What is next for Maschine +, road map?
Comments
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HW depends on SW for decades... Why should there be a roadmap for HW? Slight improvements might come, but one should not expect much more than bugfixes. Improvements are just nice bonus, if it comes.
Pretty sure it will not happen. Most of codebase is shared with Maschine 2 SW. M+ firmware is port of Maschine 2 to Linux and screens of M+.
One cannot expect more functionality than Maschine 2 has.
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There is never a “problem” with wanting development on a buggy product with some omissions that are a bit strange.
Like I would love for the auto sampler to not crash the M+ when trying to map notes with long tails. I also think it is reasonable to expect to be able to turn off auto loop globally when the sampler does a bad job at auto looping. Additionally, no crime in hoping for additions of some of NI’s rad plugs.
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Buying HW "as is" is not the deal being sold by NI. They sell a platform that is HW dependent and a promise to add more to that platform.
Users are buying into a platform.
NI needs to do much better at living up to their platform promises.
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I do not think NI sells platform. Mainly in case of M+. One could see it as platform when connected to PC, but not standalone.
I do not say M+ is exellent product without any problems. I would not buy M+ new as it is rather weak for my projects and in this way it is better and cheaper to use MK3 and MS Surface Pro instead. But still, I consider replacing my MK3 with M+, if I find one for good price (under 600 EUR) just to test if it works for me....
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HW depending on SW in a way the M+ does and the way it should integrate with the desktop is not something of the last decades. And it surely isn’t for NI as the current workflow, UI and stability shows us.
And yes, it’s a port… partially. And yes, this HW cannot support the full Maschine software incl. add-ons. But if one markets it as a standalone companion, then there’s work to do.
One thing is refining the MVP style UI and ****** workflow of importing / exporting to the desktop where the M+ even has wifi. And what about the USB ports and there half baken support for external disks.
No, as far as I can see they don’t have the capacity to do the job. Lost my trust during the last update… it took them way to long to fix the bug they introduced.
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I speak about SW inside M+ used in standalone mode. UI, workflow and stability that attributes to internal SW.
Internal SW is used massively in audiofield for at least two decades (like e.g. Eventide Eclipse - still great beast).... And SW-HW mix is being used for about half of century... (like Eventide 910 Harmonizer)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eventide,_Inc
Of course, beside that there were and still are "instruments" that are mostly or fully analog and use no internal computers.
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Yep, you’re right 👍🏻 and so NI does a pretty bad job on this one.
But I’m glad you’re a happy customer and M+ user.
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I do not use M+, I use MK3 and MS Surface 7 Pro (sort of iPad for Win). M+ is too weak for most of my projects. It was clear at the very beginning that any firmware improvement wouldn't change it...
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Well great, so the problem doesn’t concern you (this time) 👍🏻
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I get what you are saying in regards to performance while using synths in standalone projects. If you rely on those, it would be very frustrating to not be able to run them. Personally, I don't use those when in standalone. However, if I did, I would be resampling them ASAP, saving the preset and then removing the synth from the project. I usually do this while using any soft synth in my DAW as well.
Personally, I use M+ only as a sampler and sequencer. My ideal roadmap would include removing the ability to run Massive etc in standalone mode and further developing the synths that were built exclusively for Maschine. I think this would secure cpu power and allow for the development of on screen graphics, even if it was just for things like eqs, compressors, filters and maybe knob positions.
It would be nice to include further developing the sequencer to include modern tricks, like ratchets, better parameter locking and conditionals.
My thoughts are that the M+ will always struggle to be a competent synthesizer. It would be better to slim down the software of anything that is too power hungry, gaining headroom for further developments in what it is really good at - sampling and sequencing.
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All of trying to keep the current approach alive is pointless.
It is doomed to fall further and further behind and become increasingly an overpriced and less capable music creation device.
No one will buy it anymore.
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I'd prefer built-in Synths too, optimized for the device itself for lower CPU usage, however, one of the top reasons people saw the M+ as superior to alternatives was the fact that it could run NI Plugs and take advantage of NI's high-quality instrument catalog, NI used this as marketing and it's too late to take it back now as it would be a bit of a slap in the face of many buyers.
This is an interesting conversation, I am curious about what the path forward will be, will plugins generally get heavier and heavier as computer HW evolves like it has been happening for a while, or will NI start making plugins more efficient and basic just to be compatible with M+? Hard to imagine NI supporting old 'semi abandoned' synths like Massive1, FM8, etc forever on the computer side, and that's required to actually program presets.
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What are the products that are not "semi-abandoned"? Apart from sound libraries for Kontakt, there is no more movement at NI, except for external growth.
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I was thinking more along the lines of what happened to Absynth will eventually happen to FM8, Massive1, etc but that's a good question... to be honest, IDK, in the context of this conversation probably just Massive-X? It seems like MX goal was to be the endgame synth from NI but it failed to get the adoption and impact that the original Massive had. It's very CPU intensive so I can't see it ever working on low spec standalones.
Maybe they will revamp the old synths to make them fully compatible with M+ and any future standalone models? It's so odd to release the M+ and expect people will be happy with the current synth offerings it has forever.
NI doesn't seem to be in the business of making synths anymore, disposable never ending Play Series every month and Expansions is the focus for a long, long time... Maybe they just add Play Series to the M+ and call it a day, no ideia.
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Interesting discussion indeed!
I love that I can create my own sounds with Monark on the M+, and can use my favorite Massive and FM8 presets, and have a lot more synthesis options like Prism, the official Reaktor library and some RUL ensembles. For me, the open synthesis platform aspect is one of the very strong points of the M+.
Also, I prefer to create my own sounds with the Drum Synth instead of browsing through thousands of samples. But it’s great to have access to the one shots and loops of Maschine Library and Expansions as well. Best of both worlds (synth vs sample) to me.
But I don’t expect the M+ to handle CPU heavy synth plugins like a fully fledged audio workstation. Maybe because I’m a dinosaur who remembers of being able to run only one single instance of Reaktor SteamPipe and one or two effects in Logic and already maxing out the CPU. And I don’t need ten instances of Monark either - who wants to squeeze ten Moog Model D into a mix?
IMHO, the real problems with the M+ are stability and bugs, like the Audio module which kills the CPU when running more than 4 or 5 loops. Which is not a problem of the CPU, but of a bad stretching algorithm implementation.
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