Programming synths from M+

yea I did shift+variation and it shows the 16 pages of parameters but it’s not all of them…it’s not even most of them and it’s missing a lot of basic essentials for creating even simple patches.
I bought the blezzbeats template and it’s almost worse…some essential parameters are included but even further than complete than the standard template I’m a lot of respects.

I think I may make my own as I don’t see any other choice, I don’t know how to use macros or make templates yet (I’ve openly had maschine+ for a couple of days)

there’s definitely a decent amount of opportunity for general sound design when using samples and effects and I’m very happy with that but the fact that it can run entire softsynths like massive but it doesn’t natively give you access to the majority of parameters is mental…makes me feel like Native instruments sees the Maschine plus as more of a preset instrument, a vessel to push their sound packs rather than a professional instrument…which is a damn shame because in the right hands it very much is a pro instrument.
Hard to believe that no proper template for massive after Maschine plus has been out this long…even harder to believe a company as seasoned in making softsynths as native would ship the M+ without the ability to program the instruments it run.
I’m considering ditching the M+ for the Ableton push standalone since you can easily run and program all of the Ableton suite synths and instruments right out of the box but I really like the workflow of the M* and I’ve already gone through and recognized my entire custom sample library to suit the weirdly restrictive two folder file system in the M+.

I was going to kind of circumvent the issue by just running the M+ with my iPad Pro since I’ve got a ton of full fledged synths on it (along with drum synths/samplers/effects etc) but it didn’t work out because you can either send midi OR receive audio from the iPad Pro given Apple’s choice to exclude an auxiliary port with the iPad Pros…I bought a splitter so you can run audio out while also receiving power but for some reason the Maschine didn’t recognize midi input from it, it basically just acted as if it splitter wasn’t connected and I could still only send midi or audio out of only one of the two from the splitter. I know I could hook my audio interface to it or I could hook one of my synths up directly as well but at that point I might as well lug my whole studio out, the whole idea of the stand alone aspect to me was to allow me to create stuff away from the studio…so I guess it’s back to the drawing board for me, the only option I foresee is me painstakingly going through and creating a proper template for at least massive, I really wish NI put paid more attention to the part of their customer base that wants to create from scratch, to be more focused on selling preset packs to those that want them is fine but completely negating the part of their user base that wants to dive deep and create their own stuff is absurd. I’m hoping I can sort this out so I’ll want to hang on to the M+ and not switch the standalone push…I have to consider if ‘just’ being a sample based drum machine is enough for me, I wouldn’t have even been thinking about or complaining about this if they didn’t make the M+ capable of running plugins to begin with…I see that they may be considering or working on the ability to host third party plugins but if their plagued by the same lack of control that’d be pointless…I don’t know I need to read more about what the template creation process is to see if it’s a viable option before I really make up my mind.

I’ve been using massive since it was first launched and have always programmed my own sounds I also have used various classic synths with horrible interfaces over the years where all the parameters are accessible with only one knob and button so no it’s not a lack of familiarity it’s just a lack of fear of digging deep.

With machines 8 knobs and variety of buttons per page and as far as I’ve seen Maschine can do much more than 16 pages it’s very much possible to map and logically layout the vast majority of massive parameters. I’m not saying programming would be a joy but it would be a much much more enjoyable experience than programming the Oberhiem matrix 6 or the access virus rack unit or the Alesis micron etc etc

Unless than 16 page limit is a real limit for some reason and isn’t a self imposed limit. Otherwise its absolutely a possibility.

I guess the only hope is either they add more built in synths like the poly and bass synth or that they allow third party plugins