Use Maschine MK3 as a kind of keyboardless Komplete keyboard. What you guys think?

clandestino_usr

Hello people,

I'm currently looking at ways of upgrading my home studio setup. I work almost exclusively with NI VSTs, and a few others from Arturia or Spitfire Audio (but I try to stick to NKS-compatible stuff when possible). My keyboard is a Roland FA-08, which I love for its feel, dynamics and expressiveness, and which has a dedicated DAW mode for Logic Pro (which I also use). But alas, the integration of controllers (knobs, pads and faders) is a little too limited for my taste, and forces me to do some rather tedious gymnastics for CC assignments via midi-learn.

So I thought of replacing my Roland with a Komplete Kontrol S88-MK3 keyboard, but I'd lose two things: the Roland keybed, which I'm an absolute fan of, and quite a few of the FA-08's native sounds (including the entire Jupiter bank) that I manage in midi. Another important detail is that I don't have enough space in the room dedicated to my home studio to host two keyboards. What's more, I'd also lose the possibility of having access to a piano in a matter of seconds whenever I wanted to try out an idea because a Komplete keyboard would at the very least require me to switch on my Mac and launch Logic Pro before playing anything (and I don't need to mention that when some idea arises between two non-music-related duties, this kind of delay can be a real stopper).

Taking a look at the alternatives, I wondered if it wasn't possible to keep my Roland and add a Maschine as a secondary controller - so basically, use it as a keyboardless Komplete keyboard - and use it to control all the parameters in NI VST, and those compatible with NKS.

Have any of you tried this kind of setup? If so, is it easy to manage? Does it appeal to you? What do you think of it?

Thank you in advance for taking the time to read and answer my existential questions.

6xes

im unfamiliar with logic pro... but i know tediousness of assigning parameters

assignments of VST parameters to knobs or encoders and there respective CC's is one of those issues you wished you could assign once and recall them with the same encoders you always use no matter which track you use! or whenever you load a new project....

this is where the benefits of templates become useful... where all your VST assignments are saved with the template in a blank state... this is often the best method...

if a DAW supports scripts where community users create useful tools to accomplish these tedious tasks so that if a VST from any track is brought into focus... the mapping assignments of that particular VST is brought into action.

i personally use Reaper, heres a video i did ... of a script that a reaper user created which basically solves that problem of assigning VSTparameters in such a easy way... you wonder why other Daw's dont implement it

the beauty of this script is once your settings is saved its done... and never needs to be done again, the GUI.. is very basic but functional... its also very quick to assign things

another thing that i found out.. when using this particular script with the maschine VST parameters using the auto 1/auto 2/auto 3/auto 4 assignments under the VST parameters in maschine, allows for the parameters to be quickly mapped as using this script(its not demonstrated in the video) but it works

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nWoXs3-8WuY

6xes

in my view it would be cheaper going the route of Reaper... than purchasing a komplete control just becos of the NKS assignments and their mini displays

i believe reaper is free to trial no limitations and has all the functionality of script installs to test things out... to configure such things as parameters to which ever encoder you so choose...

that particular script(above) is only 1 of the handy ones.... but a reaper user created a VST called Realearn(... which takes midi controllers and extends their functions within reaper and can give even more control.. too many to list) unfortunately it works only in reaper

clandestino_usr

Well, that's an interesting route, only one that I'm not willing to take at the moment. My whole ecosystem revolves around Logic Pro, and unless there's a reliable tool that allows a 1:1 project format conversion I'm not sure this is an option for me, since I'm quite heavily relying on some of Logic's own internal effects and instruments, for which I could not find equivalents in other DAWs (except maybe in Ableton, but I can't get to like Ableton despite numerous attempts at trying so).

But thanks a lot to you for taking the time 🙂

nightjar

Since you are heavily into Logic Pro... are you aware of the new Nektar CS12? Is shipping in the US now.

Here's some fresh info:

https://youtu.be/RRv5EFeYxFA?si=Gn7cyc3FmmCESg4A

iNate

They won't make the MK3 a Komplete Kontrol controller because they want you to buy more expensive hardware. So, you need the MK3 for Maschine 2, and then the KK MK2/3 for use in a DAW. MK3 will show mixer and stuff in Logic, but that isn't that useful since MIDI Controllers already work flawlessly in Logic (and several other DAWs). The main "ask" from users is to be able to use it like you would the screens, buttons and knobs on a Komplete Kontrol MK2 keyboard controller.

D-One

I do not suggest you to go this route.

Maschine is rather complex in comparisson to Komplete Kontrol;

KK is designed for 1 instrument, load one thing, record directly to DAW and move on, recording automation and such is easy.

Maschine can host tons of instruments, there's Keyboard mode and Pad Mode, it requires MIDI Routing that most users get very, very confused with, not only that but Logic has some quirks where It cant receive MIDI directly from Plugins. Automation became more difficult and has to be configured too. Think of Maschine as a MINI DAW, when you put it inside another DAW you need all sorts of configurations to make them understand each other...

Maschine is simply not designed with what you have in mind as a priority.

You can map KK knobs to your current keyboard knobs/faders and get similar functionality to a KK-S keyboard with everything pre-mapped with NKS instruments after that. So start there! You will never have full functionality like a KKS keyboard with a 3rd party one, especially on-screen stuff but you can get a feel for it and make a better decision of if a KK-S keyb might be good for you.