Although MatrixsynthB is awesome, it’s kind of counter-intuitive.
It’s a blog that scowers eBay for the best analogue and digital studio gear and posts it up.
Great, except that so many people read the blog that the prices just soar and you’ll never find a bargain (unless nobody wants it, which was the case with my FB01).
Regardless, it’s a wonderful place to visit to both keep track of prices so you know what’s a bargain or just to lust over lovely, lovely gear. Just this morning a Machinedrum and Juno106S got added (the Juno isn’t actually that expensive).
Well, second impressions are here – Maschine is so good, that I forgot to eat (and now it’s too late).
Wow, though, if it’s not the step sequencing I love, it’s the selection of sounds and if it’s not the selection of sounds, it’s the groove this thing creates, and if it’s not the groove, it’s getting hands-on with drums again. I think I created in about 7-8mins, what I have been trying to create in Impulse in Live for the past 6 months.
As much as I love programming beats with the pencil in Ableton, the step sequencing approach (you don’t have to take this route, but it’s something I’ve longed for for ages) lets you get WAY more creative – and it feels much deeper.
A few things: while the effects are great, I want them on sends, not as inserts! I think you can do that but I’m still learning. Plus, not all of it is intuitive. Despite it’s sexy German minimal appearance being appealing most of the time, the lack of labeling means reaching for the manual a bit too often. Probably a good thing in the long run, esp for someone who doesn’t ever read manuals unless absolutely necessary (me).
This is only the second time I’ve missed a meal for hardware (the first being the elektron machinedrum), and that’s the best review I can give it.
p.s. the youtube above isn’t anything to do with NI Maschine other than it’s German and awesome
I got the NI Maschine today but I didn’t get a chance to mess around with it yet. First impressions: it’s much much bigger than I thought it was gonna be. It says Get Lost In The Flow on the box.
I never really got heavily into programming grooves so I’m looking forward to playing with this and seeing if it really makes a difference. Even though I’ve instructed on countless occasions to ‘humanise’ and not to quantise everything, I rarely take my own advice. If all else fails, at least I get 5GB of drum samples. Second impressions soon…
