Focus on "group" and "sound" using external Midi

You can map each group to listen to a specific MIDI channel, then you can just change channel on your MIDI keyboard to target specific group. Could this workaround solve your problem?

I think this is an optional setting but I'm not looking at my Maschine to figure out where it is atm. It's either in the settings menu or in the group/sound channel/input menus. like "focus" with on/off toggle or something. I keep it off because I like being able to control multiple sounds or groups regardless of what page the Maschine is on.

Still, if the OP wants to be able to call up groups through midi without affecting how the Maschine responds to any other external control it might not be an ideal solution.

I'm a firm believer that it never hurts to add more midi functionality.

"All of this breaks once you try to record, Maschine can only record one thing at a time"

Maybe I'm misunderstanding, but this hasn't been my experience. My rig is basically Jam + M+ + Launchpad Pro. In order to record my inputs to the midi sequencer across multiple groups I have to pre-configure my pattern lengths and make sure those patterns are selected in any group I want to record from.

At least for me with every project Groups A and B contain my drum kit sampled from 3rd party VST, with group 1 set to midi channel one and group b set to channel 3. I have a custom page on the Launchpad dedicated to controlling groups A and B, giving me a lot more drum kit than I had with a 4x4 layout.

Group C I start loading on VST instruments i.e. piano, bass, synth etc with each instrument on it's own midi channel so all I have to do is change midi channels on my launchpad in note mode, maybe hit chord mode on the maschine and poof I'm ready to layer the next instrument on the fly.

But as long as I have patterns created and armed in each group the sequencer records anything from any group that I play regardless of what I'm looking at on the screen of the maschine.

If we're talking about recording the audio playback rather than the midi sequence, is it not possible for the sampler to record the master track? If not that, route the audio from each group to a pad in an empty group.

That being said, the OP is just looking for a hands free means of changing groups via midi footswitch and after getting hands on and digging the manual the focus setting is not the setting I'm thinking of if such a setting even exists. The Focus setting just makes it so any midi input triggers the selected sound unless otherwise specified.

If there is a way to make a midi note switch the focus to another group/sound it's something else and none of my midi notes are causing the Maschine to switch focus.

A viable option may be to add an additional pad controller with enough pads to cover multiple groups from the Maschine to eliminate the need for switching groups with his foot though that also has it's own compromises. Totally loving my setup with the Launchpad next to the Maschine, I must say. It's opened some doors. But I also approach this thing with the mindset of a musician so where it may work for me, it might not for others.

All in all I think options are good and would probably applaud NI if they added the specific functionality OP is asking for.

@ozon

the sentence you quoted from me is a description of me playing the Maschine with my left hand and an external controller with right, basically cheesing a piano and I'm not sure where you are getting anything of a contradiction out of that.

What is not possible is to record two different inputs to two separate Pads/Sounds.

Pardon me for being so, but I'm confused about what we're recording here that would be broken by this.

Are you talking about audio inputs? The sampler can only record to one pad at a time. I didn't question that and if that is what was being referred to, end of conversation, but that doesn't depend on any midi settings, at least that I've experienced.

If you're trying to tell me that the midi sequencer can't record inputs from an external controller across multiple pads.. that absolutely contradicts my experiences, where I just described recording sequences with an external controller controlling two groups simultaneously made up of 20 individual sounds. It seems as if the focus setting is ignored when I assign a specific midi device/channel.

To better try to understand you I just made a custom page on my Launchpad with two scale rolls and assigned them each a different midi channel corresponding with two instruments I have loaded in group C and recorded a 8 bar pattern of me playing both simultaneously, and the sequencer isn't missing a note as it plays back to me.

But we are getting way deeper than the OP's needs when we start talking about my midi setup, and I was wrong about "the setting." It's not the "Focus" setting he's looking for. All homie is looking for is a way to change groups with his foot controller. If there is a setting that allows midi input to change groups in response to midi notes, it sounds like it comes with some sacrifices that might be less severe if the footswitch is the only external midi controller being used.

I couldn't see adding a few midi commands being the hardest job for a software dev to tackle, but, if an external midi controller can eliminate OP's need for switching groups all together, that'd be my suggestion. It's working pretty magically for me. It might not for OP if they are relying on keyboard/chord mode within these groups.

@Warpt1

A basic example:

We generally see the issue D-One is mentioning when someone wants to use maschine as a 'brain' for multiple people. You're finger drumming. I'm on keyboard. We want to record my midi while you're finger drumming live. Maschine doesn't have a concept of "arming" a track. It doesn't have a way for the hardware to keep the drum group in focus for you while recording the midi I'm sending.

It also pops up if you have some external midi being sent into maschine. For example, I like using my Microfreak as a sequencer. Pick some synth sound in maschine and send midi from my microfreak. I have a nice loop going, but all the midi is coming from the Microfreak. I load up a drum group and decide to record and basic loop. When I hit record, maschine is going to jump over to the synth group. Everything is fun until I hit record.

It would work fine if my kit is spread over the group (i.e. a normal maschine kit) and the synth was just a pad in the same group. It will be an issue if in a different group.

It seems unrelated, but it's a scenario brought up pretty often over the years. I believe D-One is just being proactive in making sure OP is aware about this "gotcha" situation

As far the OP's request, I for one firmly believe you can never have too much midi functionality. Beef-beef-beef it up.

On the other hand OP, rather than hold my breath waiting software updates from NI, if we're talking about groups like I do my drum kits, where each pad is a specific sound and you're not utilizing keyboard/chord mode.. a Launchpad paired with Maschine can be a magical thing.



Thanks @ozon for the thread and @darkwaves for putting it to me in familiar terms. I get what I was misunderstanding now after some experimentation, mainly that the Maschine automatically creates a new pattern when it receives input to a group where no pattern is present. Thankfully this hasn't presented a problem for my use-case/workflow as of yet but I could see how utilizing an external sequencer would be a really tricky tap dance to master.

Google's new AI feature seems to think there is a setting to disable this behavior. But it's instructions to do so lead nowhere. My F3 searches of the M+ manual give me nothing. There are 108 instances of "automatic". One of which I believed mentioning that patterns are automatically created, but nothing about disabling this "feature."

I believe that's a level of control that is definitely worth having. I might not personally use the doors that would open.

One thought, in darkwaves scenario involving multiple musicians using the Maschine as a VST host, it won't write you a midi track, but there are ways around that utilizing the sampler for a jam session or live set the more I think about it. The sampler can isolate audio, despite the sequencer not being able to isolate groups.