VARIATION function does not allow you to humanize only timing or only velocity

You are correct. It is that poorly implemented. Its like you have to sacrifice your performance velocity in order to utilize the timing change. One or the other in 2022?! Plenty of expansions and other things to sell us all the time though. So much potential but they seem to not care. They continue to give us features that many of us won't use while ignore requests for features that have been highly requested for years. I love my mk2 and use it every time I create but my hopes of inspiring new features being released 3 or 4 times a year disappeared long ago when they started releasing updates super infrequently and shifted to a large output of expansions.

It wasn't always like this. They used to be more inspired and engaged with what people wanted and released updates more often. Actually, it seems people do like the expansions that much but Id rather buy records and sample them. Easy money maker for them and much less expensive then paying the amazing coders that develop this software. They are the ones that should get the big budget! Props to you folks that can add features by writing code! I'm on your side and want you to get a raise and let the marketing department lose a person or two. :)

Variation has potential but it feels like the people working on it were hamstrung by the budget and had to give a super basic version of what we know it could be. I have no evidence for this but it just feels half baked and not thought out. To be able to perform the TWO actions separately is the least they could have done. How about a simple random chance % feature on the same page of variation? You could selected a series of notes and then assign them a chance % they will play or not each time a pattern loops. So basic and simple but nope. They STILL haven't released the chord inversion feature that was supposed to be in the 2.15 update. Still no user made chords that have been requested for years. I don't need more 808 samples. HaHa!

So many little things like the one you just mentioned that could greatly improve the user experience with maschine.

All this makes me say that it seems maybe complicated to add new features to the existing code base. This lack of updates could also be justified (and I hope so) by the fact that the team is working on a new code base more scalable and more easily maintainable in the future. I know that kontakt and traktor have and are undergoing major changes in their code base. So maybe it will be the same with maschine.

In any case I hope that their new alliance with izotope and their new soundwide group will also benefit maschine and that it will not be left behind.

When I first read "Variation" I was super excited, because I thought it was able to spit out variations of what was already in the pattern...ha!

Agreed. Maschine needs a complete re-think of modulation / automation / variation / randomization / probability. It would greatly improve the platform. Right now it ends up being a preset player without the life and variation that a modern production system needs

I love it how there is always total radio silence from NI when it comes to this kind of threads.

Feels like the user input is really being listened. Haha.

People are right about this matter. Variation is done poorly. It can be used only for velocity randomization. But hey, nice that it has dedicated button.

There is so much potential for creating and being playful in area of variation. Playing with probability, mutation and stuff like that. Peace.

Idk, I tried the variation to inspire me but didn’t work, I didn’t get very inspired tbh. And it’s kinda funny that humans working on machines ask a machine to “humanize” stuff, haha. To me this function seems pretty unnecessary compared to other functions that can be added. I’m a human, so I can humanize my grooves with my human ear instead of telling my maschine to stop being a maschine and start act like a human haha.

No disrespect to all the suggestions here, that’s not what I mean so please don’t read me wrong. I just think it’s a silly thing from the start, a humanizer or a randomizer or a “variations” function.

humanizer is just one aspect among others. The goal is to have more creative tools.

And this is precisely what idea generators, scaler, randomizers, etc. allow (at least when they are in real time...)

Otherwise we could say that we wouldn't need an arpeggiator either..?

or Chord mode (we are humans, so we can play our chords ourselves)

not even a sequencer in reality... paper and a pencil is enough :)

Tools have been created (since time immemorial) to facilitate the work of man. And musical tools are no exception to this rule.

Hehe, I wrote something similar on April 5th in another thread, I was being sarcastic and this will be taken out of context but, to quote myself:

“I hope they add a “stardomizer”, a randomizer containing stems from all music ever created and it randomizes hits in any musical category. By using the macros to set genre, sub genre, major/minor, bpm range and so forth and at the end you push “stardomize” and voila. This feature is needed so people can focus on the creative process of looking cool on social platforms, and fulfill every trolls dream, creating PHAT tracks without having to learn anything and become famous without having to sacrifice time and effort or having to experience fatigue in the frontal lobe. I wish they add that feature. it would save so much time! 

;)

Jokes aside, I love maschine and I enjoy every minute I have with it, stand-alone or on the computer, doesn’t really matter. Stability for live sessions. That matters. 

much love to all of y’all!!”

But yeah, a randomizer with different musical parameters so that the randomization creates something similar to music rather than just random notes in the piano roll would be…cool