So we used to be able to record the pads in realtime in Cubase, however with the MIDI changes in Maschine 2.0 it’s not as simple as it used to be and causes a bunch of MIDI feedback or you have to do too many workarounds to make it happen.
I made this video to show and explain MIDI drag and drop, so that you can have an alternative for working with your MIDI sequence data directly in Cubase.
The MIDI drag and drop has changed as well and there are some things you will want to know to avoid any headaches when you’re in creation mode.
Of course if you have questions just let me know!
Join today to access all of our exclusive tutorials, content, member community, and more!
That’s a coding flaw. I understood what you did in the video, but that’s a broken system. They’re going to have fix that asap or that’s going to be a deal breaker for me. {Warning rant mode:} It’s always something with N.I. and the midi portion of the maschine software. Do these guys not get it, or they just don’t give a damn. Oh well; 2014 is around the corner and I’m pretty sure the competition is gearing up.
I don’t know if it’s a flaw as much as it is bad design really, as it’s designed to work like this…from a workflow standpoint I feel it’s a flaw, but in terms of the actual code it’s not a flaw (bug) it’s just bad design imo. I think they need to make it much simpler in my opinion, they tried to get too fancy and broke something that was super easy. It’s way too involved now and the people that like to use Maschine in a DAW will suffer if they want to drag and drop. If you want… Read more »
Okay I can go for the bad design concept, That makes a little more sense but I still think that’s inexcusable.
I noticed you mentioned possible midi echo, I know in Cubase 7 that could be problem if midi monitoring is enabled for that channel.
Yep, there is really no way around it that is worth doing in terms of composing. It happens in pretty much every daw, in 1.8 it works fine and I think it’s due to how they had things coded. I think it would be best if they just gave us the option to have the pads output midi into the daw, that way, we could choose maschine itself as the input device for creating the notes and still have it trigger the plugin on another track without making us go into MIDI mode.
Thank you, that’s what I’m talking about.
Honestly they seem to be doing everything in a nutshell to avoid giving users that function.
Yeah man, would be very useful in my opinion.
I really don’t see ( at least for me) what the point of having the vst is if you can’t easily route your groups, separate instruments into your daw with midi data. This is how I like doing it drag and drop is ok I suppose but I like continuous workflow action as if it were a Kontakt instrument ect. Of course opening up a Maschine project in a daw and routing it out straight to audio is great for a lot of people I get that but I really would like to be able to simply open up the… Read more »
It’s messy, just give us the option to record midi from the pads WHILE IN MASCHINE MODE as a plugin and we’d be good. Set the input for a midi track to be the maschine controller, route that midi track to the maschine plugin, no midi loop issues, and smooth workflow! This is how it should work in my opinion, I’m just not a fan of putting Maschine in controller mode to trigger the Maschine plugin, I mean it works but…it’s just not the same and shouldn’t be necessary.
It seems like all the major daw and pseudo daw companies have decided to not step on each others toes and make it harder to integrate seamlessly at least most of them. Or maybe just the daws I own lol!
LOL man I have no clue what the deal is LOL
Now that everyone has had their rant, can I ask how we do this in studio one. I would love to be able to
Work in maschine mode when working in S1
Process is exactly the same in terms of Maschine configuration.
Justified rants! Lol
Well… I still find that the easiest way is to switch in midi Controller Mode and record directly in Cubase. This, way I can use Maschine as a Plugin, without feedback, and without dragging midi in. The hardest part is to calibrate the Pad in Controller mode to have the same feel as in Maschine mode. For now, I feel like the “soft 2” is almost the same thing. (Using maschine studio here). The only major pitfall of this… is that it is really heavy on the CPU. I have multiple instance of Maschine 2.0 (almost one per instrument, except… Read more »
Yeah, if you want to do it in realtime, that’s the alternative. I personally don’t like using Maschine in “controller mode” as I want full control over Maschine paramters. Hopefully they give us another option, but I know many that do work that way as well.
In a Ideal World I would be recording directly into Maschine. But I am so used to Cubase…. I did macros and shortcut with Maschine in controller Mode… so I don’t even use the mouse.
But, workflow wise, is Maschine “daw” would be fine for a “song ” writer? I mean, is recording guitars and vox more easiest now or still a bit complicated? In fact, that is the only thing constraining me for the full switch to Maschine.
Yeah…I just don’t dig the concept of mapping a controller to the software it was made for LOL, call me stubborn 😉
I don’t use it in a daw much personally, but I still feel they could make it much smoother. I have been waiting for true audio tracks in Maschine forever, once they do that I would be totally happy, as long as there is a way to arrange them in a linear fashion as well 🙂
+1000!
😉
Saint-Joe…
I have a MAJOR bug in Cubase with Maschine as vst instrument / instrument…
When I reopen a project I’ve work on with Maschine in it as vst instrument, all my controls are gone.
I’ve post the details here if you want to have more details or see the printscreen of it.
http://www.native-instruments.com/forum/showthread.php?211416-Maschine-2-0-controls-disappear-when-VST-in-Cubase!!&p=1235685#post1235685
Do you have this bug too??
I will check and see
Thanks. This is really appreciated.
Thanks for the tutorial Saint Joe…..
I have a question…. I follow everything in your tutorial and it all works fine…. however if I then decide to add say a synth to Group B and press record in Maschine all the drum notes from the drum pattern playing from Cubase get recorded back into Maschine again. I can’t find a way to have the midi drum parts playing from Cubase without recording again into Maschine when you hit record….. any ideas? Its like I want to have record arm buttons in Maschine for just group B…..
Change the channel you have your midi going to, also make sure you do not have record enabled in the Maschine sequencer
I’m wanting to record in the Maschine sequencer, but it doesn’t seem possible if there are cubase midi events playing Maschine parts…. It seems that after the midi events are moved from Maschine to Cubase like in your video, after doing this it is no longer possible to record in maschines sequencer anymore, as Maschine will re-record in the midi events that Cubase sequencer is playing, which has the effect of doubling up the notes / drum hits as both cubase and Maschine are playing the same notes / drum hits…
Is there anyway around this?
Ahhh ok, yeah if you have the midi going back into Maschine and you press record it’s going to record it as long as it’s receiving MIDI on those channels. Is there any specific reason or benefit for wanting to record into Maschine, drag into Cubase, and then record into Maschine again? Is it possible to record your different parts in Maschine first, then drag when you have the parts you want? Or is there a specific reason you need the midi in Cubase while recording other data in Maschine? The only other way I can think would be to… Read more »
Thanks saint joe you are exactly right, that is what I am trying to do… I mainly use Cubase to work in but I wanted to incorporate Maschine so that I could use the library search functions, which makes finding NI sounds across all its products easy, alongside the instantly mapped 8 knobs to be able to easily tweak the sounds. So doing most of the non-drum midi programming from Cubase. This works fine by itself, but then if I want to then record and play the Maschine drum pads into Maschine to add say some percussion then that’s when… Read more »
Hi,
Getting abit frustrated with the whole Maschine. Trying to get a workflow together with Cubase, but its sooo backwards. 2.0 is a complete disaster for me workflow-wise.
The approach in this video limits the possibility of playing a kick (for example) on different semitones, because if you do it triggers the other sample which has been transposed to that certain semitone.
I feel I cant get this Maschine 2.0 to give me a decent workflow.
Yeah ifeel you man! You would put the kick in pad mode and leave it on its own midi channel than it should work.
Hehe yes Im afraid thats the only option in this case. Really hope NI will make something similar as the midi batch-option in 1.8. Studio and 2.0 is great, but this is a major blunder from NI, and I guess they have heared it allready so maybe in next update, or in not a distant future, we’ll have a decent option.
Thanks!
Yeah, def need to fix it man.
Thanks for this tutorial Saint Joe. This was pretty much exactly what I had been trying to figure out for the past few weeks, well the way it worked in your video at least. Im using Logic X but I imagine its the same procedure. The problem I have is that when I recreate everything in the video then drag the midi into Logic all the midi notes show up on one track and all the notes are visible in Logics sequencer but only the kick drum plays. I have tried transposing exponentially both ascending and descending but still no… Read more »
Hey fam, make sure you turn midi input on for the group and not just the sound (kick) it’s very easy to do that thinking you’re on the group tab and be on the sound tab since the view of the pads doesn’t change. Also, check the note you set the group to start on make sure it’s c3 if you setup the transpose for the pads to start at c3 like the video.