There’s just a single touch-sensitive rotary too, and no audio or MIDI connectivity. Maschine Mikro maintains the pads and Smart Strip of its bigger system but loses the colour screens in favour of a small, basic LCD display. Maschine Studio and Maschine Mikro are larger and smaller takes on the same design respectively. There’s also MIDI in and out ports on the rear. The Mk3 is the only device in the range to feature a built-in audio interface, meaning it can be used to record audio into your computer and be connected to a set of studio monitors to act as your main output. These pads are accompanied by two generously-sized colour screens, eight touch-sensitive parameter rotaries, a multi-purpose, touch-sensitive Smart Strip and variety of other browser and transport buttons. It’s based around a grid of 16 velocity-sensitive pads, laid out in a design inspired by classic MPCs. The ‘core’ controller, known simply as Maschine or Maschine Mk3, is the centre point of the hardware range. The key difference then, lies in the hardware controllers themselves and how they can interact with the software.
At their core, however, the underlying concept remains the same for all Maschine setups – a software production environment paired with a pad-equipped MIDI controller designed specifically for ultra-tight interaction. The core Maschine controller is now on to its third generation and has been joined by multiple variations that offer expanded, stripped-back and alternative takes on the same concept.
The range of hardware has expanded considerably too.
Since I also own Komplete 13 Ultimate Collector’s Edition quite a lot of expansion libraries show up under Settings ⇒ Library ⇒ Available.
I’m on a brand new Maschine Plus with updated system and none of my available Expansion Libraries will install.