I bought the Maschine + a year ago and had a few head-achy weeks grappling with how it works - I am a Logic Pro user of over 20 years and I was told by a sales rep the Maschine system would be easy for me - it wasn't - my conclusion was it was overly complicated and illogical - so I put it to one side.
Recently I installed all the NI software that came with my purchase on my studio computer , so I thought - "I know - I'll connect the Maschine + to my computer and use it to play the drum kits in the Maschine plugin in Logic X" - simple? - it should be - but it wasn't .
So I watch videos and read NI tutorials and I learn how to put the Maschine + into controller mode. Great - I can now play a drum kit loaded in the Maschine plugin using the pads of the Maschine + - but wait a minute - when I press record in Logic , nothing records on the software instrument track! I have a midi keyboard connected and when I play the Maschine drumkit using the pads on that it records no problem - so why isn't the Maschine + doing it?
In desperation I contact NI support and their AI assistant tells me to do this:
1 Ensure Maschine + is in Controller mode
2 In Logic Pro X create a software instrument track and load Maschine 2 plugin
3 In Maschine plugin load a kit , click the channel icon, then go to the group tab and select Input - MIDI
4 Set Key mode to Manual and set the source to Host
5 Switch your Maschine + to Midi mode (hold 'Shift' and then 'Channel' button)
6 Record enable the software track and press record in Logic and play the Maschine + pads.
Ok so I do all of that - the first problem I encounter is that I can no longer hear the sounds of the drum kit in the Maschine plugin when I play the Maschine+ pads !!
Yes - Logic now records a midi track with the notes I'm playing - but I can't hear what I'm playing and when I play the track back it doesn't trigger the Maschine plugin drum kit - so there's no sound !!
Absolutely useless!!
At this point I have spent hours struggling with something that I regard as basic - a midi device triggering sounds in a plugin and recording those notes on a software track - as I mentioned , my connected midi keyboard pads just did it straight away .
I'm still waiting for a reply from NI support on this issue, then I found this thread today from 2024:
I wish I'd have read that thread before I bought the Maschine +
As far as I can tell this problem has not yet been resolved in 2026
Honestly , if you're considering buying a Maschine + my advice is don't bother - what the posters in the above thread pointed out in 2024 seems to still hold true. Personally , I'm done with the Maschine+ and if I can sell it I will.
If anyone has the solution to this issue then feel free to post it so that I and others can learn - or if there still is no solution then post that as well - but really - it shouldn't be this complicated.
