Hybrid Maschine Setup

hi there. I’d love to build a hybrid traktor kontrol setup with my maschine mk3. What I want to be able to do is have a track playing on one deck and then build a maschine loop to add but listen to it before I bring it in to the main mix. I want to be able to do this for either of the main two decks. I love the functionality of the new mx2 but it seems like I would need to put the maschine on its own channel to be able to accomplish what I want. Apologies for the basic question, I’m new to this stuff. I know I want jog wheels and to easily create and control stem tracks on the fly. My question is what are the ways I can accomplish what I want to do? Seems like the easiest would be to get an s3 with 4 channels already built in but open to thoughts and other ideas. Thanks!

Find more posts tagged with

Maschine MK3

Accepted answers

All comments

lord-carlos

Traktor can't creates stems on the fly, it takes about 2 - 5 minutes for each track.

If you want Maschine on a Traktor deck, you will need to do some virtual audio route shenanigans. Or from the Maschine hardware a cable to an input in the mixer. Might add delay.

At first I wanted to say get an Hardware mixer like Pioneer DJM or Xone 43C / 96, as multiple programs can send audio to different channels, but I'm not aware of any jogwheel device you could combine that with.

If you want 4 channels, maybe wait for the mx4, or get a used s4 mk3. Traktor s3 can't control the fx in traktor. Maybe if you get a great deal.

fishbowl

@lord-carlos Thanks! Understood on the stem creation bit. Thanks!

regarding the audio routing, I was planning on using ableton link to keep things in time and then just send the audio out of the machine to an input on the traktor deck. Maybe I’m missing something here but I was under the impression that would keep things locked in time.

And thanks for the fx info. I wasn’t aware of that. I’ll keep my eyes open for a used s4 mk3. It sounds like that will work.

lord-carlos

Going from maschine, to analog cable, back digital to traktor will not be instant, but probably consistent. I don't know if you can add delay to ableton link, or if you just can beatmatch it on traktor side.

Owner

Hey, what you're describing is currently my small remix/stem setup on my Studio Desk at the moment. It works pretty well via Ableton Link, provided you use Maschine as the master clock and Traktor as the slave. While the reverse order is possible, it can sometimes cause problems or go awry. This way, I can always keep my decks in Traktor very precisely synced to Maschine.

My setup: Mac Mini for both applications. Maschine MK3 as the master clock with its own sound card. From the Maschine's output, I go via line input to a deck (Live Deck) in Traktor / S4 MK3 as a slave, keeping everything in sync via Ableton Link. This allows you to do the filters and channel mixing of your Maschine Loop directly on the S4 MK3 in Traktor.

However, there are many other ways to achieve it. This is just one of them. As @lord-carlos already said, it gets really interesting if you have a hardwired mixer, because then you could route the machine's outputs to different channels on the mixer. For example, the kick drums to Line 1 and the snares to Line 2. Then you could use Line 3 and Line 4 for the decks in Traktor and so on.

Tips: Set your Sync in Traktor to Beat Sync and not Tempo Sync. Run the same Sample Rate and Buffer Size on both devices e.g. 48'000kHz / 128 Buffer Size. When Maschine is your Master Clock check your settings about everything MIDI related.

Here is a little video as example. Not the perfect example in music, timing and whats possible, but for a short demo it's ok:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/19-HEkg_pUVnKhGikdKFBlSrqToKtopx0/view?usp=sharing

BTW: There are also a few videos from Native Instruments itself about linking Maschine and Traktor and also a good blog post in the Knowledge Area.

fishbowl

@Owner , thank you so much! Super helpful. Stoked!!

Quick links

Unanswered questions