Feature Ideas Section: Format Questions and Clarifications

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Kai_NI
Kai_NI Product Team Posts: 50 mod
in Maschine

Hey all,

I see that there have been some questions around the what, why and how of the "Feature Ideas" section. In order to not clutter the feature topics themselves with a meta discourse on the format, I thought we can take it here.

Some people have been asking why we use this format, what it is for and how we intend to use it. I will try to share some additional context here to explain.

Background

Maschine 2 has been in the market for 10+ years. It is a very wide product that can do many things. It is a standalone application on Mac and Windows, a plug-in, a host, part of a hybrid hardware / software system, a sampler, a groove-box, a sequencer and so on. Therefore people use it in different ways and have different, valid points of feedback that would make the product better for their respective use case.

Maschine is also not a traditional, timeline based DAW but is understandably often compared to them because it is very similar in ways, but also uses a number of fundamentally different approaches (see Groups / Sound concept vs. Bus / Tracks).

Observations

When running research, interviews and product exploration we often see a very wide range of feature requests from all different areas of the product. Some people would like us to improve the software itself, some are focussing on Maschine+ and everything in between. There is rarely a simple, single thing that everyone largely agrees with.

If so, then these requests are often very high level capabilities that would consist of a number of multiple smaller features or functions combined (like performance recording, timeline based arranging, audio recording, automation, etc.).

Whenever we implement something, there is a large number of people of that are unhappy with the work we have done or that a feature or improvement they had requested has not been implemented.

Actions

In order to create more transparency around what is asked for, how frequently and to have a conversation with you around what and why we are considering certain improvements to the product and in what order, we wanted to take a part of the conversation here.

This will help us to quantify the desire for certain changes. And it will help you all to see how the individual ideas compare to each other and where there is a high or low agreement.

Also, the community is only one of several data sources for us. We are running ongoing research and surveys, we are looking at information from our Customer Support team, we have our Beta testing group and are also looking at how the industry develops around us.

Ultimately, this information here will help us to receive structured feedback an learn. And it can act as a tool for you to participate and creating a common point of reference.

Next Steps

We will continue to increase the available contents in the ideas section over time. This is just the beginning and it will take some time until the majority of frequent requests is represented and up for votes and discussion.

It is planned as a feedback loop and not a one-shot event.


I hope this helps in better understanding what we do and why. This thread can act a place to further discuss so that we can keep the meta-conversation on the format out of the feature ideas themselves.

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Comments

  • 6xes
    6xes Member Posts: 651 Pro
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    unsure if this thread is for idea's for maschine in General... or for the Idea's maschine function

    can you clarify @Kai_NI

    cheeRs

  • Kai_NI
    Kai_NI Product Team Posts: 50 mod
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    Hey @6xes

    We launched a "Feature Ideas" Section on the community forum some time ago and had people submit ideas for Maschine in general - not the "Ideas View" feature inside of Maschine.

    We are currently evaluating the results and have started sharing the first batch here. There have been questions on why we did that and how it works. This thread is to explain and discuss how and why we opened the "Feature Ideas" section on the forum in the first place.

    Hope this helps!

  • 6xes
    6xes Member Posts: 651 Pro
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    Thanks for clarifying @Kai_NI

    to begin with i personally havent participated much in the Feature Request's/Idea's, as i tend to find workarounds for features that dont exist natively within Maschine... with that said, i do want to put forward a few obvious thoughts... with respect to how NI, choose to move forward & weighing up decisions on what to move forward on.

    there are 2 types of maschine users in my view

    The performance based user

    &

    The song creator

    these 2 users are in some respects inter-related, but are quite different in light of needs & wants

    so getting the balance to please both types of user, is the purpose of the facilitating of such threads as the one in the "feature requests section"

    i do wonder... from the research that has been carried out & collated...

    what are the percentages of Performance based users Vs Creative Song based users?? im just being curious!

  • theviirus
    theviirus Member Posts: 12 Member
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    Do you want us to just upvote a topic we like? Are we allowed to talk about or make suggestions directly or partially relevant to the topic in the associated thread (provided we can reasonably and respectfully substantiate why we think it falls into the purview of the topic)? I figure if the mods don't want any discussion, they would have just locked the threads for new comments... but again... what is the format of those threads?

    Its still mildly vague as this post just addresses why the topics were made but not what to do with them. (you may also want to put what you expect or want as discussion topics it in each of the topics to better keep them on track...as going to another thread to figure out what the thread is for is unclear.)

  • Matt_NI
    Matt_NI Administrator Posts: 1,116 admin
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    https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/139805#Comment_139805

    You can upvote and comment on the things you really want to see done. In each idea, you'll find a comment that says exactly what to do :

    "Please share your comments about the idea below and let us know if you have any specific feedback about your use case or how you would like to see this implemented."

    What makes you believe we don't want any comments?

  • theviirus
    theviirus Member Posts: 12 Member
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    https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/140128#Comment_140128

    The mention of moderating comments away without really quantifying what was ok or not in the threads did nothing to clarify what is expected from the threads/responses... and definitely made me think my own responses may not have been acceptable, even if I thought they were relevant to the topic. (that comment saying that is gone now). That feedback or clarification could have been useful inside of that thread. The general directive was "go to this other thread to find out why we chose this format" and that didn't clarify the situation either. Though since my responses remains while other responses were moderated away...I think I understand what is acceptable now but I also attribute that to mild "trial and error".

    That is why I asked directly.

    I know there is a need to keep a handle on things otherwise the threads will get dozens of pages long on (as it was referred to) metacommentary which only clouds actual issues people are looking to resolve.

    I may be a relatively new user, but I didn't make this choice haphazardly...and since feedback from users is being requested I also want to make sure I'm articulating them properly. Thank you for asking, thank you for reading.

  • Matt_NI
    Matt_NI Administrator Posts: 1,116 admin
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    Sorry maybe I'm getting confused but we only removed comment that were about the idea section and not about the topic of the thread which was a specific feature request.

    If you posted anything about the actual topic, it should still be there. If you posted anything off-topic (e.g what is the purpose of the entire section), you would have been redirected to this thread.

    There is really no expectation in how you share your feedback or comment on a specific idea as long as it's about the actual idea and not another topic. I hope I'm making sense here 🙂

  • tempsperdu
    tempsperdu Member Posts: 377 Pro
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    After finally being able to find my way here (thanks Diego) I find myself unsure what this thread is actually about.

    I'd also suggest batch emails are sent out telling people about this and any other relevant threads regarding Maschine and upvoting because I imagine the immense lack of activity here is due to many not having a clue about its existence.

    Given the complete lack of information and traction regarding Maschine over the last eighteen months or so (unsure how long it's actually been), it's hardly surprising if people have drifted away.

    Am I allowed to ask here if the things that I and others consider to have been broken or made slower to use are going to be addressed and if not, could you direct me to somewhere that I can that might actually be responded to?............................................

  • Zoni
    Zoni Member Posts: 12 Member
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    Upscale the UI for the 4k screens.

  • DrMisterius12
    DrMisterius12 Member Posts: 2 Member
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    Been a Maschine 2 user for a bit now and it is my software of choice. I treat it more like a traditional DAW than just a beat machine. I've made ambient music, jazzy style tracks and fully-fledged techno tracks. So for me, bringing some more traditional DAW features would be amazing.

    1. Add in some sort of native LFO function so I can automatically automate parameters via LFOs. Triggerable envelopes would also be nice.
    2. Allow for cross-clip automation within the timeline view. I can do this now by having automation "pick up" where the last clips automation left off.
    3. Create a system that lets you automate with a pen type of tool to create clean lines of automation.
    4. Please dear God fix the bugs especially as it relates to Mac. Ever since I upgraded to Sonoma, Maschine 2 has been running into performance issues, even though I'm barely using CPU, and there are copy and paste issues of plug-ins that either fail to work or crash Maschine 2 in general

    I'm not asking to turn Maschine 2 into a mess like Ableton or FL studio but some additional quality of life improvements, specifically as it relates to track arrangement automation, would be legendary.

  • tempsperdu
    tempsperdu Member Posts: 377 Pro
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    https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/143556#Comment_143556

    For years and years and years, people have been asking for properly usable and editable automation, and it's still stuck in the late 90s. Totally insane, but oh so very NI. Considering just how much it affects so many other things, you'd think it was a no-brainer uber priority.

  • VL-Charlotte280712
    VL-Charlotte280712 Member Posts: 7 Member
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    I love Maschine because it's not a DAW and I hate Maschine because it's not a DAW. I certainly don't want Maschine to be an other Ableton Live, FL Studio or Logic Pro. I consider Maschine more like an instrument and if I want to go deeper into mixing/mastering, I use it as an host into a DAW and it works perfectly. Being an home studio producer, no live exhibition, the MK3 is still up to date to me.

    So, every little improvements are welcome.

    Thanks

  • Murat Kayi
    Murat Kayi Member Posts: 430 Pro
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    I think people need some kind of commitment on NI's part considering when exactly they aim to publish a first batch of upgrades/updates.

    We can debate the most important intersections of everyone's interests for ever, but I, for one, won't. I would need to know beforehand that this considerable amount of time I would spend here trying to help with someone else's job will actually lead to a result within a foreseeable future.

  • Crackpot Castle
    Crackpot Castle Member Posts: 5 Member
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    I just read the interview with Jason Grave, on your facebook page and:

    Aww!!! Such a nice in-depth interview right there! Hybrid scoring is the very cool thing about today’s technology, and for me an epiphany came with Maschine echosystem, combined with kontakt.

    I scored two circus show, and two motion pictures, using Maschine as my main sketching interface, and i was able to make hybrid instruments out of more traditional stuff, like harmonica, pump organ and dobro, and blend them with real or vst synths and play them in loops, and create momentum cells on the (o so sensible) MK3 pads for  different mood, so i could literally jam the score like a performance. 

    Some of the most interesting and dynamic parts of my scoring are done as a reaction to the movie (or the athletes’s circus act) rather than telegraphed.

    It feels like a live performance.It’s emotionally driven like a natural response.

    I tryed to do it in Ableton, but having all these kontakt and Maschine libraries made me investigate in the possibilities behind NI’s hardware, wich are pretty astoundings.


    I worked on a score, a movie called Target number one, with Josh Arnett, a couple of years ago, and there was this very primitive fight, in a Thaï prison. But the overall score was very electro driven, so I taught of sampling this Muy Thay cd, my teacher uses for sparing, it’s a copy of a copy of a real fighting traditional music. And i sampled a couple of passages on my Maschine, it became a polychromatic instrument. And then, i side chained it with a very deep and agressive (yet filtered) beat, mixed with some recording i had from a funeral horn in a temple in Karnataka. 

    I mean, this type of freedom leads you to break your own creative barriers!


    And, it’s ridiculous how easy it can be done with this gear! If you think of a musical idea, there are so many ways to create music in this echosystem.


    I do have to rely on Protools for the final stages (especially with movies), for postprod and tempo variations (NI: you got to implement tempo variations in the song window on Maschine software!!!)


    And, if i can have two more (easy) suggestions, here they are:

    1- please allow us to mute notes in the Maschine scoring layout without deleting them !?!?

    I MEAN REALLY!!!


    2-Communication between daw and Maschine (as slave)

    should be just like vienna ensemble pro.

    Actually, only 16 midi channel are usable, in my main DAW to be played in Maschine (wich has 16 instrument PER group)

    So making a scoring template with maschine as a slave is limited to 16 channels, and you ain’t going nowhere when you consider that your average orchestral template contains between 150 to 300 tracks (some people are using closer 700 hundred tracks!!!) 


    But i made a Template of BBC Orchestra from Spitfire Audio, using Protools and Maschine, and (appart from the fact that it was a pain in the butt to have a new instance, every 16 instruments of the orchestra), it worked fine, and the layering of the différents instruments and their articulations, on my maschine Jam, and the synchronized color coding between the Jam, the Mk3 and the KKS41 is as close as it gets from having the orchestra in front of you.

    Every parameter tweekable on a touch of any of these hardware… 

    Man, you guys don’t know how powerful this ecosystem could get if only you would add the midi channels and flexibility!!!!!

    Anyway, hats off to y’all and especially to Jason Grave, who inspired me to write you this never ending post!

    Cheers!!!

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