Native Instruments Updates Maschine To 1.6 – Moving Into DAW Territory

Native Instruments has updated Maschine to version 1.6. This major update provides the ability for the hardware/software combo to support plug-in hosting for instruments and effects, and bring the product closer and closer to a full-on Digital Audio Workstation.

If giving you third-party plug-in support wasn’t enough, the update also includes a free download of the new Komplete Elements bundle. That’s a big fat Grandma kiss and a hug from NI. Wow. But before we go into the specifics of this formable update, let’s just have a small conversation about what this does for Maschine’s trajectory. As we mentioned years ago in our “Ghost In The Maschine” article, we believe that Maschine will eventually grow into a serious competitor to Ableton Live. Allowing third-party plug-in support marches Maschine straight into Live’s stiff head wind, but Native Instruments is too savvy and sophisticated to stand toe-to-toe with Ableton. No, they’ll continue to “back into” their territory by attempting to top each of Ableton’s core features and address their weaknesses with superior sound, workflow, DJing and seamless integration. Next up? We believe Native will allow for the unification of Traktor and Maschine in one ecosystem.

“Since 1.6, I’ve been running [Maschine] stand alone because of all if its new features,” Darren Price, Underworld (see video below). The message here is clear, Maschine is positioning itself as the hub between all of Native’s products and beyond. Amalgamating the majority of their product lines and effects under the Maschine umbrella would create a production and performance juggernaut with broad market potential. A Native Instruments production environment that is fiscally and sonically in the reach of everybody, from budding producers to professional touring musicians.



Now back to our regularly scheduled programming: With added support for VST and AU plug-ins, Maschine 1.6 becomes a full-featured instrument host. Due to an “Auto-Mapping” function, plug-in parameters are conveniently pre-assigned to the high-resolution knobs on the Maschine controller, allowing for intuitive manipulation directly from the hardware.

The 1.6 update also includes a free download of the new Komplete Elements instruments and effects collection. Based on the powerful engines of Kontakt, Reaktor and Guitar Rig, it contains over 1,000 sounds selected from the delicious Komplete 7 bundle, including Abbey Road vintage drums, Vienna Symphonic Library orchestral sounds, an assortment of sampled band instruments, various Reaktor-based synthesizers, a versatile assortment of amp emulations and effect pedals from Guitar Rig and more.



Further enhancements in Maschine 1.6 include an increased number of effect slots, a new “Pad Link” feature, individual swing per sound, clip and sample renaming, expanded Drag ‘n’ Drop functionality, support for up to 32 audio I/O channels, full Mac OS X 64bit support, and a wide range of detail optimizations.

NI’s Maschine 1.6 free update for registered users is available now. More information on Native Instruments Maschine.

Author: FutureMusic

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