Wanting to begin Music Production, how/what to get to start?

Yeah. I just prefer mixing in pro tools.

I've done scratch mixes with Maschine, and I keep things sorts pre-mixed while I'm adding parts anyway. It is possible to finish a track and mix it in Maschine. Depending on how you believe and how you (eventually) like to work, it's not ideal. There are serious limitations, mostly due to how weird routing is, how limited group mixes are, how there are only 4 effects slots per sound/group/master, and how it does (or rather doesn't do) song-level automation.

It has serious shortcomings that make it a lot harder to get a good mix, mostly the complete lack of level meters. But if you wanted to, you could get a lot closer with Maschine than with anything else that works like a groove box.

How I usually work is to do the "tracking" through maschine. I use its sequencer (for patterns and full songs) for basically everything including most automation and some basic effects. Then, I just bounce stems from Maschine to audio files on disk

30 part what now?

yeah, NI has bunch of tutorials for Maschine, I took the time to make a playlist if you want to watch.
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLF3314E7EBDF93116

Hm, with the temporary pricedrop I'm quite tempted to sell my EMX and buy a Maschine instead. I should be able to come out even (or it should at least be close). Hmm, guess I'll watch some of those tutorial videos now to figure out if I'd like the workflow.

I use Maschine in combination with Ableton all the time. I posted about my favourite way to do so here: http://community .djranking s.com/showthread.php?t=48092

Remember that you can drag audio / MIDI out of the standalone application or use the Maschine VST in Ableton or Pro Tools.

"This playlist is private. It can be shared, but others will not be able to view it until it is made public."

@ OP: do you have any knowledge of music theory?. If you don't you'll want to start there. Otherwise you'll be trying to build a bridge without any prior knowledge in engineering.

awesome thanks man! i have been following the 30 part tutorial series since it gets you hands on pretty quickly, then i fall back on the manual if i need something specific i can believe of to add in. it seems to be working for me so far.

do you mind if i ask how you use your maschine in combo with pro tools? do you believe that a song could be made completely within maschine and not need any other work for it to sound professional? i also have ableton so i could use that in combo as well.

A good example of why people might vehemently defend their choices and suggest them to others with or without enough knowledge: http://pogue.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/...=cta2_20120621

FL Studio is neither easier to learn nor less complete than Live. FL Studio is more than capable of complete, pro-sounding productions…it just has a very different workflow from Live. I don't like it at all, but it's not crap. And Live is no more complete than anything else except maybe Reason……and that's just because until recently it couldn't use 3rd party plugins.


Bullshit. People use the tools that make the job easy for them and that they can afford. What you meant to say was that you prefer drawing in notes to playing a keyboard.

Even if you're a terrible keyboardist, it's much easier to improvise and maybe wind up with a half-decent melody with a keyboard than by drawing in notes. And that too ignores step sequencers, grid sequencers, and keyboard modes that make a computer keyboard echo MIDI notes.



You've never touched an MPD or a Maschine, have you?

Maschine is cool because of the Maschine software. Without that, yeah…the pads are decent…but it's not enough better than an MPK or Axiom to be worth the cost.

If you're classically schooled or used to playing the melody right the first time, it might turn you off.