Maschine compatible third party plugins

WonkyFresh

Is there any site or list that tells if a certain plugin is compatible with Maschine? I don't want to make a mistake again and pay for a plugin that has a delay or other issues with Maschine program. I'd like to also know if there's any news if Native Instruments is going to do something about the plugin delay compensation in the future? Right now I'm trying to get some better tools for sidechaining, as I've not succeeded to get even a decent sounding sidechain to happen with Maschine's own tools. Does Kickstart 2 work on Maschine? What "affordable" plugins would you recommend for a good sidechain? My friend uses LFOTool on FL Studio, is it good?

D-One

No, there's no list because supposedly everything is compatible for the most part, except for plugins that rely on MIDI Out from the plugin itself, things like Scaler 2.

The best course of action before buying is to try the demo... Kickstart 2 you mentioned has a trial, try it. It should work fine.

Sometimes brands have issues within certain Hosts, this is normal and not exclusive to Maschine, usually, those issues are addressed by either or both companies in an update but IMO the most important thing to watch out for is that some companies only fix bugs in newer paid upgrades versions, Waves comes to mind. I'd avoid companies with such monetization strategies.

People have asked for PDC a lot, for years, I wouldn't count on it happening soon or on any confirmation on NI's side, they tend to only comment on such things if it's actually about to happen soon. PDC is tricky in something like MAS due to it being so reliant on having responsive HW controllers.

Maschine's built-in compressor had a very strange (long) release last time I tested so I personally use FabFilter's Pro-C 2 for sidechain comp, it's very expensive tho... For cheap / free options you have for example Melda's MCompressor for example, works fine here. If you really need a point-based shaper then go for either Kickstart2 or VolumeShaper, the latter is a bit more expensive but also does a lot more stuff.

Ed M

@D-One Scaler2 just works fine in Maschine, only the midi routing features of the plugin won't work because there are indeed not supported in the Maschine software, as you mentioned.

Kickstart 2 is somewhat the same, the plugin in itself works. Put it on a track, and by selecting one of the build in waveforms you'll have the ducking effect right away. You can also select any sound from a group as audio for the ducking trigger, but also here you can not use the midi option, because that is not possible in Maschine.

Most 3rd party virtual instruments and effects will work on Maschine (for Macs in Native mode only VST3 versions). When a plugin relies 100% on midi routing to or from other tracks, it won't work in Maschine.

I don't know if Kickstart 2 is the best sidechain plugin, I think it is one of the easiest to use, and it is pretty cheap as well.

D-One

@Ed M said: Kickstart 2 is somewhat the same, the plugin in itself works. Put it on a track, and by selecting one of the build in waveforms you'll have the ducking effect right away. You can also select any sound from a group as audio for the ducking trigger, but also here you can not use the midi option, because that is not possible in Maschine.

Actually, that's not true. I just tried the demo and it works fine including MIDI triggering, you just have to select the Virtual MIDI Port (not sure what the name is for windows) and make sure the trigger Pad is also sending MIDI to that Port. Why "Direct Input from DAW" doesn't work I don't know. (It might be because MAS does not send MIDI to insert fx plugs, only to the main instrument / 1# in the chain)

What doesn't work in MAS is VST-Output from plugins, Kickstart 2 only needs Input.

WonkyFresh

Thank you D-One and Ed M for the help! I've been using Kickstart 2 now for a while as I only need some simple sidechaining. Had no problems using it, but now I tried it with Sylenth and it gave a terrible delay that totally ruins the song. 😣