Maschine - Native Instruments

Week 1: Get To Know Maschine

The essentials: finding your way around the interface, loading NI library kits and samples and integrating your existing drum library (we know you’ve got some great sounds you want to use straight away). We investigate the Maschine hierarchy that also includes Projects, Groups, Sounds, Modules, Patterns and Scenes and give you the full lowdown. Sampler Module envelope control is examined next to give you full control over the ‘shape’ of your drum, vocal, instrument and effect samples. Then it’s all about programming beats and complementing them with ‘musical’ sounds played chromatically. We look at methods for both finger drummers and step programmers so you needn’t feel intimidated if you struggle to play things in time. We’ll also take a look at on-the-go mobile workflow; importing projects from iMaschine and preparing for further production. For your reference, the first two weeks are focused on standalone operation and then we move into the DAW.

Week 2: Slicing, Shaping and Effecting

The classic beatmaking approach of slicing up breaks and replaying them in your chosen order is a method that performers such as Jeremy Ellis still use. We look at this approach and consider the benefits over one shot finger drumming. We look at methods MPC producers have used over the years and bring them into the modern context. You'll learn how to edit samples and use looping creatively plus we look at Maschine’s fantastic complement of effects and ways that you can shape the sound even further using techniques such as Resampling. Sound Design is easy with Maschine so we’ll be taking a look at methods for building your very own signature sounds, putting your own personal stamp on the library.

Week 3: Building Variety: Automation and More

Get out of the static loop and go freestyle. We look at ways of making your beats evolve and move. Effective Pattern and Scene switching coupled with automation is a key focus to allow for creating organic variations in your composition. We examine tried and tested methods of bringing your sounds alive through the modulation of effects parameters in a variety of real world examples. We bring in instruments from the Komplete library to demonstrate who Maschine can also be a hub of your musical composition. Next up we hit the DAW and show you how to integrate Maschine into your existing Ableton, Logic, Cubase or Reason setup. We look at ways of maximising the combined environments to get the best of both worlds.

Week 4: Performance and Advanced Techniques

Keen to take Maschine on the road? We take a look at what to do, how to prepare and how to integrate into a live scenario; either as a DJ or a performer of your own compositions. We bring advice from seasoned Maschine professionals with plenty of useful anecdotes. We look at the hardware controller aspect of Maschine and how it can work as a Mackie style remote console for operating your favourite DAW - it’s not just about the beats you know! Audio Routing is examined in further detail and multi fx chains are created to help you start forming your own library. We round off the lesson with more tried and tested industry tricks and tips to help you go further on your journey with confidence.