Maschine+ standalone question

I've owned a Maschine+ for a couple of years now and have only ever used it in standalone mode. I keep it in an area of my house where I play my guitars, and the only computer connected to it is a Chromebook, so I've never used the device in controller mode. I've gotten pretty good with Maschine+ in standalone mode, and with it have produced a number of multi-track songs that include me playing guitar and singing alongside MIDI patterns and other sampled content. When I'm playing guitar, I'll also use those already produced songs as a practice partner to play and sing along with.

I just acquired a new and relatively powerful windows computer that will be situated in a different part of the house. I'm wondering if it might be useful to use that, running the Machine desktop application, in tandem with my Maschine+ running in standalone mode. To that end I have a few questions for the community here.

1) Are there viable use cases for this in my context, or is it a situation where everything i could do in the desktop app could be done just as well or better in the Maschine+ standalone experience?

2) For all of the projects I've created with the Maschine+, I save them so all the samples are included in the project folder. Is this all I would need to do to enable me to transport projects back and forth from the desktop to standalone?

3) Is the Maschine desktop application another purchase I'd have to make, or could I download that for free given I already own the Maschine+ (with a number of purchased extensions, I might add)?

4) I understand there are a lot of other special instruments and other capabilities I can get for the desktop that don't work on standalone (movie score instruments, guitar rig, etc). If I start branching into those on the desktop, would that make it so my projects would no longer be playable on the Maschine+ in standalone mode.

Thanks!

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Vic Angelo

When you register your Maschine+ it Includes MASCHINE 2 software and 8 GB sound library plus KOMPLETE 14 SELECT with 50 GB of instruments and effects on your Native Instruments account. They can be downloaded/installed with the Native Access app and logging into your account.

You can't use M+ in Both standalone and software 'controller mode' at the same time. It's one or the other, but you can run the software on the computer and run M+ in standalone BUT SEPARATELY as two different devices, be clever and control/sync them with MIDI and "Link" if need the two running at the same time.

That being said there are things that run on the computer only, some synths and Kontakt libraries, effects, things like that. When trying to open Software projects on the M+ in standalone, The project will open and work but those "software only" components will be disabled. The opposite will work more smooth, anything made on the M+ will fully function on the software.

"Saving project with Samples" is the best approach. It allows the highest level of compatibility between the Desktop and Standalone version. But as you get more Maschine savvy and advanced you can find out when that is necessary and not. "Save with samples" is not always needed for compatibility but I recommend it until you are really really familiar with Maschines library locations. Stick to it for now.

JRGariano

Thank you Vic. That's very helpful. So if I create a project on Maschine for the desktop and create a pattern or clip that uses a Kontakt instrument or other capability that isn't available Maschine+, if I bring that project over to Maschine+ in standalone mode, will that pattern or clip render/play on the Maschine+ or will it be silent or give me an error message?

tetsuneko

Interoperability with Maschine+ in standalone mode vs Maschinee desktop app is a fickle thing. You must have identical expansions, samples and software versions of the app and all its plugins for both systems. If you are unable to have 100% version parity with both systems, some aspects of your content might not easily carry over. As an example, if your Maschine desktop app is more recent version than your Maschine+ standalone OS (as currently is the case), you will be able to open projects created on M+ standalone on your desktop, but not vice versa.

Knowing which versions of all software you need to have on both platforms takes some digging around this forum. This info is paramount for anyone using both versions of Maschine interchangeably, it really should be made into a sticky on this board.

D-One

1) Are there viable use cases for this in my context, or is it a situation where everything i could do in the desktop app could be done just as well or better in the Maschine+ standalone experience?

In every possible situation, standalone M+ has no technical advantages or extra features, quite the opposite, it's way more limited and gives you much less visual info.

From the M+ to the computer yes, the other way around no. The computer version is more ahead, this is no parity (same version) at the moment so some care must be taken on how you use it on the computer if yo want to transfer the project back to the M+, specifically:

No VST3 in standalone, stick to VST2.
Reaktor is in a different version.
The desktop version has a ton more of instruments, fx.

There might be one or two more things...

3) Is the Maschine desktop application another purchase I'd have to make, or could I download that for free given I already own the Maschine+ (with a number of purchased extensions, I might add)?

Absolutely not, it's 100% free.

Indeed. You can use the auto-sampler to convert unsupported intruments, you can export them to audio and use the Audio Module, you can slice it up as if were a sample, etc... Or you can just not use instruments that arent compatible with both standalone and controller mode.

Up to you how to deal with that.

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