What's everyone's workflow with Maschine?

Fun question. Excuse the length that's finna happen. I take ADHD meds while 47, and it makes me not be able to shut TF UP! But here's my process:

I tap every group. A-H. The way I set it up is:

A=Drums, B= you guessed it - Bass, C=Melodics (keys, lead synths, etc.) D=Samples which likely consists of 8 pads of Serato Sample (sample 2 is amazing, btw. Wish NI would buy SERATO!) E=Pads or slow synths, slow attack strings, stuff that I like to group together for a reason later. F=Percs (usually some Cuba, West Afrikan Drums, a Darbuka or Dhol for flavor out of India and Middle East titles in Kontakt.

REGARDLESS of how many groups I have, H = my FX group, which I have stored as a .mxgrp. Either a clean one with less coloring, a hip hop one with more grit, etc. etc.

I color all my groups Purple and my H group is Gold (yellow) because RQQ!!!! (iykyk, and introduce yaself. It's QueMusiQ!)

I start all my tracks with a general idea based on genre. If I don't come into Maschine lo key like "I want to do a dancehall track" or "I want to do traditional Bahamian (Junkanoo)-fusion music" (I call it CaliJunkanoo), or R&B, then I default to boom bap. I usually don't have any ideas past that, so I start sorting through random kits, of which I have...ALL of them? I start on A; "Drums".

I go through the kits, and at that point, I'll drag an empty group into B's slot, so as I go through GROUPS, I'll copy/past sounds I like over there in new B. Why: why do it this way and not just sort through kicks, snares, etc.? Because it's better to understand and appreciate drum one shots in [i]context[/i], right? Like "Weird, kick. But whatever. Ooh! Listen to that lo fi snare! Sounds GOOD with that kick! But I don't like that PRIMARY snare on pad 2, I like pad 6's snare. WOOOW, both pads 1 and 5 go GREAT togehter!" I then select a couple from a kit and drag it over, don't like the rest. And I'll do this for a number of kits until I have my 16 drums: two kicks, two snares, a HHC, a HHO, pad 7 is either a secondary closed or semi closed hat, or a tambourine. Tambs for me are SO. DAMN. IMPORTANT. in hip hop beats from the golden era, it sometimes hits with the kick, sometimes 1/16th off in lieu of pad 4 or 8 which is another HHO, or even a shaker. Depending on the A of the ASDR envelope, this open hat can alternate in function from an open hat (attack at 0), a lo fi hat (attack around 8-10) or a one shot shaker (for me, attack around 15+). Add some toms, some shaker or perc loop (which I usually create using Klevgrand Skaka or something that allows YOU to curate how the loop sounds, etc.) then two cymbals, a ride, and a crash.

B = some sorta bass. Something analog synth from a Moog or something, usually using Arturia, but LIKELY a custom Bass I made in Modo Bass 2, or UJam Mello if I want that tribe called quest jazzy upright. Also, any analog sub kick with a long tail. Often, I have a number of bass options in B for different parts of the song arrangement, or to layer (CAREFUL!) and then some basic compression on the group)

FFWD, you get it. I start wit drums 80 percent of the time, and then finish the groove with the bass. I get into the melodics, I create some options based on the key defined by the bass. I add and add until it's too much, then back off some elements. Percs come in later as a garnish. Rarely are they front and center unless it's that Bahamian Junkanoo Fusion. Most automation is handled by Cable Guys Shaperbox 3 inserts, and I'll toggle on/off different shaperbox inserts depending on what the arrangement needs. Very useful.

I route to my FX Group like this: Kicks, Snares, Hats (which includes any metallic percs), percs (anything hand percussion-ish, but if a Tom ends up sounding like an 808 conga, that too.) then "Drumbrella" which is any drum I don't want processed in one of the others. Kick goes to Master, I do NOT process it on the drum buss. pads 2,3,4, and 5 get bussed to 6: Drums, which I do process together. MY kicks I want to knock hard AF, and I can't do that if it's subject to the same dynamics processes as the rest of my drums and percs. THOSE need to be glued together, not the kick. So the Drums pad also outs to the Master.

Pad 7: Bass. Routes out to master. But ON the Bass, you got your saturation, your this, your that, but also a Cableguys Shaperbox 3 insert set to an audio triggered sidechain volume shaper that is QUICK! And multiband (I'm autisticly particular about how the kick effects each of the 3 available freq spectrums. #ActuallyAutistic #IfYouHadntGuessed), but that's a preset I have, lil tweak here or there, best low end theory sidechain plugin to ever exist. F sidechain compression. This is SURGICAL.

Pad 8 is Vox (so choir pads, vox sample chops that aren't used as a lead vox chop, etc.) routed to

Pad 9: Mel(odic) Sidechain (this is for some of the pads, the slow strings, evolving synths, etc.) and is sidechained to either the kick or the snare, and THIS isn't surgical like with the bass. THIS one is intended to pump if the song calls for it. If not, we buypass Pad 9 entirely. Either way, Pads 8 and/or 9 is routed to 10: Melodics.

Then there's a drum verb pad and a mel verb pad. Individual pads from Groups A, C, D, etc. are routed in the send to one or the other. Group b, none of those are routed to a verb. Neither are my kicks. Ever. Not my style.

Yeah but I don’t know how to do that. I must admit it does take a bit of time depending on the project of course, but I find that I’m ok with that. It just makes me use M+ even more so I don’t have to transfer project + “drag&drop” export waves into Logic again and again. After that I start making variations and fills and stuff as I go by chopping and copying from the wavs, changing rhythms if I feel the need and so on… so the finished product is still way different that my “finished product” in M+. However I try to do as much as possible in the +. But when I export I reset volumes and pans and so on. I want a clear export. Don’t ask me why, that’s just what/how I do. There might me more efficient ways to do a few things but this is how I roll haha

Found it - thanks a lot!

I know it's very popular with EDM and Hip Hop musicians, so I may be the minority here. I do singer songwriter music -- rock, pop, coutnry, folk.. and so on. I usually work in Maschine a lot and then export it all as long wave tracks and import into a DAW and then do mixing and mastering and additional tracks in there. I will usually have 30 or 40 long wave files in export and just match the bmp and drag into DAW. But I sort of use Maschine as a modular type DAW that allows me to work in chunks of bars at a time. I will do everthing from drums, bass, keys and even multitrack guitars in Maschine. The trick is you work in long scenes/sections and long sample chunks. 8, 16, 32 and sometimes ever 64 bars chunks at a time. This allows me to build variation between parts. I have gotten used to the way midi editing, automation and sampling works in Maschine so it allows me to work faster and visually its easier for me to work in scenes in the Maschine GUI. 

My templates are usually something like this.

- GRP1 Drums

- GRP2 Bass

- GRP3 Keys

- GRP4 Guitars

- GRP5 spare

- GRP6 spare

- GRP7 spare

- GRP8 - SEND FX