Products that complicate your workflow

[BONES]

Maschine, with each new update. It started out as this amazing hw/sw hybrid drum machine with a very fluid workflow at mk1, but now it’s grown into this hideous, convoluted mess that somewhat resembles a DAW, but fails miserably at that. All at the expense of destroying its utility as a drum machine.

It's really interesting you bring up Maschine. On one hand I feel that the mk3 has an incredible workflow, but every time I start to make something I always end up feeling way more lost that I do with like the Octatrack. I feel like some things it does really well and something not so well. You are probably right that it has grown too much into a DAW.

If Maschine's sequencer was more straightforward, it would be an awesome DAW replacement for me. It's got all the schizz I need and nothing of consequence is missing from it. It's just that I found the sequencer really hard to get my head around so I never really bothered with it. I probably should watch a video.

Pretty much everything complicates the processes needlessly. My ideal set-up is my laptop and a mouse, anything extra just creates more possible points of failure/annoyance. Even an audio I/O device is a needless complication, although it's one I put up with for some strange reason.

[machinesworking]

Maschine is a perfect candidate, I eventually gave up on it. I used it inside a DAW mostly, and it’s a convoluted mess to set it up to work, then every other update would break functionality of that set up. In the end I’m using a relatively speaking simple combination of Atlas and Beatstep Pro to get a fast kit building hardware like workflow. Plus odd time signatures are not some alien thing to this set up.

[DrGonzo]

One of the aspects of Maschine I really like though are the sound expanders. Really really nice.

[donkey tugger]

12 string guitar. Twice as much tuning, twice as much hassle changing strings, harder to play... If I didn't love the jangle so much....

[gaf_thit]

Credit Cards.

I saw some economy-wiz saying that credit cards were better to use than debit cards, in that there was no direct link to your account, so there is a buffer, insurance and so on. Accumulating credit points with use.

[machinesworking]

Credit Cards.

I saw some economy-wiz saying that credit cards were better to use than debit cards, in that there was no direct link to your account, so there is a buffer, insurance and so on. Accumulating credit points with use.

They're a great example oddly enough of this sort of thing, it's not at all impossible for your bank or credit union to do the same thing with a debit card, but they want the off chance you miss a payment, they create extra complications to stump you.
I don't think that's the case with things like Maschine, they just don't offer a complete solution, and they push for you to use it as one. though personally adding it in Complicated things, unlike Atlas or XO which make browsing and getting basic drum machine things down quick.

Same Applied for me with the MPC, I ended up selling it, it's either deal with it's limited workflow or it gets too sketchy wiring it into a DAW setup.

[cryophonik]

Maschine, with each new update. It started out as this amazing hw/sw hybrid drum machine with a very fluid workflow at mk1, but now it’s grown into this hideous, convoluted mess that somewhat resembles a DAW, but fails miserably at that. All at the expense of destroying its utility as a drum machine.

Bumping this old thread to update my thoughts. I finally got to the point where I just stopped using my mk3 and it was sitting there collecting dust until I could decide whether to keep it and force myself to start using it, or just sell it for next to nothing (the resale value is pretty horrible, not to mention all the expansions I owned). I had even tried an MPC Live 2 as a substitute, but did not jive with that workflow at all. So, I started looking seriously at the Maschine+ as another option and it really started to look like much more than just a portable Maschine mk3, so I bought a Plus and sold the mk3 a week ago and have really been diving into the Plus this week.

Honestly, I think it's actually pretty brilliant from what I've seen so far. The OS and workflow really seems to work far better as a standalone device than it does as a plugin/host-within-a-host or as a simple controller for the Maschine2 software. I guess it feels like NI had the standalone Plus version in mind all along while developing the Maschine2 software, and it's far less clunky than the mk3/Maschine2 has become. I haven't tried exporting a song from it to my computer yet, but from watching a few videos on how it's done, it seems a little inelegant, but probably nothing too terrible. Bottom line is that I wish I had gone with the Plus instead of the mk3 when I bought it a couple of years ago.

[Uncle E]

HNMD!

[_leras]

Any hardware synth, recalling, printing, autiomating, all a PITA

Most of my synths don't really have recall.

These days I'll tend to play around till i have a part I like,then record doing multiple loops of tweaking and adding expression with hands on the synth.

It's all fun until this point, but eventually I need to relisten and chop up the loops/takes for arranging. This bit can be a bit time consuming, but I find this fun too.

[egbert101]

Sitting in front of a PC complicates things for me. Sure, it makes things easier, it's great to have a big screen to do sound design, or to use a DAW for mixing, but doesn't do much for my creative process. I hate the PC now, because it's no different to the TV or Phone, just a big screen that removes your humanity.

[BONES]

I am the opposite - my PC empowers me to get so much more done to a much higher standard than I could ever have imagined in hardware. It also fires my creativity far more than hardware ever did. It is far an away the best thing that ever happened to my music.

[ghettosynth]

Any hardware synth, recalling, printing, autiomating, all a PITA

Most of my synths don't really have recall.

These days I'll tend to play around till i have a part I like,then record doing multiple loops of tweaking and adding expression with hands on the synth.

It's all fun until this point, but eventually I need to relisten and chop up the loops/takes for arranging. This bit can be a bit time consuming, but I find this fun too.

One of the best things that I did for my hardware workflow was to replace my analog mixer with an AH CQ18T. I then just turn it on and tell it to record all of the channels. It records to an SD card and will auto-level on all channels that you want it to, turning them down if they are too loud. It can also record sub-mixes and mains if you want, but what I like is that it just captures my noodling to later take back to my PC.

This completely eliminates futzing with record when I'm "ready." I forget that it's recording and just have a good time.

[ghettosynth]

12 string guitar. Twice as much tuning, twice as much hassle changing strings, harder to play... If I didn't love the jangle so much....

I've owned three, I currently own zero. They come, they go. I'm tempted by the Squire 12 string. It will probably never happen.

[cryophonik]

Sitting in front of a PC complicates things for me. Sure, it makes things easier, it's great to have a big screen to do sound design, or to use a DAW for mixing, but doesn't do much for my creative process. I hate the PC now, because it's no different to the TV or Phone, just a big screen that removes your humanity.

Yeah, I can totally relate. I guess I wouldn't say that the computer complicates things so much as it just, as you say at the end, removes the human element from it and, therefore, all the fun and creativity. As for not having total recall, I was stuck in that mindset for years, but now I'm much happier without that burden. I focus on just getting the part right from the source (i.e., my hardware synths) using real-time performance and modulation. I usually record everything to MIDI and to audio so I can go back and tweak my automation, automate additional parameters, clean up my timing, etc., as necessary. But, often times I just leave it as it is or do additional takes printed straight to audio until I get it right (i.e., the same way I'd do it if recording my bass). I'll also save the patch and name the track with the bank/patch name or something for later recall, but I rarely have a need to do that. I just find this to be a much more satisfying way to work and I don't think it takes much more time than it does when I use soft synths (not that I'm in a race anyway, right?).

So, I happily use both hardware and my DAW and would probably never be happy going DAW-less. I also get that my workflow is not for everyone, and that's totally fine with me. I'm a trained and fairly skilled keyboardist, so that works for me, but doesn't work for everybody.

[donkey tugger]

12 string guitar. Twice as much tuning, twice as much hassle changing strings, harder to play... If I didn't love the jangle so much....

I've owned three, I currently own zero. They come, they go. I'm tempted by the Squire 12 string. It will probably never happen.

I've got the two electrics and two acoustics - love the sound, hate the string changing..

You might like these (of which I have one..);

https://www.revelationguitars.co.uk/guitar/rjt-6012/

Great guitar and fairy cheap (about £350 new). Neck is verrry wide mind, so not everyone's cup of tea, and they're apparently a bit of a bugger to get outside the UK, being a small company.