The Maschine 4 (Speculative) Thread

The unfortunate thing here is that Maschine is still possibly the best hardware controller for many people and as bad as Maschine (SW) has become there isn't AFAIK a good equivalent.

The really frustrating thing is users know how good it could be and cannot understand why NI don't or can't or even won't. This is compounded by them keep promising (sort of) to deal with the issues then not doing, or in the process, making them worse, as happened on the last half-baked attempt.

I, and probably many others, just don't get it. They've got a good product that could be a proper best in class and yet are prepared to let it atrophy into a could have been. Who 'wins' or even benefits? No-one, we don't Maschine don't and NI doesn't.

Imho, music tech needs consumer advocacy groups & more regulation. Imagine gibson trying to sell you a one-stringed guitar as anything other than a joke, and then calling you entitled for wanting more strings or a whammy bar. Like bro it's not even a complete tool yet. I would understand the idiocy in expecting a Volca Drum or Electribe to be able to do tempo or time signature automation, and honestly, I didn't expect Maschine to do this either, up until they released a standalone device. Because..."why would they call it standalone if you need external gear to attain the full range of musical expression and articulation?", but here we are...

Honestly, maybe instead of outright regulation, companies should be legally obligated to put symbols denoting what the software/device can or cannot do...because if you market a groovebox and the screenshots show tempo/time signature as editable parameters, your customers cannot be faulted for assuming that those parameters can be automated like any other parameter. The Akai Force needed a little sticker on it that said "ONLY 4/4 TIME SUPPORTED OFFICIALLY" or something. All of these grooveboxes need a "No advanced articulation" sticker, or something equivalent. I'm tired of being blamed for deliberately misleading marketing, or lies by omission. All of this dumb ****** is why I'm going back to producing completely ITB.

It may not seem unreasonable, but the way Maschine appears to have been constructed was for speed and ease of use. The paradigm that seems to have informed it meant that all the blocks had to align with each other, as we know, and that meant for clips to happen they had to be constructed as a layer on top of that to have any flexibility. I imagine that in order to get time changes within an actual piece, Maschine would have to be rethought and rewritten to get round the current restrictions. The signature is editable, but only on a per-piece basis, you just can't change it within one piece.

In the longer term, that would probably be the best way forward, but there's little evidence so far that NI have the will, or are willing to expend the resources that would entail.

As for Automation, that's one of Maschine's biggest drawbacks, and I fail to see why that wasn't a priority aeons ago.

For me, I try to look at it as can that be done without rewriting Maschine and can it be done already by using Maschine within a DAW or even as a feeder to a DAW and using resources to expand what Maschine might be good for?

NI atm seem to be rewriting everything with people who don't understand the actual products, their history and their users. I'd say that's even possibly feasible with really good communication, but that ain't happening.

As might be expected, the focus also seems to be not how can I make an outstanding product, but how can I maximise profits... just look at the travesty MPS has become, it doesn't even acknowledge users before the upgrades became laughable. I really doubt many see upgrading as worth the inflated expenditure, so that's possibly a loose loose scenario when everyone else is racing to the bottom price wise.

It is so sad seeing a once highly regarded company sink into a travesty chasing the $ without seemingly understanding why people spent their money on it in the first place.

All I ask is version parity with the desktop version with regards to Kontakt & Reaktor, and zero crashes ie bulletproof stability. Maschine is already quite a capable product, what it can do outweighs what it cannot do in my opinion

Now if we get automation editing and the ability to record performances into the Arranger, I would be ecstatic, but priorities are the ones I listed above

hahaha, we just have to believe that it will be better than it is now)😂