Recommended plugins for Machine MK3

Andreas Sonnenschein · 2022-03-31T18:15:37+00:00

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Hi there,

I have an MK3 machine and now I wanted to get a laptop ready, which will then (only) be used with the MK3. I have NI Ultimate and am wondering which plugins are particularly well suited for the MK3.

Everyone does running, but some are particularly suitable - like the machine plugin, of course - others probably less so, for example Stradivarius violin probably.

Or which effect plugins do you have?

Thank you very much for your suggestions.

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Uwe303

Hello,

with your bundle you are very good covered for every situation, you have very good instruments and great fx. Even a multiband compressor is included with reaktor, on top you have that great online reaktor database, a world of amazing stuff. I would first learn all this stuff then look if you miss something.

Uwe

ShelLuser

Hi there, and welcome to the community!

As to your question... that's kinda impossible to answer without any further context.

For example, is there any specific genre you're focussing on? And when we're talking plugins are you referring to NI based plugins or plugins in general? Which also brings me to the question... are you planning on using Maschine as standalone software or within a DAW of some sorts? Reason I ask is because you refer to Maschine as a plugin.

Basically... any NKS compliant plugin is quite suitable for Maschine, and of course most of the Komplete components. That's what I'd focus on for now.

But to try and answer some of your question...

Absynth 5; awesome general synth which provides some very extensive features and ditto presets. Usable for both melodies as well as percussion.
Massive; although poly synth and bass synth are great default instruments... Massive can take bass one step further than that.
Kontakt; obviously... Sure, Maschine provides very impressive sampling options and it's feature to actually slice something into samples simply from playing? IMO brilliant. But it's not the same as the #1 within the field of sampling instruments... *
u-he Diva; a fully NKS compliant synth which... I dunno how they're doing it but it's a digital VST which can generate some very realistic sounding "analog" material. IMO these sounds & presets can fit in anywhere.

I can't go into more detail without proper context. Still..

* Having mentioned Kontakt... See, you can also use most Kontakt instruments straight within Maschine as well:

Ethereal Earth; pads are always useful no matter what kind of score you're going for.
Glaze; don't let the focus on hiphop fool you: this instrument can be used for a lot more genres than that.
SoundIron's Olympus Elements; Need vocals? SoundIron has you covered. I've been focussing a lot on arificial vocals in the past years because this was the "missing link" in my audio setup. I actually bought this instrument separately before it became part of SoundIron's legendary (IMO!) "Vocal Suite 2" and... yah, it doesn't get more extensive than this. Maybe other than the full Olympus suite.

So far the NI side of things. Since Native Instruments & iZotope joined forces I feel very confident to add this part too:

iZotope Ozone 9; this suite is amazing and in my opinion has been a must-have for Maschine long before the mentioned joint venture became a thing; I've been using Ozone 8's Imager on my Maschine master channel for several years already and in my opinion there's nothing like it. Do not expect "plug & play" results because it just doesn't work that way. It can, sometimes and depending on context, but in most cases you need to do lots of tweaking yourself. But the results are also nothing like common effects either.

Some context is required here: I mostly use Maschine as a plugin within Live where Maschine takes care of my backup. So basically percussion (obviously) as well as backings and/or basses. My main leads sit in Live. Ozone's Imager has been nothing but amazing for me to really help me blend my Maschine material into my Live material yet without having to "take things out". Sometimes I export a specific percussion sound directly so that I can sidechain it within Live, but most of the times I don't and basically rely on Imager (and EQ) to blend stuff in.

So yeah... there are my general suggestions. Can't go into much further detail without more context. Still.. hope this can help!

Flexi

You only really want effects plugins that have no built in processing buffer and run in realtime, because Maschine has no PDC (Plugin delay compensation) so any buffer that the plugin has, will be added to that particular channel as audio latency, making everything sound out of time/sync.

Andreas Sonnenschein

Thanks for the answers. Yes, the genre is quite predetermined for the machine.

I would prefer to be in the area of chill-out or electronic music. But I'm quite willing to experiment :)

Of course, it's hard to say which plugins you need "exactly". I'm more concerned with a "pre-selection" where you can say "They are very easy to use in the machine and fit well into the concept".

On the laptop, I wanted to use the machine as a standalone device. Without a DAW. Just make some music. Ultimately, of course, I still have a musician's PC with a master keyboard and DAW.

Maybe on the road and on vacation.

I'll be happy to consider that choice.

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