![]() ![]() If you’re already a Maschine user, your choice has likely already been made.Alongside Akai, other major companies created sampling machines with higher quality capabilities, larger memory capacities and higher polyphony. Do you need a DAWless, live-ready groovebox to act as the brain of your studio? If so, Maschine+ is a very attractive option even before you throw in the NI instruments. Ultimately, whether the price is justifiable to you depends more on your musical needs. ![]() Maschine+ is not an outlier at all when put up against the competition. Akai’s MPC Live II goes for £1,050 while Elektron’s Octatrack MKII retails for £1,189. That’s pretty exceptional.Īnd when compared to other, similar grooveboxes already on the market, the price tag is not unreasonable. Maschine+ offers a DAWless groovebox capable of running Native Instruments plugins. Why buy a £2700 synth when you already have a MIDI controller and a crack of Repro? They’re clearly entirely different experiences. Why get a Maschine+ when they can just use the computer they already have? You could say the same for the new Sequential Prophet 5. ![]() Some, however, have baulked at the price tag. It’s clearly a top-shelf instrument that commands a premium price. But this is to be expected as nothing about it feels cheap. So how about that price? At £1,175, Maschine+ is not cheap. This is a groovebox after all, and not a laptop. But really, the current model should be satisfactory for all but really extreme situations. Perhaps someday, NI will offer different versions of Maschine hardware with options for more RAM and faster processors, much like Apple does with its laptops. While some instruments are more taxing than others (hello, Reaktor 6), this turned out to be less of an issue than expected. This was not a stress test but rather a typical use case with eight or so channels. While some expressed concern online about hitting processor ceilings, our test song averaged about 57% CPU usage. The unit comes with a 64GB SD card for storage but you’ll want to upgrade to a bigger card sooner rather than later (it supports up to 1 TB). While there are only a few name plugin effects available, the included Maschine environment effects-such as reverb, delay and compression-are satisfactory and get the job done. Working with plugins like Reaktor 6 and Massive inside a piece of standalone hardware feels rather miraculous. Where before they were hosted in the software on your PC, now they’re native to the hardware experience as well. The main difference to using an MK3 is setting it up-it connects to your wifi and downloads expansions, instruments and effects to the hardware-and of course the presence of those Native Instruments plugins. Working with Maschine+ is just as it was before, minus the computer (which is still available in Controller Mode, should you wish to go big). We were nothing but impressed with the hardware side of Maschine+. Much like climbing into a BMW, using the Maschine+ is like interfacing with a superior and high-quality machine. The Maschine+ is clearly a premium instrument. Round the back, there are pairs of quarter-inch TRS inputs and outputs, a quarter-inch dynamic mic input, DIN MIDI in and out, USB for connecting to the computer as well as two additional ones for adding MIDI controllers or external hard drives. At 2.5kg, it’s not going to slide off a desk anytime soon. ![]() The pads and buttons are chunky and substantial, and the knobs perfectly resistant. Thus it’s housed in a suitably heavy-duty, anodized aluminium chassis. This is a standalone unit, after all, and is meant not only for studio work but for taking on the road. While the layout may be familiar, the construction on the Maschine+ is all-new. Lastly, a horizontal Smart Strip is on hand for parameter and performance tweaking. There are 16 pads for pounding in drums and notes, plus a wealth of other buttons for accessing other features. There are two screens at top right plus eight endless encoders and a four-directional push encoder for getting around. Longtime Maschine users will feel immediately comfortable with the new unit, as it’s based on the MK3 hardware. The logical next step in its evolution was to go standalone, and that’s just what the German company has done with Maschine+. With a tiered price point that veers from the budget Mikro to the impressive two-screened MK3, and features that have seen it incorporate everything from sample chopping to drum and bass synthesis, the Maschine environment has won over many producers. With Maschine +, Native Instruments cut the computer tether to offer a premium DAWless beat-making experience-but is it worth the price?įor the better part of a decade, Native Instruments has been steadily improving Maschine, its beat-making environment. ![]()
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