Native Instruments Reveals New Maschine 2.6.5 Features

In a rather unexpected move, Native Instruments have revealed the two main features for the upcoming update to Maschine 2.6.5, on their forums. Although the update isn't available to download yet (it's "coming soon") these are two features worth getting excited about. 

• Ideas View: See all Patterns in your various Groups at the same time
• Preserve audio and MIDI routings when loading new Groups/Kits from the Browser

"First off, we’ll be introducing the ability to preserve your audio and MIDI routings when loading new Groups/Kits from the Browser. When browsing for Groups, there’s already a “+Patterns” button at the bottom of the Browser which, when enabled, causes any Patterns associated with the Group to be loaded. In the upcoming release, there will be an additional “+Routing” button which, when enabled, will cause the Routings saved in the Group to be loaded. This is essentially the behavior that has existed in MASCHINE this whole time. However, when you turn this button off, you’ll find that any custom audio and MIDI routings you’ve made in your Group will remain in place upon loading a new Group (buy turning the button off, you’re telling MASCHINE not to load the saved Routings, thus leaving your current routings in place). For those of you who use MASCHINE as a plug-in within another DAW, turning this button off will save lots of time because you can create your desired routings to-and-from your DAW and have the freedom to audition other Kits without having to reset the routings each time.

"The second--and biggest--thing that will be introduced in the next update is the Ideas view. This is the first step on our way to providing full performance recording in MASCHINE and, as many of our testers have told us, also offers a great way to get an overview of your whole Project. The Ideas view resembles the layout of the MASCHINE JAM controller where you can see all Patterns in your various Groups at the same time. Building Scenes then becomes as easy as just clicking on all the Patterns you want to be part of the Scene--no need to switch between Groups and select Patterns from the Pattern Manager menu.

"The Ideas view offers an additional benefit in that it allows you to build and experiment with various Patterns and Scenes without having to commit anything to the arrangement (which we now refer to as Arranger view). Previously, in order to hear the playback of any Pattern, you had to create a Scene in your arrangement and assign the Pattern to it (and often set a loop around this Scene in order to experiment with the Pattern as it plays). You’ll now be able to do this easily directly within the Ideas view, saving you the steps of having to create Scenes in the Arranger and set loops. You can also assign only the Scenes you want to use to the Arranger view, thus leaving the arrangement “tidy” with only the Scenes that should be there. In other words, every Scene in the Arranger view exists in the Ideas view, but not every Scene in the Ideas view has to exist in the Arranger view.

"While the Ideas view in the MASCHINE software does resemble the layout of the JAM controller, the benefits and functionality of the Ideas view will be available for all of the MASCHINE controllers. You will be able to switch the controller’s focus between the Ideas and Arranger views, and the various interactions on the hardware will change as appropriate. For example, when the MASCHINE STUDIO is focused on the Ideas view, the SCENE button will allow triggering of Scenes in the Ideas view. When focused on Arranger view, the SCENE button will allow triggering of Sections (the containers for Scenes in the arrangement).

"About that: We’ve introduced a new concept in the arranger which we call a Section. For the most part, this will just feel like the Scenes in the arranger of previous MASCHINE versions (in fact, you can continue to work entirely in the timeline as in previous versions if you wish--the workflow remains the same). However, a Section is what allows you to reuse a Scene multiple times in an arrangement, each with unique lengths. You can, for example, create a Scene and assign it to a 16-bar Section at the start of the arrangement. You can also assign that same Scene to an 8-bar Section at a later point in the arrangement. Since these two Sections use the same Scene, changing any aspect of the Scene will affect both Sections in the arrangement. If, for example, you decide that you’d like a different hi-hat pattern in the Scene, you can just make the change once and the change will occur in all instances of that Scene in the arrangement."

When Maschine 2.6.5 is officially released come back to AskAudio for a full video overview of Ideas View and other new features.