How do I record myself finger drumming from Maschine 3 into Logic Pro?

Clark W. · 2025-01-28T19:51:43+00:00

There was an error rendering this rich post.

Hi all,

I've spent days figuring out how to record myself finger drumming live on the drum pads into Logic Pro on the Maschine mk3 and absolutely cannot figure out how to do it. Can anyone here help me? I know that I need to run Maschine in MIDI mode but I can't seem to load sounds onto the pads, or if I do, it loads that one sound onto all the pads- so all 16 pads become a kick, for example. What am I missing?

My OS is Sequioa 15.2, Logic is v11.1.2, and I'm using instruments from Maschine 2.

Find more posts tagged with

Maschine MK3

Logic Pro

Accepted answers

All comments

Uwe303

Hello,

you need to set the group midi in to drumkit or manual mode (if you want to define the octave/notes yourself, you play the sound with. In the software you go to group/input/midi. If you need further help i can later make you some pictures on how to set it up but i guess after you set this you will see it. It can be the case that you have to select another pad group on maschine if you are in midi mode in order to play the correct octave, or as i already said set it according to the notes you want.

Clark W.

Hi thank you for your reply. Unfortunately, this didn't get me there. I see what you're talking about from on the Maschine mk3 and in the Maschine 2 software but neither Drumkit or Manual mode enabled recording in Logic. Any other suggestions?

Uwe303

You have then of course use maschine in midi mode, and use it as input for the instrument track, where the maschine vst is loaded. I found this maybe it explains it all better what I mean:

https://youtu.be/QW17osdRQSo?si=RVVNWN5kGBW0HqEg

Clark W.

Thanks again for your response. This still isn't getting my mk3 to play any sound or record in MIDI mode, unfortunately. For some reason though, pad 1 now shrinks the window for Maschine 2 and pad 2 closes the window. None of the other pads seem to do anything.

Milkman

Wouldnt this best be done in plugin mode (not MIDI mode) with the maschine2 plugin as an instrument inside your DAW, connected to MIDI tracks corresponding to each group in maschine? The way it was originally designed to work inside DAWs?

I dont use Logic, but I have spent 20 years with cubase and 2ish with Bitwig, and routing maschine2 inside DAWs is always a challenge. Over time, the specific routing methods have changed bercause of changes to maschine, changes to DAWs, and is even related to the VST3 standard itself (according to one support chain I had).

Right now, I use 1 maschine2 instance (as a rack instrument connected to an instrument track), then I create as many MIDI tracks as I need for as many maschine groups as I need, on their own corresponding MIDI channels, with maschine2 as an input device for each.

This allows me to record MIDI notes into my DAW when record is enabled on those MIDI tracks, and to play them back into maschine2 from the arranger in the DAW.

As far as maschine2's config, to make it work this way you must configure each group with its own MIDI channel, corresponding with the MIDI tracks in your DAW. I have no idea how this works in Logic, but here are my cubase settings for one of my maschine groups.

On top of this, you must not forget to SELECT ALL sounds inside the machine2 kit, right click the group (A1, etc), choose "select group MIDI batch setup", and click "sounds to MIDI notes".

In cubase, this allows what you are trying to do. It doesnt work this way, in my experience, in other DAWs, and I have given up trying to make this work this way in Bitwig. I just use Triaz in Bitwig with the mk3 in MIDI mode, and that also works.

Milkman

Also - the reason your pads are doing weird things inside the DAW is likely that there is a MIDI mode script loaded. Or you changed the buttons assignments through the controller editor? When I use MIDI mode inside Bitwig using the Triaz drum machine, I sometimes make a mistake and dont switch to the pad mode, so when I hit my pads I start recording clips, triggering things, and its lol for a second before I realize it. This wont happen in plugin mode.

Uwe303

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/207600#Comment_207600

this is also a good method, all those have of course different advantages/disadvantages

Uwe303

can you play other vst´s with maschine in midi mode, is your daw at all receiving midi notes from maschine and as i alraedy said try differnt pad groups in midi mode, they all play different notes at different octaves, you need to play the correct notes in midi mode to trigger the pads containing the sounds in the maschine plugin.

here another tutorial, it´s basically the same for every daw:

https://support.native-instruments.com/hc/en-us/articles/6430947228817-Recording-MIDI-Notes-in-Cubase-from-a-Maschine-Controller

Milkman

When you configure maschine as a plugin, one of the fundamental configurations that you have to make (which have been published in those guides for years) is to change the "START NOTE" to C3, which solves the octaves issue. You can see that in my bottom screenshot — the START NOTE knob should point to C3.

If you load more than 16 pads at C3, then you have to move up/down octaves or semitones using the buttons on the mk3 hardware, keyboard mode.

My goodness, the expectations here certainly have changed over time, havent they.

Jeremy_NI

@Clark W. Checking on your issue. Did you find a way to make it work?

A few things to check:

Make sure that the default template is loaded in Controller Editor. If not, simply choose Edit → New, this will create a default template.

Then in Logic make sure that Maschine MK3 Virtual Input is also selected, as shown here:

Then go through the octaves on the controller with SHIFT + A,B,C,D, etc…to see if notes are in the range of your selected instrument in Logic.

Quick links

Unanswered questions