Noisetheorem

I have decided to write this review in two parts: one now, detailing my first weekend with the product, and one later on when I have become more familiar with it and fully put it through its paces in detail.

Initially, when I heard about NI’s Maschine, I was very excited.  Here was the hardware/software integrated drum machine update to the MPC concept I had been waiting for.  Then I found out the details, specifically that it requires connection to the computer to run.  While the controller *looks* like one hell of a drum machine, it is actually just a controller with only a USB connection and a pair of MIDI sockets on the back.  I was bummed.  At the time, I was in the midst of a pure hardware kick and didn’t like the idea of being permanently tethered to a computer.  My interest went back to the MPC line and I eventually got a MPC2500.

Well, time passes, and I start getting really hardcore in to software again triggered by a rethinking of my studios basic ergonomics.   I started playing with the NI software that I had for a long time but hardly used, discovering it a new. Kontact, Massive, Absynth, FM8, and Battery all found new spaces in my heart and in my workflow. 

As I was playing with these apps, I noticed a gaping whole in the NI ecosystem. While it was nice that you had something like Battery to quickly layout a drum kit, I was completely dependent on a host sequencer to drive it. This works, mind you, but its not as lovely or elegant as working with FL Studio or my MPC to craft beats.  There is something about having a tailor made UI when it comes to working with beats.  This circled me back to Maschine, and after a big eBay sale..I pulled the trigger.  It arrived yesterday.

First Impressions

After unboxing the box containing Maschine (why companies feel the need to double the size of their package and waste so much cardboard and paper is beyond me) I was greeted by the very attractive controller pictured below:

NI did NOT cut corners on this thing.  It is no surprise that so many people thought this was a hardware MPC killer when they saw it.   When working the design, it is clear to me that their inspiration was the MPC line, and not the endless range of cheap plastic pad controllers that are currently flooding the market.  NI wanted to aim higher, and I think they hit a bull’s-eye.

Also contained in the box were manuals, the software (with Mac and PC DVDs included) a coupon for an NI sound library, and the registration code.

Installation

For some reason, the first time I tried to run the installer it failed on me.  I don’t know why, it just gave an error and said ‘finish’.  Running it a second time, the install proceeded perfectly.  Go figure – this is windows vista after all…(yes..vista….and I have no problems with it usually).

After installation, I ran the NI Service Center application to register the product.  The Service Center app has matured a bit over the years, and really does a great job of handling your NI registrations.  It definitely beats the days of having a separate registration system for each application and having to be careful which version of update xyz you ran.  This app handles it and handles it well…and without resorting to a hardware USB key (props to NI on that!).

After updating the driver to the most current version, plugged in the hardware box and dove in.

The Idiot Test

To be a proper idiot test, you require two things: a new piece of gear, and an idiot to play with it.  Having both in the room, I decided to jump right in and not bother with the manual.  I also wanted to really test the hardware integration, so I turned of my computer monitor while doing my initial test.  I wanted to see how far I could really go without the benefits of a computer display.

You know, it is a true shame that NI doesn’t build hardware UI’s.  Korg, Roland, Yamaha, Akai and all the others could really learn a thing or two from Maschine.  Its layout is simple to navigate, and I was able to get a beat going, completely unaided by the computer, within minutes.  Everything from selecting sounds to sampling audio (it uses the audio inputs you specify on your sound card) can be done from the box without ever needing to look at the computer.  I particularly liked the x0x style drum editing.  

The design of the box is very solid, as I stated before.  The buttons are all backlight to give you instant information on the status of what your working with.  The dual displays with their row of knobs underneath are perfect for navigation.  Really, I think this is the first hardware synth UI that I have actually fell in love with. 

Digging deeper

After about an hour of idiot testing (man was it getting late at this point) I decided to turn the monitor back on and see how operating it from there was.  Could it be they put all their efforts into the hardware box, and didn’t polish off the software as much as the could have?  Thankfully, the answer to that is a big NO. 

The software Is laid out very logically, with group and scene selection at top, a file browser at the left, and a big sequencing window in the center, taking up the majority of the applications real-estate.  One very nice thing is that you can actually maximize the application window to take full advantage of the entire computer screen.  THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU NI!!!.  

Everything you can do on the hardware box you can do here, though honestly I do think the hardware box is easier for some things (sequencing).  One nice discovery I made is that each ‘pad’ sound is actually its own complete instrument track. In the software, you can switch that to a piano roll view and set pitches for pitched instruments.  This is really great, and something the MPC just cannot do given its architecture. 

So how does it sound?

Marvelous.  I only tested it with the provided library, which is very extensive. Finding sounds is easy either with the control surface or the software.  All the sounds have been categorized (bank, type, subtype), so you can drill down to what you want easily.  finding an 808 or 909 kick is just as simple as setting Drums-Kick-Analog  and scrolling through and auditioning your choices.

I haven’t had much time to get into trying to design my own sounds with it just yet.  So far my impression is that this is definitely no replacement for Battery or Kontact, but its a quite respectable voice structure none the less.  NI is pretty careful not to let one of their products overlap to greatly with any of their other ones, so this does no surprise me.  I do think it would be nice if there were a way to import your Battery and Kontact sets into Maschine for sequencing (maybe I missed it?). 

Preliminary Conclusions

If you like the concept of the MPC line, then you will love Maschine.  Its not as big and ambitious as FL studio, and its definitely more comprehensive than Guru.   Its not DAW, though you could probably squeeze whole productions out of it if you really tried. 

As much as I love Maschine, I cant leave without mentioning the one thing that is missing: Comprehensive MIDI output.  If I could drive my hardware from the Maschine Sequencer…I would be happier than pigs in shit, and my MPC would be on the way to a quick eBay auction.   According to the NI site, this is in Beta right now, so it may not be too long before Maschine is driving my entire rig..

I have been to busy to post anything of substance lately, so I thought I’d drop a short update to the internets.

MFB Synth II

I traded an unused Waccom drawing tablet I had for an MFB Synth II recently.  I actually didn’t have high hopes for it, considering what I got it in trade for.  I was totally wrong!  This thing is like having Bon Harris from Nitzer Ebb in a box only better, because you do not have to feed or bathe him.   I am seriously thinking of putting together a few demos with just this and the MPC.  You could probably write ‘That Total Age pt 2’ in a weekend.

Short To Ground

The band got back together last Sunday for its first rehearsal in a while.  We put things on hold for the summer, and it was good to get started again.  I was pleasantly surprised to find I still do actually remember how to play the songs, which I count as a win.  I love playing live.  Its so much more interesting than beating my keys all by my lonesome in the studio at night. 

Korg M3 – One year, and still in love

Part of practicing meant playing the M3 again, and I fucking love that keyboard.  I keep finding more and better stuff to do with it, and it never disappoints me.  You just need to take step back, think, and then execute.  I have even started digging into Karma recently, and that is going to start bearing fruit for the live set shortly.

Maschine

I have a copy coming my way.  Full report to come when I get the chance.  I definitely plan to do a shoot out between the MPC2500 and Maschine, just because I can.  Going to be a lovely lovely weekend.

Sentimental gear – now for trade.

You know, I thought about the list of gear I had in my studio that is sitting here basically because it wouldn’t make any sense to eBay it or because it had some kind of stupid sentimental value.  Then I had the trade for the MFB and I got to thinking ‘Hey!  That stuff has to be worth something to someone, right?’.  Maybe..

If you want any of the following: Yamaha TG33, Yamaha TG500, Kawai XD-5, Emu E64 sampler, Iomega Jazz Drive, or a CD-Rom Drive (all SCSI in that list) and you have something, particularly cheap FX or guitar pedals, then drop me a line.

I need a vacation.

I do.  I really really do.  Just thought I would mention that.

I am a geek, and geeks like stats. I therefore now have a stats engine on this blog. Yay. My ego can now inflate (or deflate) on every click, referral, page view and download. click away, me droogies, click away..

A discussion on a mailing list I participate in got me to thinking.  The subject of that thread (as this post) states that keys are un-cool.  Honestly, I can’t deny that.  It is now true and has been true forever.  Keys ARE uncool.

Why?

There are a lot of reasons.   Historically, keys were heavy being in the form of Piano’s or Organs.  Even now, a keyboard will weigh in at a good 30 lbs (or more if its a full 88 key weighted action).  What this means, is that keyboard players cant move on stage.  Unless they put the whole thing on rollers and have stage hands pushing you around the stage like, your stuck in one place.  That is significantly less cool than being the singer, bassist or guitarist.  They can go anywhere and own the stage. 

Drummers also cannot move.  But drummers are swinging sticks around, often not wearing a shirt, and make a LOT of noise.   They get a pass, because you can SEE what they are doing.  Keyboard players are hidden behind these big beastly things with a few chords coming out the back.  The most they can do, is move their legs a little and make metal face. 

I should note that at one point, some brilliant individual thought to make a lighter keyboard you could strap on and move around just like the guitar and bass players.  It was a good idea….only it just doesn’t work.  all a ‘keytar’ does is make you look like you have guitar-envy at best, and very very gay at worst (unless you are gay…then its a good thing!).  While I don’t have the research to back up the assertion, I would postulate that no keyboard player playing a keytar has ever ever ever gotten eyes from the most desperate of groupies. 

Another factor, I think, is the addition of the laptop to the modern keyboard players rig.  Great…you didn’t look like enough of a dork standing in the back there, you had to add a computer to your rig.  What’s more, it just totally fucks with the light show.  I have even seen guys on stage with more than one laptop, like they are setting up a studio tanning booth right there on stage.  Guess what hot shot?  You don’t look cool.  You look like an ass. 

The final factor, and I think this is the most damming, is the toy factor.  For most people, their interaction with keyboards is via very cheap toys that sound as crappy as they are  built.  True, you can go into a Toys ‘R’ Us and find other instruments as toys, however the toy level keyboards are actually indistinguishable from their professional counterparts.  You can tell the difference between a fisher price ‘my first saxophone’ and the real thing.   Telling the difference between a Casio CT670 and a Korg M3?   Even the names imply they are the same thing. 

The toy factor also enters into the professional space, however.   Because software is so much a part of music creation, cheap crappy MIDI keyboard controllers have become the norm.  You never see controllers that are also quality instruments.   Music shops increasingly carry more of these than they do actual hardware synths, which means more and more people will think ‘emu xboard’ when you say synthesizer.

What can we do about this?  Pretty much nothing.  As software becomes the only synthesizers, the keyboard will be increasingly regarded as just another computer peripheral, and will be as cool playing a mouse or trackball. 

I think this is what is driving so many electronic musicians to use alternate controllers like the Monome or the many ableton controllers coming out.  In fact, I see some of the most disdain for the keyboard interface among electronic musicians.  I don’t quite understand it, but the resentment is palpable. 

All that said, I am a keyboard player and proud to be such.  I don’t feel limited by the interface, because I can get the sounds I am after if I pursue them.  And, for me, its about the sound and the song not about what interface I used to enter the notes.   With all their faults, they are cool enough for me.    

Yesterday I took the day off of work.  Partly it was to get a few things done around the house, and partly it was to take a trip to Guitar Center with my friend and band mate Jason Weaver (Dead Man’s Kassette).  It was an interesting trip. 

The first interesting bit was that I have just come off a round of eBay selling that went pretty well.  It was all part of my usual pattern of recycling gear into cash and back into gear again, while also paying down a few lingering debts.  I sold off a lot of little odds and ends this time around, and a few things I just was not using.  So hear I am going into GC with some actually money to spend.

So what did I get?  Nothing.  Absolutely nothing.  We went to two shops, and nothing held my interested for even a fleeting second.  For the firs time in like…ever…I cant really point to any piece of modern gear that I want enough to actually buy.   That is just weird for me.

Part of it is the fact that I am feeling a bit torn by my recent purchase of an MPC2500.  I really do love the thing:  its fun to use, it does the job, and its just great to be running an actual hardware sequencer that does what it says it does with as few headaches as possible.  It just works.

But it also doesn’t work…The 2500 has an absolutely terrible FX section.  TERRIBLE.  They basically might as well have just left it off.  The idea of using it as a self contained music production environment just doesn’t work if you don’t have at least some kind of FX section.

Obviously Akai know this, too, because on the MPC5000, they have an *excellent* FX section.  You have 4 busses, and each buss can have up to two effects.  In addition, the list of FX is not limited to a crap reverb, a crap delay, some crap bit crushing (how do you do bad bit crushing?  Akai found a way on the 2500.).  I don’t know how good the FX sound, but I would have to say they will at least sound *better* than the 2500.

So now I am looking at my options of upgrading the 2500 to the 5000.  I could pretty much sell the 2500 (at a profit – i got sweet deal on it) and get a new or used 5000 (they come up regularly on eBay).  I could do that.  Except for a recent curve ball thrown by that most illustrious of German software makers: Native Instruments.

Maschine was very interesting to me when it was first announced, but for three reasons I did not purchase it:  One, it had no MIDI out.  Two, it was listed at $700, an insane amount for a soft synth.  Three it was absolutely tied to the computer – the controller is just a controller, with no audio capability of its own. 

The first two reasons are really intertwined.  If I am going to spend $700 on a piece of hardware/software I want MIDI out.  Well, according to NI, update 1.1.0 of Maschine will have MIDI out.  It is already in beta, but I have yet to hear about how well it actually works or what it allows you to do.   While I don’t ever buy software or hardware based on promises by the Manufacturer for future improvements, in this case..I think its a safe bet that value will be added. 

On the issue of price, the street price is a more attractive $600.  The controller can also be used to control other software (more added value). The more they keep adding, the more reasonable it begins to look.  If your willing to risk it, you can also get copies on eBay for significantly less. 

The last point is still 100% true.  It is and forever shall be a controller tied to a computer.  But as I discussed in my last blogging, I am finding my opposition to software synthesis diminishing as I make my setup more ergonomic. 

But where does it end? Its the ergonomics of hardware that I like, and the better I get at recreating that, the more likely I am to use just software.   Will I soon be selling the M3 and Blofeld and taking a controller and a Muse Receptor on stage?  Maybe.  And I cant believe how tempting it is to just go for it.

So my options for what to do are thus: 

• Do nothing, sit on the cash (an option – I could hook up the MPC to the PC and setup FX busses in there). 
• Upgrade the 2500 to the 5000
• Get machine, and decide what to do with the MPC later.

So, kind internet, what do you think?