This last feature is a very wise choice, and it spares you having to buy a special support like for the Maschine MK2. The height is doubled if you use the retractable feet to tilt it. The controller is the biggest in the Maschine series: 17" long, 13.8" wide and 2.3" high. But, hey, it’s a purely aesthetic consideration. I was only a bit skeptical about the large reflective surface on the upper half and my fears were confirmed in use: while the material gives it a classy look, it is a real pain when it comes to finger marks. In short, it gives a very good overall impression. The push buttons respond pretty well, with a reassuring click: you will have no doubt as to whether you activated this or that function! The big jogwheel sits tightly in place, leaving little space for dirt to get inside. The pads seem fine as well, but the only way to test them is by playing, so we will come back to them later. The buttons turn very smoothly and pleasantly. The big rubber-like pads on the bottom keep it perfectly in place. Though it’s made out of plastic, it’s a thick, heavy plastic with the goal of giving it a nice finish (the assembly has no protruding corners nor loose parts). The first contact with it is fairly reassuring.
It does not come with a printed user guide, but rather two PDFs (very informative and very well thought-out!): a Getting Started guide that’s 205 pages long, and a full user guide with no less than 737 pages.Īs usual, I’ll start my analysis with the external looks of the unit. All additional contents (sound libraries, software bundle) must be downloaded, at least with the version I have. The box includes the controller itself, a USB cable (nice!), a power cable with adapters for international power outlets (very nice!), and a DVD to install the Maschine drivers.
With these groups you create musical sequences called Patterns, which are themselves organized in Scenes.Īnd that’s about it for this brief introduction, it’s time to open the box! First impressions This 2.0 version of Maschine allows an unlimited number of groups to be created. Altogether, Sounds and Effects constitute a group. All these Sounds can further benefit from a second layer of effects, which is common to all of them, and are also unlimited. Each Sound can only contain one sound generator, but an unlimited number of effects in this new software version. A Group can gather up to 16 Sounds, which can be played simultaneously or not. A Sound consists in a sound generator (a sample loaded into the Sampler module, a virtual instrument, an external hardware instrument, etc.) and it is the foundation upon which a group is built. A Group refers to a group of sounds working as an autonomous entity. To make the reading of this article easier for those who aren’t familiar with Maschine, here’s a brief reminder of how the system works, as well as of the terminology used.
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