes!
@WoodyPianoShack A little encouragement goes a long way. Thanks Woody! 🙂
@@WoodyPianoShackhi Woody! can you test new synth called Kepler? it's vst and it emulates juno6