Is there a non-NI manual which does a better job of explaining the various modes?

Great video - thanks for posting!

I spent the day learning about Event editing with the manual, before I saw this video. One thing I didn't realize is that you can move notes up and down with the 4D encoder in Keyboard mode, because I tried it with Pad mode first. Of course there is no need for this to be inconsistent.

Here are my thoughts on Event Editing:

1) NI really dropped the ball with an obvious workflow improvement. The bounding box on the left screen can can easily be adjusted in size and location. So use it like a select box, so that when you click "ALL" to select notes, it should only select all WITHIN THE BOUNDING BOX, as one would logically assume. The current system with the bottom knobs is tedious.

The bounding box already gives great visual feedback as to 'what' will be selected, so why not just do that - it won't interfere with any existing functionality, and since you can expand it to full width, it would still cover "All" as the button does now.

Or if it must be a separate feature:

Let SHIFT + ALL = All events inside the select box.

I call it a select box because that is what any UX designer would assume it is.

2) Note Lengths should be measured in note values, or grid values, not whatever it is now (tics?).

3) Why can't you ever snap end points to the grid? After quantizing, your note lengths still have variation based on what you played. An example is one note being 1927 and another being 1929, and fine adjustments won't allow you to make these the same length, even though they are both now quantized to the same starting point.

In my mind, note length is simply broken. Any variation in start to end point which gets recorded, should be removable after quantizing. Your current best bet is to delete your notes, and re-enter them manually, pre-quantized. This seems to be the only way to get consistent note length.

4) Step mode should keep the first beat division on the first column of pads, no matter the time signature. So when it's 4 beats to the bar, 1, 5, 9 and 13 are on the beat as it is now. But It should also be this way with triplet signatures, just have the playhead ignore pads 4, 8, 12, and 16. That would be way more intuitive. The current step mode will never be intuitive for using triplets.

Yeah, I totally feel this. Many people have different opinions on workflow, because they do different things. But if the core of the UX is logical and clear, then every workflow will benefit. NI has a lot to learn about this basic principle. Where it gets tricky is 'multiple options' vs 'consistency'. Adding more ways to do something sounds good, but not if it impedes being able to predict or know what something will do.

As basehead617 recommended: "You know, exactly what the buttons say!"

On point 2 and 3, yes we are in alignment. Of course I use notes which are not the same length, my point is that you cannot deliberately make two notes the same length, which is clearly a bug.

On point 4 you are right, I was only thinking of divisions smaller than the 4/4. If someone were writing prog, then 7/4 becomes crucial.

When triggering samples with carefully edited with zero endpoints - you can tell the difference, absolutely, every time.

I'm now encountering this level of confusion. Your advice should be put on the top of the list for the NI roadmap because the Maschine is supposed to be performance oriented and you can't perform with an instrument which is so unpredictable. I've been trying to get Scene mode to work, and I have patterns from Bank 2 playing, but in Scene mode, the arrow buttons do not scroll you to Bank 2, and the Shift Bank + button does not take me to Bank 2, so now I have lists of all the patterns for Bank 1, which I can select for my scene, but no way to remove, see, or edit the pattern lists for Bank 2 ? The most intuitive option for me was the arrow buttons which in all other modes (like mixer) allow you to scroll to the next bank. Why NI Why?