Any way to route ARP from one pattern to another?

S Righteous

I find using Arps on the Maschine to be bonkers. You have to play them into your pattern, which seems to run very sluggishly for me, not to mention you have to quantize and move around your results. With other gear, you can take an existing chord progression and have that trigger the arp, but this doesn't seem to work with Maschine. It won't arpeggiate pre-recorded notes in a pattern.

So is there a way to route the midi from one pattern into another, to be able to logically (and perfectly) generate arps for your progressions?

D-One

Maschine's arp is for the MIDI Input from the controllers, it's not designed to arpegiate MIDI already present in a Pattern, unfortunately.

So is there a way to route the midi from one pattern into another, to be able to logically (and perfectly) generate arps for your progressions?

No, due to the above... You can send MIDI from one Pad to another but it can't be arpeggiated since it's coming from a Pattern and not from the controller. Basically, MAS has no real MIDI FX and also doesn't support external ones since Plugins have no MIDI Out support.

If you're having trouble getting the ARP on time then make sure Sync is on, try to play a tiny bit ahead of time and use the smallest audio buffer size your computer can handle.

S Righteous

I think they engineered this without ever trying to use these features.

You can only use the arp when using the keyboard pads, and you can either see the sequence, or see the pads (notes), but not both at the same time. I wish they changed that set up for many reasons, like punching in on a pattern.

You can't even use the arp on incoming midi from a controller. I tried, testing if I could just run a midi cable from the output back to the input. Nope.

tribepop

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/6361/any-way-to-route-arp-from-one-pattern-to-another

Yeah Maschine is kind of a “closed system” in regards to how it doesn’t allow devices to generate MIDI output from within the software. Unless they added some new instrument into the software that was specifically an arp, then you’re stuck using an external controller (doesn’t have to be a Maschine, any controller that has an arp will work). I imagine NI did this intentionally with the mindset that people don’t need such a device in the software because they should be using the controller in most cases anyway.

As for the wonkiness about using the arp, I think if you have the grid set to too low of a resolution, the arp kinda acts weird and doesn’t trigger until it hits the next appropriate division on the grid. So try adjusting those settings to see if you can get it to be more responsive.

D-One

@S Righteous said:

You can't even use the arp on incoming midi from a controller. I tried, testing if I could just run a midi cable from the output back to the input. Nope.

Yes you can, but only with NI Controllers, specifically Maschine and KK because of what i just said earlier... ARP, Chords, Smart Play etc are NI HW features. It wont work for 3rd party controllers from other brands.

I think they engineered this without ever trying to use these features.

Hum... I wouldn't go that far but they definitively don't value the same features some of us do.

I have a feeling that the folks making decisions work in more oldschool traditional ways, that would explain why so many features are designed only to record as you input them as opposed to micro editing after... I doubt they do a lot of post editing, use tools like Scaler 2, draw a lot of MIDI on the piano roll with a mouse, etc...

MAS also was the first successful hybrid controller, kind of a modern version of a sampler workstation / drum-machine available at the time, but.... it was modern in 2009 when it was introduced, nowadays people grow up using DAW and have higher expectations. 🤷‍♂️

ozon

@D-One wrote:

it was modern in 2009 when it was introduced, nowadays people grow up using DAW and have higher expectations.

I grew up on DAWs… been using Logic when it still was called Notator and Cubase since version 1.0 on an Atari ST. That must have been around 1987 - 1989. A good 20 years before Maschine hit the market. I had higher expectations back then… 😅

S Righteous

I'm in that same boat. Used Logic since the Emagic days, and Cubase on an Atari ST.

I think my expectations for Maschine+ are mostly about workflow and getting results without resorting to the software. Possibly most people do all their work in the software and export it to the M+ for live?

The way the arps work, isn't a huge issue for me, there are other more mysterious things I wish they put time into improving. Overall I wish they just solidified workflow enhancements, and by that I mean add some consistency, and attempt to add some intuitiveness to the workflow.

ozon

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/33660#Comment_33660

IMO some of the concepts that work well in the Maschine software didn’t translate well or at all to the Plus standalone. Like file management and content tagging.

S Righteous

I admit that I do have to dip back into the software. I go into software to make my Massive patches and then load those into the M+. Sometimes, I just want to tweak an existing patch to remove an effect I don't want, and replace it with a delay or reverb which I do want. This to me is fine, and kinda what I expected. There are bigger fish I wish they would fry.