Using Maschine + in live set

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  • Impermanence
    Impermanence Member Posts: 168 Pro

    This is super useful information. Thank you for sharing.

  • tetsuneko
    tetsuneko Member Posts: 797 Expert

    Did you try both with USB MIDI & DIN MIDI? Have you updated your Maschine+ firmware with a computer?

    Also, did you try syncing manually (just aligning BPM value on both machines)?

  • Mac-Kee
    Mac-Kee Member Posts: 15 Member

    An empty project without external MIDI clock 2% CPU

    An empty project with external MIDI clock 4% CPU

    With my arbitrary project without external MIDI CLOCK (for example AlrightKit - Higher Place Exp) 22-24% CPU

    With my arbitrary project with external MIDI CLOCK (for example AlrightKit - Higher Place Exp) 24% -81% CPU and drops due to CPU overload

    It should be noted that the audio module on a single pad is obviously causing the high load here. But such audio loops are also part of a song in my setup, for example for vocal recordings 

  • Mac-Kee
    Mac-Kee Member Posts: 15 Member

    Only DIN MIDI because the Octatrack does not support USB Midi, as far as I know.

    I also tried using an ESSER MIDI Clock to send an Ableton link to the machines via WLAN: it worked! However, the machine then randomly fails to play individual notes, such as those of a bass drum at 1:1

  • djadidai
    djadidai Member Posts: 492 Pro
    edited March 7

    Just sample your loops internally or change the engine from module to adsr sampler to save LOADS of cpu. Just pull out a note in the piano roll to the same length as your loop. No sense having loops in module.

  • Mac-Kee
    Mac-Kee Member Posts: 15 Member

    I don't think that will be possible with vocals coming from a singer.

  • djadidai
    djadidai Member Posts: 492 Pro
    edited March 7

    Oh, of course not! Why not send the voice through a kaoss pad instead? Cheap and fantastic solution, send the M+ through it too and save some more CPU:) I have my live units connected to a djm 850. It’s really great!!

  • Mac-Kee
    Mac-Kee Member Posts: 15 Member

    I don't quite understand the Kaoss Pad. Maybe I need to briefly explain how I play. Sometimes I use pre-recorded vocal tracks because they are part of my set. I should be able to play these as a loop, as some of them are 8 or 16 bars long. How can the Kaoss Pad help me with this?

    At the moment I still work with the Octatrack and the Rytm as a very reliable combination, but I usually build all my sketches in the machine, which is why the diversions annoys me. 

    I always hoped to build a very flexible live set with the combination of Maschine+ and the Octa as an EFX unit and looper, but I don't trust the Maschine because it has crashed on me during rehearsals and produces random hiccups.

  • djadidai
    djadidai Member Posts: 492 Pro

    I guess you can play the pre-recorded vocals as one-shots then? I wouldn’t use the audio module for pre-recorded stuff. As for the octatrack, not sure what it is or what it does, so I don’t know what to tell you, just to avoid using the audio module in a live environment.

    The M+ is very capable and can do many different things, but I wouldn’t use it to do it all, just because it can, in a live environment. A Circuit Tracks has 2 channels for example, so it can be like a master mixer for 2 units and you can use the reverb and delay from the Tracks, and of course make a few transition loops on the tracks itself… I have a mini setup in my kitchen with an Mc101, a Tracks and tr6s. Midi synced and audio going out from the Tracks. The filter on that things is good too.

  • ozon
    ozon Member Posts: 1,827 Expert

    @Mac-Kee thank you for the detailed information.

    It should be noted that the audio module on a single pad is obviously causing the high load here.

    This is a known problem. Audio module (mainly in Stretch mode) is highly inefficient and kills the M+ CPU and causes audio glitches, even with fixed BPM. If it has to follow external clock, the M+ CPU can’t handle it anymore. It’s really a problem caused by the Audio module and there were a few threads about this in the past.

    First you can try to not use Stretch mode, but then the loops will probably fall out of sync. If the BPM deviations are very small, you could try to use the Sampler and treat the 8 or 16 bar loops as single shots. Timing will not be super accurate, but depending on the vocals, it may be sufficient or even add „liveliness“. But it’s not ideal. Another trick would be to slice the vocal audio into smaller pieces wich are all triggered as single shots.

  • tetsuneko
    tetsuneko Member Posts: 797 Expert
    edited March 8

    I would place long audio tracks like that into the octatrack. It streams audio from its memorycard, you can have as long files as you want.

    Still, I have to ask, expweriencing random crashes? Often? Have you upgraded your firmware? Do you use a proper SD card from a reputable brand, as opposed to the POS microSD card and adpater that ships with Maschine+?

  • Mac-Kee
    Mac-Kee Member Posts: 15 Member

    Letting the vocal track run over the OT could be one way. I'll have to think about that again.

    I also use the audio module for various percussion lines. But these could possibly be sliced.

    The firmware is the last known FW0.1.9

    The SD is a 128GB Sundisk Extreme Pro without adapter.

    I can't say much more about the recent crashes, as I've only been using the machine in controller mode since my last experience.

    But even a test with 1.5.1 repeatedly caused dropouts and hiccups, which is why I no longer trust the peace and have stayed with my described standard live setup. I've only had one crash here in all these years, of the rytm

  • ozon
    ozon Member Posts: 1,827 Expert

    Just stay away from the Audio module, especially from Stretch mode. If your loops are in the proper tempo, you don’t need to stretch them anyway. If the loops are a different tempo, resample the stretched version.

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