MPC 500 vs Maschine?

Q

qwiktune

New member
So i'm looking into getting some sort of drum machine with the option of doing sampling. My research brought me to these to but I can't seem to figure out which would be best for me. First i'm new to this type of device so I dont have experience with them. I've just been doing some research and although i'm open to other suggestions, these to looks the best to me...anyone with experience with the two of these could help me out on which they liked better and why? Also I notice they have a Maschine Mikro...does this do all the same things, just in a smaller (cheaper) package? Going be used for more so hiphop beat making, and I have a MIDI keyboard i used to use a little with Reason, but Ive been into the idea of getting myself an MPC. Thanks in advance!

Maybe through MPC Studio into the suggestion mix?
 
qwiktune said:
So i'm looking into getting some sort of drum machine with the option of doing sampling. My research brought me to these to but I can't seem to figure out which would be best for me. First i'm new to this type of device so I dont have experience with them. I've just been doing some research and although i'm open to other suggestions, these to looks the best to me...anyone with experience with the two of these could help me out on which they liked better and why? Also I notice they have a Maschine Mikro...does this do all the same things, just in a smaller (cheaper) package? Going be used for more so hiphop beat making, and I have a MIDI keyboard i used to use a little with Reason, but Ive been into the idea of getting myself an MPC. Thanks in advance!

Maybe through MPC Studio into the suggestion mix?
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I've got Maschine and it's phenomenal.
A ton of great built in sounds.
And it also makes a great MIDI controller.

Mikro is essentially a "portable" Maschine. It comes with the same software, they just trimmed off about 1/3 of the controller. Took away 10 knobs and a screen.

The MPC 500 is a hardware thing, so you could use it by itself. The MPC studio and Maschine are software/controller bundles, which means they can only be used with a computer. The MPC studio is new so the software will probably be a little buggy upon release. Maschine has been around since 2009, and Native Instruments are legendary for all of their software.
 
kidkage said:
I've got Maschine and it's phenomenal.
A ton of great built in sounds.
And it also makes a great MIDI controller.

Mikro is essentially a "portable" Maschine. It comes with the same software, they just trimmed off about 1/3 of the controller. Took away 10 knobs and a screen.

The MPC 500 is a hardware thing, so you could use it by itself. The MPC studio and Maschine are software/controller bundles, which means they can only be used with a computer. The MPC studio is new so the software will probably be a little buggy upon release. Maschine has been around since 2009, and Native Instruments are legendary for all of their software.
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Well i'd most likely always have it connected to a computer, but thats for the info, wasn't aware that Maschine couldn't be used stand alone though. I assume your vote is toward the Maschine though lol. My home studio is current with a desktop, so I guess if I wanted to go portable with it, i'd have to look into a laptop i suppose. Would you recommend the classic Mashine as opposed to the Mikro. Since i'm new to this, is the high price tag worth having the extra knobs?
 
qwiktune said:
Well i'd most likely always have it connected to a computer, but thats for the info, wasn't aware that Maschine couldn't be used stand alone though. I assume your vote is toward the Maschine though lol. My home studio is current with a desktop, so I guess if I wanted to go portable with it, i'd have to look into a laptop i suppose. Would you recommend the classic Mashine as opposed to the Mikro. Since i'm new to this, is the high price tag worth having the extra knobs?
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The one knob on the Mikro can perform the functions of all the knobs on the normal one. I suppose it would be weird for me going to it since I'm used to browsing and such with all the extra knobs and buttons, but since you haven't used regular I don't think the learning curve or the workflow would be much different than you learning full size maschine.
 
kidkage said:
The one knob on the Mikro can perform the functions of all the knobs on the normal one. I suppose it would be weird for me going to it since I'm used to browsing and such with all the extra knobs and buttons, but since you haven't used regular I don't think the learning curve or the workflow would be much different than you learning full size maschine.
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Valid point, it is substantially cheaper, i mean $600 versus $350 for the Mikro, I just find it hard to believe it that much more for just a few extra knobs and wanted to check to make sure I wasn't going to rob myself of any features, but from my research they are exactly the same in hardware function and the software it comes with so I guess Mikro might be the way for me to go if no one knows something that maybe I dont?...which still leaves me the delimma of deciding between being confided to needing to use a computer with it, or going the strictly hardware route with the MPC 500 which i found for $490. I guess i'm looking for the pros and cons between the 2...anyone have experience with both that could tell me which they prefer and why?
 
In my humble opinion, Maschine is the future. They had one set up to test in my local music store a while ago, I think it was when Komplete 8 had come out. I was lucky the store wasn't busy that day because I was having so much fun playing around with it, I can't imagine how great it would be to do some serious work on it.

Why I say it's the future is because of the hardware/software integration...especially from a company like NI. It's so streamlined and efficient.

I mean if you really think you're going to be making beats or what have you on the subway or at work or whatever, then the MPC 500 might be a better option. Personally, I don't really do much composing of that type outside the studio...definitely not to the level of needing a portable beat machine. Though now that I'm thinking about it, it could be fun to bring an MPC to the office and impress the nurses :listeningmusic:
 
FunkDaddy said:
I mean if you really think you're going to be making beats or what have you on the subway or at work or whatever, then the MPC 500 might be a better option. Personally, I don't really do much composing of that type outside the studio...definitely not to the level of needing a portable beat machine.
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I dont think i'd be making beats on the fly. I might go somewhere other than my studio to lay something down, but I guess it wouldn't be any situation I couldnt just pull a laptop out. One thing I was curious about was some of those demo videos on youtube of the Maschine shows the person using the device with no computer in the area?
 
I figure this is also a good place to throw out that I've always been more intrigued with Roland's SP line instead of MPC's
 
Yeah, I just wanted to be sure, I mean I assume you can just set the sounds onto the pads and switch between them on the interface without even touching the computer. The main thing to understand is all the sounds are assigned from the computer right? Like you couldnt set a few into the Maschine and use it without the computer connected, its just pulling the sounds from the computer, nothings actually stand alone inside the maschine? (if that makes sense)
 
qwiktune said:
The main thing to understand is all the sounds are assigned from the computer right? Like you couldnt set a few into the Maschine and use it without the computer connected, its just pulling the sounds from the computer, nothings actually stand alone inside the maschine? (if that makes sense)
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Correct.
The maschine hardware itself is -at the end of the day- just a MIDI controller.
The same way that other MIDI controllers like keyboards or AKAI MPDs can't store sounds.

With that said, that's another bonus of the hardware. They make excellent controllers for anything. Ableton, drum programs, etc.

Check out some of the Maschine tutorials on Native Instruments' YouTube page.
 
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