How to Play BATTERY Kits with a MASCHINE Controller upside down

ProfessorChaos · 2023-02-25T06:09:01+00:00

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No, I don't want to play Battery 4 kits with my Maschine Mikro MK3 upside down. I just got the thing a couple of days ago and I'm trying to make it work as a drum pad.

In trying to find answers about that, I found this article: https://support.native-instruments.com/hc/en-us/articles/4416148942865-How-to-Play-BATTERY-Kits-with-a-MASCHINE-Controller

So I was psyched that I was going to be able to use it with Battery 4, but one thing is weird, and if it's the way it is so be it, but if I load a 4x4 matrix in Battery 4, and I press Group and the third pad in the Mikro, I can hit every single cell.

The only small problem is that one of them is upside down. If I press the pad that is at the bottom left, that triggers the cell A1 in Battery, meaning, the one that is on the top left.

Basically, the whole bottom row in the Mikro is the top row in Battery 4, the top row in the Mikro is the bottom row in Battery 4, and I assume you got it by now.

So other than reprogramming each pad with Controller Editor, is there a way to make them match?

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Maschine Mikro MK3

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D-One

@ProfessorChaos said:

So other than reprogramming each pad with Controller Editor, is there a way to make them match?

There is, but it might be the worst solution depending on your needs...

You can change the input note in every cell to whatever you want: Make a new kit, click the MIDI Icon next to Key Range and press a Pad 2x, do that for all cells, save it then in the Preferences> Loading> Kit> Template Kit the "Set To Current Kit". Now every time your start a new kit that pre-mapped patch will load.

However, if you then load library Kits from the browser it will overwrite the mapping, so the above will only work if you like building your own kits, for this reason, you are really better off mapping it in Controller Editor, it's super easy to do.. You just re-assign notes to the pads starting on C1.

@Waxandpads said:

I agree, I don't understand why it is that way. That's why I almost never use it unfortunately

As to why I only speculate but my guess is it's just related to the history of Battery.

Maschine is from 2009 and Battery is from 2002, since there was no Maschine at the time matching the 4x4 physical layout was most likely not considered, the aim was probably just MIDI Keyboards, if that's the case then it's more natural to order the cells the same way we read text, left to right, top-to-bottom... Spreadsheet style.
Unfortunately, with a 4x4 Pad controller, it's the opposite, it makes sense to start the opposite way we read simply because we then have Pad-1 closest to our hands. If I am not mistaken this standard originated with the MPC60.

IMO, at least after the release of Maschine NI should have added a 1 click function to simply set all the Cell's input notes ordered from the bottom left corner, or a way to load Kit's without overwriting the MIDI Map (like Maschine's Browser can).

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Waxandpads

I agree, I don't understand why it is that way. That's why I almost never use it unfortunately

D-One

@ProfessorChaos said:

So other than reprogramming each pad with Controller Editor, is there a way to make them match?

There is, but it might be the worst solution depending on your needs...

@Waxandpads said:

I agree, I don't understand why it is that way. That's why I almost never use it unfortunately

As to why I only speculate but my guess is it's just related to the history of Battery.

Maschine is from 2009 and Battery is from 2002, since there was no Maschine at the time matching the 4x4 physical layout was most likely not considered, the aim was probably just MIDI Keyboards, if that's the case then it's more natural to order the cells the same way we read text, left to right, top-to-bottom... Spreadsheet style.
Unfortunately, with a 4x4 Pad controller, it's the opposite, it makes sense to start the opposite way we read simply because we then have Pad-1 closest to our hands. If I am not mistaken this standard originated with the MPC60.

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