There are many ways to load a sound in Maschine+, depending on what you need - full kits, individual one-shots, instrument plugins and instrument samples can all be loaded using the Browser +Plugin button. It is possible to side-load any Reaktor ensemble or any custom Kontakt instrument, but they’re not all officially supported by NI. Maschine+ comes with five expansions of your choosing.
#Maschine expansion review download#
Once that’s done you can download any Maschine Expansions that are linked to your account and any other supported plugs like FM8, Reaktor, Kontakt, Monark, Massive and Prism. Once you turn on Maschine+ for the first time, you’ll need to connect to a WiFi network and authorise the unit using a QR code, which avoids entering lengthy email addresses. There’s also a power port - this unit cannot be battery powered. We would have prefered the headphone port at the front as your cable trails off to the side and sometimes across the unit. That being said, NI did add some presets for controlling hardware like the Tanzbaer drum machine and the Korg Volca Beats, with pre-mapped CCs for popular controls, but it’s more for one unit at a time, rather than a hub for multiple bits of kit. There’s also no CV/Gate outputs, so it’s very much a standalone sampler rather than a standalone sequencer for external kit. There’s also no phono ins for turntable sampling like on the Akai MPC Live, which would have been a nice nod to the MPC heritage. The fact there’s only one stereo output and input is a bit disappointing, but you can hook up any supported soundcard to the USB A ports, potentially adding up to 16 ins and outs.
Round back, it’s still not hugely dissimilar to the mk3, with stereo line inputs for recording and sampling, stereo line output, a quarter-inch mic input, MIDI DIN I/O and USB A ports. The unit feels like it could be tossed around in a backpack without any issues.
The pads are excellent, sensitive but tough, and the main control knob feels satisfying to use. It feels solid, slightly heavier than the mk3 at 2.5kg, with every button and knob feeling sturdy. It’s a credit to Native that they spent so much time making the mk3 usable without a computer that when you remove the computer entirely, nothing needs to change. In fact, it’s identical - apart from a re-labelling of Arranger to Ideas / Song mode - which will be good news for current users. Maschine+ has the same form factor as Maschine mk3, all the way down to the layout of each button. But as the functionality, features and libraries grew, can NI really cram over a decade of innovation and updates into a single box, minus the laptop screen, without compromising on usability? Let’s find out.
#Maschine expansion review full#
Maschine mk1 was born - a bespoke piece of hardware tied to a bespoke piece of software, promising to make the best of both the physical and digital worlds.įast forward 12 years and things have come full circle with Maschine+ - Native Instruments’ first completely standalone version of Maschine, no computer required.
But the fact remained when it came to hands-on beat making, be it the immediacy, workflow or sound, many still longed for a modern MPC-style solution. Despite its sound, legacy and aforementioned workflow, it was phased out in favour of bigger screens, more CPU and flexibility offered by the modern DAWs. No piece of hardware encapsulated that elusive ‘workflow’ better than the Akai MPC, a legendary sampler and ‘groovebox’ used by everyone from J Dilla and MF Doom to Mark Ronson and Kanye West. Computers had become powerful enough to supersede hardware-packed studios that came before, meaning that while in-the-box music-making was possible, powerful and largely prefered, the tactile feedback and focused workflow of hardware was missing from the modern studio. When Native Instruments first released Maschine, it was attempting to fill a gap.
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