This tutorial shows you how to load and play instruments in maschine.
It also shows you how to play melodies from your pads and change the octaves of your pads if you aren’t using a keyboard midi controller.
An instrument differs from a kit in the fact that it is usually a melodic sound or noise spread across multiple octaves of you keyboard.
This would be things like brass, bass, strings, synths, keyboards, guitar, and other melodic instruments.
*you can access this video instantly when you join today!
I'm sure you know it but, just to let new peeps know:
-you can lock the pad mode view by selecting the 1st button above the left screen
(especially useful to know when you want to sey the notes your playing to start developing a scale to use in the pattern/song)
Yep, planned to cover that one in the specific pad mode video where I go over all the options in pad mode:)
NIce tip!
Whats up Bro? Had Maschine for a week, stayed up all night every night and learned nothing. Finally broke down and joined you guys yesterday. Super_Satisfied!! One thing, the Managing VST and AU Plugins Inside Maschine video is not showing up? Is there some special way to access it?
Hey, my keyboard only works when i have a DAW open. i cannot play an instrument using my midi keyboard just through the maschine sequencer. Please help
go into your maschine audio/midi preferences and turn your midi keyboard on as an input
https://maschinetutorials.com/understanding-the-audio-and-midi-settings-tab
im diggin this tutorial! i aint got a a midi keyboard yet, so this is really helpful. allows me to mess with it as I piece my equipment together. I’ll apologize in advance my dude, I’m probably gonna be asking a ton of Q’s since I’m new, and i mean new to all this hardware and software. Been spinnin on Technics 1200’s since 95 and never even messed with MPC’s, Maschine, DAW, etc. I’m glad to have joined your site, as I’ve browsed around here and find everything I come accross so far to be informative.
word brother! no apology needed, we are here specifically to help you man, ask away!! Welcome to the MT fam! I’m sure you’ve got some knowledge to share from all your dj experience so don’t forget to checkout the forums and chill wit folks!
Yo Joe, first time i plugged my midi keyboard in (MPK25) I was able to load a sound on a pad and play it on the keyboard. Since i closed out that session its not responding to any instrument i load up. Thought it was just a plug and play type of deal, any ideas or something i need to fix in the settings?
Thanks
make sure your mpk didn’t get turned off in maschine’s midi settings, make sure it’s “on” as a midi input device
Thanks Joe, definitely worked, but ran into another problem… I got a track down last night, but when i opened it today all my notes are sustaining for an insane amount of time.. the strings play 1 note and it holds and doesn’t stop even after it stops playing. does it with all my sounds except the drums, and I dont know wtf to do or how it got this way. any idea on how to fix it?
weird, want to send me the file? Is it all internal instruments? Make sure your grid isn’t set to 1/1 or 1/2 or something like that. Also make sure the MPK didn’t send any sustain info into Maschine that could be causing it. Hit the button at the bottom of the pattern that looks like a grid, it let’s you see what automation is there, if there is sustain data you can take it out or adjust it as needed.
sure i can send the file, how do i go about doing it? and yeah its all internal instruments and there’s no automation data. nothing on my mpk is turned on to send additional data. It’s weird because it was playing back fine last night, but just when i re-opened the file shit went haywire. thanks for the timely response too man
just send to help at maschinetutorials.com
the instrument i used is the math after in the strings section. I started a new session and its still doing it, but it does it when i play it on the pads too and dont even have the mpk plugged in
Sounds like something else weird is going on, some setting must have changed.
http://www.mediafire.com/file/y098abf3f8g8cqb/Beat1.mprj this is the file. have a look, hopefully you can diagnose the problem because this shits weak!
ahhh i think i got it.. my hard drive was full, and it was messing with my comp, cause other things were acting weird. just made some decent space, re-opened it and everythings working properly. thanks anyways big joe!
good to know! lol
wow! great tutor! it really helped me out a lot, thanks SJ
glad to help fam!
Good day Mr. Saintjoe luvin every bit to MT.com!! & gettin to kno maschine:). I should have gotten the big brother version tho:/ can u please explain for me regarding the mikro version.
changing octaves on the mikro that is? thank-u
Welcome!
When you’re in keyboard mode, you can press the pad mode button and you’ll see the octave buttons.
https://maschinetutorials.com/maschine-mikro-changing-pad-octaves-when-in-keyboard-mode
Really enjoying your site, I’m a rookie now but I’m rollin I’m staying a member, looking high and low for help, and found you thanks
Really enjoying your site, I’m a rookie now but when I’m rollin I’m staying a member, looking high and low for help, and found you thanks
Glad you found us fam, let us know if you have any questions
Dear Saint J,
When I press the red square icon in the software, the hardware says SOUND (but I can still choose an instrument below in the software , when I press the keyboard icon (next to the pattern icon), then the hardware says instrument (where I can only choose Spark. Why is this different. And why don t you have the keyboard icon in your software. Im using Mikro by the way
Thanks
This video was done a while back with an older version. The keyboard tab shows plugin presets only
Dear Saint J ,
which tutorial explains how to hook up a midi keyboard in maschine so that you can play the sound with keyboard instead of pads ..
Thanks !!!
check this out fam
https://maschinetutorials.com/understanding-the-audio-and-midi-settings-tab
Dear SJ ,
Thanks ! All s working fine !! another question arose
I was looking at the ableton > maschine series and you were “hot swapping” baselines using keyboard tab ..
.. If I have Komplete 7 elements .. why does only spark appears when I press the keyboard tab ?
Thanks !
Instruments now refer to plugins and modules wheras sounds are individual sample based instruments or any instruments where you’ve saved the individual pad settings.
Dear Saint Joe ,
In the soft- and hardware what the difference between SOUND / INSTRUMENT – tab ? (I have maschine mikro 1.7.2)
I didn t change the default library but all my instruments are under SOUND while under INSTRUMENT I have almost nothing
A bit confusing ..
Also whats the difference between XXX and XXX 1.5 ?
Thanks !!
Hey do you have any recommendations for a midi keyboard that is not too expensive but is sufficient. Working on the pad is a bit limiting. The videos are great and really helping.
something like a simple keystation should be fine
On the Mikro we don’t have the second screen obviously, is there any way of showing note names on the piano roll so we can tell what Octave we are in etc.
You know like on Ableton all the Octaves are named C3, C4 etc on the piano roll and then you zoom in and it tells you the note names.
Anything like that in Maschine?
not currently, the piano roll is sorta limited many of us have expressed our desire for more details, including note audition when placing notes on the piano roll
Hey man. Literally been rushing back from work to get back on this. Everything is explained briliantly. 2 quick things: Ive noticed my load times when switching between any sounds, but in this case the same acoustic guitar instrument sounds as you have in this vid, using the previous and next button, the load times are considerably longer this end. Im using an external sound card (xstation) speedy mac and just have stand alone Maschine running. 2nd thing. If I follow your steps to the letter, go to browse mode, set filter to sound, choose ‘instruments’ in bank, then guitar… Read more »
loading speed has a lot to do with your hard drive speed
The browser issue is a bug with the quick browse, hopefully it’s fixed in the next version
Hello
Is it preferable to have a usb only midi keyboard or is it easier or better to get a keyboard with midi routed directly from the Maschine to the keyboard?
Either will work fine, I say go usb if you can unless you don’t have anough usb ports
I just signed up to this site. I can’t view the videos properly on my ipad. I need to use the ipad while I use my computer for maschine, will this be fixed soon? Thanks
What issue are you having? We have people using iPads and mobile devices quite often. Some of the older videos do not go full screen on mobile if that’s what you mean? Due to the video host we were using for them, but the ones that have been migrated to our new host should work in full screen on the ipad. There’s still a few left I have to migrate over. What version of Maschine are you using? If you are on version 2 you’ll probably want to start here first https://maschinetutorials.com/maschine-2-quickstart/
Hey, Saint joe, thanks for the reply . The screen was cut in half, with the above video, but that was this morning and now it works just fine. Thanks. I’m in between which is a bit odd, I have maschine mk2 but with maschine 2.1. Are all the 2.0 tutorials using maschine studio? Is , “studio” that much better?
We have some on mk2 specific stuff with 2.0 also, but the software is all the same. I enjoy the Studio a lot but it’s not required to enjoy 2.0 just depends on what you’re comfortable with. I really enjoy the screens and dedicated mix view, thinks like that are great. Also tap tempo button, metronome buttons, etc and the in/out knob at the top is cool too.
Ive been trying to locate the sax sound in maschine 2.0 software, having trouble and I really want to use that specific sound on some beats.. is it a 3rd party plugin or sample or something… thanks for the sessions, it’s really helpnig!
Shaun
Make sure you’re looking under sounds, it’s an instrument in the Maschine library. Don’t look under instruments (plugins)
awesome! Thank you I found it!
No problem fam!