Drum synth is pretty cool & is utilized in the latest D&B Maschine expansion pack. The sidechaining is also a nice feature & the ability to import midi. The newly revamped interface with the mixer, plug in strip etc is also a big improvement on the old one so all in all $99 well spent. You really can't go wrong for the price if you already own an older Maschine.

I upgraded to 2.0 a few days after posting that and forgot to come back to update. I'm liking the new software and as you said the drum synth is quite useful. I've always got this aversion to using anything out of the box like drum loops for example (it's just sort of like an originality obsession I guess), but one of the nice things about the drum synth is that to get a track off the ground quickly, you can reach for a kit that's close to what you want, then modify the patterns a little, then (here's the cool part) replace some or all of the samples with drum synth counterparts and tweak to your liking. The end result will definitely be unique and not sound anything like the out of the box kits.

All in all I agree, a worthwhile upgrade.

Yeah it has totally replaced battery which I used to use for my drums/percs. It is so flexible, use it stand alone or as a plug in & the new features make it even better. I'll probably upgrade to the studio when the next gen comes out in a year or two, but for now this upgrade rocks.

As much as I praise their software, I have give them a neg for something too: the one area I wish NI would improve is their update process. This is not really a Maschine issue per se, as updates are fewer and far between, but once you have Maschine + Komplete Ultimate, the idea of going into service center to see what needs to be updated becomes something you dread. It wouldn't be so bad if they didn't require you to download and apply each update as a separate installer, but go a few months without updating anything, and you return to "update hell", something like half a day job of attending installation routines for a gazillion different plug ins and packs, each of which need to be extracted separately and installed. It's probably not too bad if you're making music every day and staying on top of it, but I don't do that.

They need to have just a unified update service that allows you to grab what you need and install them unattended in one fell swoop, otherwise the problem just gets worse every time they add a new instrument to their line up.

I agree there updates are a PITA & time consuming.
On a Maschine note I'm no longer seeing the Maschine 1 projects in the Maschine 2 library. I understand you have to convert them to the new M2 format but have no idea where they reside on my HD OR how to convert them...any ideas? I sent a tech support request off last night but thought I'd ask as I know you have one.

Hmm, I haven't installed Maschine on my Mac but on Windows (at least on my installation) they are under Users/Public/Public Documents, and there is a Maschine Library folder and also a Maschine 2 Library. Initially I was surprised to open Cubase to find my templates still opened the old 1.8 plug-in (I had to update them to use the 2.0 version). I don't think there is anything about the 2.0 installation that modifies or removes the 1.8 software, probably for the very reason you're inquiring about.

I haven't tried converting any projects yet, because I never use the Maschine software standalone, it's always just a plugin in the DAW for me, or I put together the percussion, then pull it into the DAW as audio clips (i.e. kind of using the Maschine as a drum loop composer).

If one of these days I get back into serious track creation (something that has been missing from my schedule lately), I would probably be more diligent about saving Maschine projects so that I can get back to them and edit it, but right now I just rely on the DAW for that.

(update: when I say DAW above I mean Cubase in my case, I keep forgetting Maschine itself is becoming a DAW and an increasingly elaborate one.. but I do 90% of my Maschine stuff with VST only).

Ok, I didn't see this before because I was running the plug-in inside Cubase (option might be there too but is less apparent).

Running the stand alone software, under the File menu there is an option to import 1.x Maschine projects, that should do it.

Yup got that far but cannot find the files anywhere!

If I had an easy way to look into it on the Mac I would, but maybe this helps?:

"If you do not define a custom library path during the initial installation process, the library folders will be installed in these default locations:

Mac OS: Mac HD > Users > Shared

Windows: C: > Users > Public > PublicDocuments"

https://www.native-instruments.com/k... +computer%3F

Hey thanks man that helped. The things that where throwing me where my library is on a seperate HD to my system drive because it's way too big, also I had to manually redirect the M2 stuff to the seperate HD & then rescan the old Mashine directory in M2 & then all the old Maschine projects show up in the user library not the NI one. What a PITA but finally got it all working properly...still waiting for tech support to get back to me Lol.