What should DJing software look like, anyway?

It’s just a teaser, but for once, the idea is simple, straightforward, and clear. Native Instruments have taken their DJ software, Traktor, and combined it with a grid of pads for sample triggering and loops. The upcoming hardware/software combination we expect later this spring.

At the risk of stating the obvious, what’s significant about adding loop triggering to any DJ set is that you can more easily move beyond playing and mixing tracks. Even without drum machines, this kind of manipulation is part of the grand tradition of DJing, made all the more impressive when ground-breaking DJs were able to accomplish it using only a turntables. (It’s perhaps a triumph over the linearity of recorded music in the 20th Century that, at last, artists found a way to subvert recorded music’s permanently-frozen state and reclaim the playback device as an instrument.)

What the upcoming product does is to take the virtual deck metaphor of Traktor and makes each deck a sampling machine. Each deck can trigger one-shots and loops, coupled with the mixing, cueing, and effects possibilities of Traktor as a DJ tool.

The obvious comparison will be to Ableton Live, but here, it’s as significant what is different as what is not. This wording from NI’s description will admittedly sound a lot like Ableton Live and colored renditions of the monome: “Stylish multi-color pads trigger loops and samples, allowing for on-the-fly remixing.” There’s definitely some influence there.

But the grand-daddy of all these things is sampling drum machines, the first instruments to popularize triggering one-off or looped audio content from a grid. (Tip of the hat here to Roger Linn and his designs.) Ableton’s breakthrough was taking that sample-triggering grid metaphor and cross-breeding it with the DAW, the all-purpose studio workstation with its channel strips, tracks, and arrangements. In Live, the track is king.

NI’s breakthrough here promises to be seamlessly making each deck – not each track – the focus for sample triggering. And their hardware literally combines the DJ mixing and effects functions with those pads. In the future Traktor tool, the deck, not the track, is king. And that makes all the difference. The deck will behave like a deck for cueing (a common complaint about Live), for one, but it’s also important that whereas Live gives you as many tracks as you want, you’re forced into the limitation of four decks in Traktor. That limitation is neither positive nor negative, but rather something that will influence every other decision you make. (Having looked over the shoulder of Richie Hawtin’s impossibly-enormous Live set recently for Plastikman, with tracks that scrolled on seemingly endlessly, I can tell you this isn’t a minor point.)

Of course, the other amusing point is the timing of when NI is tipping their hand. NI already makes a popular sampling drum machine, Maschine, combining a dedicated controller with software. Akai has just entered the ring with their own revision of the MPC – combining a dedicated controller with software to make a sampling drum machine. NI, for their part, here reveals that their next move is a new dedicated controller/software combo that also adds in DJing.

Anyway, for now, it’s just a video, so everything else is speculation. Feel free to have a look and let us know what you think, which, knowing comments, I’m certain you’ll do in no uncertain terms.

Side note: My brain is fuzzy; can anyone remind me of the capabilities of 4decks? This was, as I recall, a Reaktor patch that combined looping and decks.

Okay, I think this may be some of the best / worst promotional marketing I’ve seen for music software. It runs something like this:

Do you want to be just like Jamie Lidell?

The answer is as close as the iTunes App Store and your portable device.

Just download Native Instruments’ iMaschine app to your iPhone, fire it up, and then …

Forget it. Really. I mean, this guy is actually lying in bed in his PJs, the sound you’re hearing is really just the crappy internal microphone on an iPhone 4 iPod touch, and what you’re hearing really is the line out, and this is really all one take. (I confirmed as much with Native Instruments’ Constantin Köhncke as we watched the final take earlier this week at their office.)

For all we talk about microphone selection and placement and such, there’s not much substitute for being able to sing. That is, iMaschine can make anyone sound like this, just so long as they are Jamie Lidell.

And, actually, maybe that means this isn’t such bad marketing after all – perhaps not for iMaschine so much as music software in general. I’m kidding, of course – once you realize you’re not Jamie Lidell, you can work out who you are. And you do have a voice of your own.

iMaschine

I could at this point mention the features in iMaschine, but … what’s the point? It records stuff. You can lay down beats and then sing into it. Just like you can do with other tools for your iPhone or your laptop or even a piece of used sampling gear you found on eBay, all of which can fit comfortably into a bed on a lazy weekend.

In fact, who cares about how technically-sophisticated your software is, or if you have a fancy, high-end mic handy? I hope that we’ll all get a few minutes lying in bed somewhere this weekend. (I know that’s part of my plan.) So, use the internal mic on your laptop, or phone or tape recorder or whatever, use that bicycle for the mind, and in the words of Sesame Street’s “Sing,”

“Don’t worry if it’s not good enough / for anyone else to hear / just sing / sing a song.”

I’ll have a review of iMaschine by next week, but I’m even more interested in what you make.

Have a great weekend, everybody.

Native Instruments reveals some big news for Maschine that’s … well, smaller. A new package has smaller hardware and lower price, with the same full-sized software. And an iOS version lets you use Maschine on iPad or iPhone.

As their drum machine / drum sampler / groove workstation with plug-in hosting and doubling as plug-in matures, and becomes a focus of NI’s production and performance side, things are starting to heat up. And yes, this news comes just as we learn more about an upcoming analog drum machine. It’s a Labor Day full of drum machines.

Shrunken Maschine: Maschine Mikro is, for me, the best news. It’s cheaper than the full Maschine package. It’s smaller and lighter, with a more compact controller. You might expect NI trimmed down the samples set – nope, it’s the same 6 GB ibrary. Or maybe they added a “lite” version of the software – nope, it’s the same, full Maschine version. And you still get full-sized pads. The Maschine pads are some of my favorite currently on the market – controller or otherwise – so that’s quite nice, indeed. You do sacrifice some hands-on control: the Mikro lacks the big, beautiful screens on the full Maschine, and the additional knobs and triggers. The eight macro knobs on the full Maschine are pretty handy, as are dedicated group buttons.

So, why would I think Mikro’s a good idea? Simple: when you’re on the road, or performing live onstage in cramped spaces, the Mikro looks like a winner, and all with the same software and at a lower price. For studio use, the full Maschine is still your best choice. But I’m personally going to switch out to the Mikro, especially because – like many people, I suspect – it’ll ultimately be combined with another controller in my workflow. You can have a closer look at our two product shots from NI and decide for yourself. (Yes, there’s a Maschine Bag, and yes, I was just talking to King Britt about his on-the-go luggage setup with his Maschine, but I’m still partial to smaller and lighter!)

Finger drumming video: NI has also released a promo vid of finger-drumming virtuoso Jeremy Ellis tearing apart their new hardware. It’s supposed to make you want to buy a Mikro, or something, except it may make you feel somewhat … inadequate … with your own finger drumming, instead.

Really Shrunken Maschine: If the Mikro isn’t small enough – say, you’re on the East Coast “Chinatown” Fung Wah bus and don’t really have room for your knees – NI also has a Maschine coming for iOS in October. It seems eminently practical:

• four tracks
• sampling (perhaps the most fun part of having this be mobile)
• “high-quality” effects (no reason that couldn’t just be ported from desktop)
• instrument and drum sounds from the standard Maschine library
• bring back your sketches into the full Maschine and edit them there

I’m only sorry it’s called iMaschine. Oh, well.

Komplete integration: As a footnote to this other news, NI notes that Maschine and Maschine Mikro each now support sound browsing and parameter mapping for instruments and effects in Komplete/Komplete Ultimate – the kind of tactile control originally in Kore, now entirely focused on Maschine.

Bottom line: For lovers of this workstation, it sounds to me like Maschine for iOS on the bus, Maschine software on your MacBook on the plane, Mikro in the hotel room, standard Maschine in the studio.

Maschine product page
Maschine Mikro

Native Instruments announced this week that they’re discontinuing the Kore product line, focusing those energies on the host-plus-sampling groovebox Maschine.

Kore was an approach to making instruments and processing more manageable and tactile, coupling a hardware interface and standard control mappings with a hosting tool. What first drew me to Kore, personally, was the idea of setting up that host not only as a way of managing presets and the like, but building performance rigs and making them tactile. (I used a number of Kore-based rigs in the production of my recent album.) CDM also, as disclosure and reference, collaborated with Native Instruments to document uses of Kore and the rest of their line on our Kore minisite.

The free Kore Player is immediately discontinued, a casualty of the decision, and you won’t be able to buy Kore. The good news for Kore users is, a set of updates accompany the announcement:

First, an update with the latest sound engines. Schedule: third quarter.

Next, 64-bit support for Mac and Windows. Schedule: fourth quarter.

That would make Kore continue to be useful. Here’s the bad news, however: “Future versions of the Komplete bundle and of individual NI instruments might no longer be fully compatible with Kore, and will not include special preset versions for its sound browser.”

Instead, Maschine, not Kore, will get a free update that incorporates new preset management and parameter mapping features – Maschine now does some of what Kore did. But Maschine doesn’t yet offer some of the other unique features of Kore in terms of its utility functions and modules, its slim, slick touch-based interactive controller, and its performance setup.

To me, it looks like a decision that makes sense – but one that will also be tough for users to swallow. The maintenance updates to Kore are offset by potential incompatibility with future Komplete releases. And while there’s a crossgrade, it’s not inexpensive, because Maschine, too, relies on hardware for control. Through the end of the year, Maschine is US$449 (EUR399). I’d like to see Native Instruments, which recently underwent corporate restructuring, focus more closely on their software range to avoid these kinds of discontinuations. Even when they’re the right choice, they can be tough for users. It’s a particular challenge for a developer like NI that has always released a range of products instead of one flagship. NI, for their part, also tells CDM it was a difficult decision to make.

What made Kore unique also made it hard to support from the beginning: its ambitious combinations of hosting and engine integration features made it development-heavy. So the genuinely good news here is that NI is more focused on one tool, and that’s Maschine – a product that has been both more popular and more (frankly) well-liked than Kore was.

And that makes me unambiguously enthusiastic about the choice. Some things simply have to come to an end. The really important thing here is that this redirects development resources into Maschine, and Maschine becomes NI’s flagship host instead of the two competing with one another.

CDM spoke to NI’s Constantin Köhncke about the decision for more detail.

CDM: What does it mean for Maschine that Maschine, and not Kore, is now Native Instruments’ focus? We’ll see greater hosting features, I see; is there anything you can comment on specifically?

NI: Yes, among other features, the hosting features of Maschine will be expanded. As you are aware, the free 1.6 update already brought the hosting of VST/AU plug-ins into Maschine and 1.7 will see more advanced browsing and parameter mapping for NI instruments and effects.

Given that Maschine is now a host to a lot of people, how would you even categorize the application — it seems broader than what was first released?

Maschine is referred to as an integrated groove production system that now combines a pattern-based sequencer, professional sampler, multi-effect unit and VST/AU plug-in host.

It seems like Kore has had a big impact on the other product lines, as
well. Care to comment in terms of what Kore has contributed to other software?

Most prominently, the category browsing and parameter mapping concepts from Kore were integrated in individual NI instruments.

To put it another way, what would you say NI has learned from Kore?

Kore has been a very complex and ambitious undertaking in terms of the architecture, the hardware integration, and the various usability and data management concepts, so learnings in all these regards were applied for current products like Maschine and Kontrol S4.

I’ve been following Maschine since prototype stages. The idea was at once obvious and welcome: build a software workstation, tightly integrated with pad hardware control, that fuses hardware sampler working methods with the on-screen flexibility of software. It’s software that focuses on working with sounds and patterns, outside the DAW-style metaphors.

Of course, there’s one thing you might quickly miss about your DAW – certain software instruments or effects that are available as plug-ins. That makes 1.6 the version a lot of people have been waiting for. With plug-in hosting capabilities, it could now be your all-in-one production and performance workstation – without losing the focus that first made it appealing.

Maschine comes of age in other ways, too, from 64-bit Mac support to better control of pads and drag-and-drop function. It really seems like version 2 – and like the revision that makes an already-growing choice ready for primetime.

Accordingly, while it is a marketing video, it’s fantastic to see what Underworld are doing with Maschine live.

Naturally, you’d make the obvious comparison to Ableton Live, but it’s nice to see Live face an alternative. In fact, I think Live might even benefit from having an alternative with which to contrast. Most of the comparisons have turned to DJ tools live, or conventional DAWs – minus the live performance features – for production, or hardware. Maschine is different than Live – a pad-based sampler at heart rather than Live’s combination of sample-playing tracks and arrangement view. But it’s also finally a tool that has the flexibility of Live (for things like integrating plug-ins), while at the same time encouraging live, physical play and kinetic control, whether in a studio or onstage. (And, of course, there’s nothing stopping you from using these two tools side by side.)

I’m enthusiastic about new drum machines introduced earlier this year, hardware and software alike. But it’d be tough to compare any of them to Maschine, particularly with this update. This isn’t a full review, but you can expect one (or perhaps more than one, from different perspectives) soon.

New in 1.6:
VST and AU plug-in support. Bring in instruments and effects, and – in a feature first seen in NI software in their Kore product – automatically map parameters to Maschine’s knobs.

Bundled instruments and effects. 1000+ sounds cover factory contact selected from Kontakt, ranging from Vienna Symphonic Library sounds to synths, guitar amps, and Abbey Road drums. Of course, those of you who have been chomping at the bit just to use your existing plug-in library won’t care too much about this, but it increases the appeal for those starting out.

More effects slots. There are CPU cycles on your machine not yet being used by crazy Reaktor patches or your library of plug-ins. Problem solved. The architecture of slots in general has been expanded for easier assignment to modules.

Pad-Link. One pad in a group can now trigger one or more additional pads. This opens up more sophisticated drum programming possibilities, or live performance grouping for triggering more complex arrangements of samples.

Clip and sample renaming. Yeah. ‘Bout time.

Swing individual sounds. Ideal for constructing the exact groove you want – and, indeed, often far more useful than global swing.

Drag-and-drop anything.Drag and drop single or multiple files from your Windows or Mac file manager, and move audio around more easily in Maschine. (I recall the latter was what I found a bit frustrating early on – the ability to freely move audio from place to place can radically change the feel of working with a tool that focuses on sound.)

Multichannel audio output 16 output channels out should be ideal for those working with hardware mixing. I’m just waiting to hear a Maschine artist do a set in surround.

64-bit Mac and Windows support. 64-bit computing offers both expanded memory (useful for large samples) and marginal but measurable improvements in performance. (It has really nothing in particular to do with 64-bit audio, which I know sometimes confuses people unfamiliar with the term. 64-bit is a reference to the resolution of a number; in this case, it means the ability to take advantage of the native capabilities and memory addressing of newer computer architectures like the Core 2 Duo.)

Snap to grid.

Import REX 2. REX is the still-surprisingly-popular sample storage format developed by Propellerhead for their ReCycle product.

Speaking of Propellerhead, what isn’t in Maschine, as far as I know: ReWire support. ReWire doesn’t support 64-bit computing, and as far as I know, no plans are in the works. I think it’s time for a new solution, anyway – and maybe time to do some JACK tutorials here as a possible replacement.

I always feel a little dirty adding promo videos from the manufacturers, but let’s give Ski Beatz a few words, too. I’ll say this: a lot of the time, when you talk to artists – no vendors around listening – you get similar testimonials about products people love. That’s a good thing; it means people get enjoyment out of this stuff into which developers invest so much time.

Also, Ski Beatz’ hat and I would like to remind you that tomorrow afternoon is Yankees opening day here in NYC.

Maschine @ NI

Images courtesy Native Instruments.

Hey, by the way, will anyone help with my campaign to pronounce Maschine with the German pronunciation (since it has a German spelling, rather than Machine)? Maybe, um, at least German people?

Austin isn’t generally associated with electronic music, but from bands to strictly electronic acts, you see lines blurring all over the place. And amidst the many, many things happening here in Texas in the coming days, we’re fortunate at CDM to help support two events.

Tonight is the Allies Electronic Lounge – 416 W Cesar Chavez, 9-2, no badge and free, with Two Fresh, DJ Vadim, Eskmo, and Mindelixer. I’m especially excited about Eskmo’s music, and wherever you are in the world, you can take a listen, free. (Topspin just launched their media platform for everyone if you want to do the same with your music, and they’re naturally partying it up here in Texas to celebrate.)

http://www.musicallies.com/electronicalounge/

There’s some of the crackly clap sound that the kids love these days, to be sure, but Eskmo has some serious sound design chops, and a vocal style I love, very often reminiscent of Matthew Dear. I’m told Eskmo works with Native Instruments’ Maschine drum sampler instrument live. If you have any questions about how he works, let me know; I’ll be doing some research. Eskmo, aka San Francisco’s Brendan Angelides, has been on Warp and Ninja Tune, but he also has a mean mix of Brainfeeder music:

http://www.eskmo.com/

Friday night, it’s another free event on a rooftop in the heart of downtown Austin. I’m playing at 9pm on the spot to warm things up, so come say hello. Lots of free tech to win. No downloads yet, but again, if you’re not in Texas, let me know if you want any tips or information from these folks — I can sum it up by saying they’re all a bit insane with Ableton Live automation and sound design with Operator and NI’s Massive.
http://academikrecords.blogspot.com/

Producer/composer and Reaktor super-guru Peter Dines is back with a new concoction for Native Instruments’ graphical development environment for sound. Entitled the Reaktor Sample Pack, it’s a collection of three granular sampling instruments. Updated with new download links (no more divshare!)

Frame is a looping sampler with smooth/crossfading, envelope controls, and built-in saturation, plus graphical loop point selection. Free | download

Loupe is a “polyphonic looping slicer,” which is to say you can slice up a sample and assign it to different MIDI keys. Press a note, then graphically set loop playback parameters from reverse to envelope to filter. US$15 via link below, or get Loupe + Mirage for US$22.50 | download

Mirage is a granular sampler that focuses on ambient textures, by creating snapshots of various parameters. There’s some deep sonic functionality in there, including an LFO with a “whirl” effect (and accompanying whirly graphic widget), per-voice filtering, global envelope and EQ, and tons of grain-level controls. US$15 via link below, or get Loupe + Mirage for US$22.50 | download

They also all look lovely with Reaktor’s recently-overhauled UI. Pete isn’t just a good programmer, though; he’s a talented producer, so I’ll let the sound samples speak for themselves:

Peter Dines Sampler Pack – Frame 2 by peterdines

Peter Dines Sampler Pack – Loupe drums by peterdines

Peter Dines Sampler Pack – Mirage demo by peterdines

And here’s a look at Mirage’s UI; click through for a bigger version:

If you have Reaktor, I can’t imagine any argument for not picking these up. Through the end of February, you can pick up all three for US$22.50, and Frame alone would keep you busy for free.

Full details on Pete’s terrific Modulations blog at Noisepages:
Introducing the Reaktor Sampler Pack

If you’re interested in using this in Ableton Live, read on for Reaktor+Live tips. If you’re a fan of Maschine, Pete has also been putting Reaktor and Maschine together while testing the upcoming Maschine 1.6, and he’s got some fantastic tips:

Ableton users…
More on routing Reaktor in Live: multi out audio UPDATE: VST works too, not just AU [PS - little tip, VST is usually a safer bet than AU on the Mac because so many AU plug-ins actually use compatibility layers]

Maschine + Reaktor (and Loupe!) Maschine 1.6 beta just dropped!

And if you love running patterns at different lengths, routing patterns into one another, good stuff:
Sound to Sound MIDI routing in Maschine 1.6

Thanks for the great ideas, Pete. Well worth checking the rest of his site:
http://modulations.noisepages.com/

Choosing a computer for production generally means choosing flexibility, the ability to more effortlessly combine lots of sound sources and techniques. So it makes sense that, given that Native Instruments’ Maschine promises to bring computer-style flexibility to hardware-style groove box and drum machine workflows, it should behave like computer software. And that has meant many Maschine enthusiasts have asked for plug-in hosting. It doesn’t make Maschine a generalized “DAW” production tool, but it could mean, for people who like the drum machine style of working, the ability to mix and match sound sources as you can in a DAW.

With a beta scheduled for 2011, and a final release early in the year, Maschine users should get that wish. Version 1.6, Native Instruments recently revealed on their forums, will add VST and Audio Unit plug-in hosting, both as effects and sources.

Thomas at NI wrote up the news last week (whilst I was still busy working on this redesign):

So, according to popular demand, the upcoming 1.6 version will allow you to use VST and AU plugins as sound sources and effects in your Maschine project. This includes both the whole NI range of instruments and effects as well as any third-party plugin.

Check the screenshot for an idea of how this will look like. Instrument plugins can be used in any sound channel, and effect plugins can be inserted on both the sound and group channels as well as on the master.

Obviously the addition of plugin hosting requires quite a bit of development and testing…

1.6 won’t just include plug-in hosting, but this could be a big breakthrough both for Maschine addicts and, on the other hand, people who were waiting on Maschine to add such a feature. Forum post:

Coming up: Free Maschine update with VST/AU plugin hosting [NI User Forum]

I think in a way it’s unfortunate that music tech news cycles are the way they are; usually there’s a lot of attention and focus and “exclusive” cover stories and special issues in newsstand glossies right when a tool is new. But it often takes months and years for the tool to mature, and for users to really sink into productive workflows – indeed, that’s the sign of a deep tool. So I’m happy to give Maschine more attention in 2011. If you’re a user, let us know how you’re using Maschine now, and if this change is relevant to you.

The patter of rain against the window brings in day two at Decibel.  Early afternoon coffee is the ‘tall’ to order for the conference sessions in Pravda studios.  Robert Henke (Monolake) greets with a smile as he takes the podium for the first lecture “The Age of Abundance.”  It is a rare opportunity inside one of the minds behind Ableton, as he thinks on the future of electronic music eleven years after the founding of the company.  His talk revolves around the evolution of computer technology to the present of full realization of the infinite sonic possibilities.  The pit fall he sees in this is the difficulty it can create in making decisions.  Using his own Monodeck as an example he explains how the ability to do anything is limited by a hardware device, yet at the same time, limitations offer a simplicity, which allows for musical decisions.   Henke will have two performances during the festival to put his philosophies into practice.

The conference continues with a workshop from Windows DJ Dave Pezzner “From the Studio to the Stage”.  It serves as a continuation of the thought from Lusine’s workshop, this time focusing on adapting songs from a different DAW for use in Ableton Live for performance.  Pezzner uses his own workflow from FL Studio to exemplify.  Next Drumcell (Moe Espinoza) leads a session on Native Instruments Traktor Scratch Pro.  He uses the Kontrol X1 and Maschine to show ways of taking the DJ platform further by exploiting a multitude of functionalities through controller integrations for his live set.

To this point, a clear line can be drawn between the various workshops, tying them directly into Henke’s lecture.  Each have presented their own set of possibilities toward pushing electronic music into the world of live performance, which according to Henke is the new frontier for digital music.  With a variety of platform choices, each with near infinite levels of control, finding the right balance of control and limitations to make the musical decisions required on stage proves to be the challenge.  This is the hidden undercurrent of the festival, each artist bringing to the stage their own personal journey through those choices.  The choices are as varied as the results, put together to give a fair picture of the state of electronic music today.

Evening rolls around and seating is rearranged in Pravda Studios to accommodate the ten year anniversary showcase for Lawrence English’s Room40 Label.  The rowed seating creates an almost academic atmosphere for the experimental labels offering.  The stage is filled with amplifiers, cassettes, effects boxes and a table crowded with laptops and controllers.  Seattle’s own Rafael Anton Irisarri takes the stage first with a modesty becoming of the sound he brings.  Beginning with a single low guitar note processed into a drone, upon which he builds layers of tones and overtones, pushed through his laptop into an ambient sound-scape.

Lawrence English takes the stage next and promptly suggests the audience abandon their chairs for spots near the front of the stage where they can lie on the floor.  In a matter of seconds the seemingly academic setting is transformed to something closer to a meditation hall.  Integral in English’s rig is a harmonium much like a guru would use to lead a kirtan. English’s has been constantly returned through the altitude changes while touring.  He notes of piece which he composed the year before with the harmonium, “what was beautiful last year would sound like ugly dissonance today.”  Fortunately he has other music prepared for today which exemplifies his own work in the realm of ambient noise for the audience now lying horizontal in near complete darkness.  Using a small nano control with Ableton he builds up what sounds to the ear like the shore of some cosmic beach.

Towards the tail end of the set, as English’s manipulated ‘white noise’ is combined with the harmonium, Grouper takes to the stage and begins working in her chain of cassette players to provide a smooth transition to her own set.  It begins with knob twiddling as she builds up a bed of sound sourced from her pile of pre-recorded cassettes.  She then picks up a guitar to act as a blanket, warming the chill vocals which lie comfortably in between.

As Ben Frost takes the stage to perform what one member of the audience calls, a soundtrack perfect for murder, across the street a line has started forming for the “Flying Lotus and Friends” showcase at Neumos.  Inside Truckasauras has filled the stage with with an assortment of analog and digital gear to lay down their breed of hardcore 8-bit.  The four piece unit has the energy of fun loving party throwers, but at the same time bridge electronic and traditional performance with a layer of musicality.  They are very much electronic musicians but they are also clearly a band.  It’s easy to understand why they are a local favorite.

Samiyam hits the stage next fresh off a tour down under and a bit hoarse as he introduces himself before going into his set.   Using a Roland 404 on batteries he performs his cross between a live performance and DJ set.  Thrown in the mix are some classics from M.O.P. and Dilla, in addition to new Samiyam treats.  He’s a hip-hop head at an electronic music festival, but he works his sound in, perfectly illustrating how the two no longer need be understood as separate entities.

Mary Anne Hobbes has flown into Seattle for the evening (though she will have to make a flight in the morning to play a San Francisco date before returning to the festival for her own show), and one of the primary reasons is to be able to catch the next act.  Milwaukee native Brainfeeder Lorn steps behind his Maschine next to lay down what can only be described as one of the heaviest sounds on the scene.  Filled in with deep basslines, spectrum defying drums and clashing synths, the set fills the room with an aggressive exuberance that the crowd goes wild for.

Eskmo hits next with a stunning set that previews his self titled Ninja Tune release out the first week of October.  Lorn’s aggression is replaced by swaying melodies and Eskmo’s own manipulated vocals.  While not the first to bring vocals into an electronic set, Eskmo does have a certain touch, at one time synthetic and another intimate, all over a sound which fits perfectly into the Brainfeeder lineup.

As Eskmo draws his set to a close, the crowd is ready for the headliner and Decibel veteran Flying Lotus to take the stage.  Surprisingly though, as he fiinally approaches, it is who he has brought with him that garners the most attention.  Wearing a red and white varsity jacket with a roaring tiger embroidered on the back, patches from the 80′s cartoon, three feathers sticking out of his ear and the tail from Davy Crocket hat hanging from his pants is Thundercat.  He steps in front of the bass cabinet and plugs in his bass which also has the Thundercat emblem on the back, while his brother Ronald Bruner Jr. crosses to the other side of the stage to man the drum kit, looking like the Fresh Prince of Bel Aire on a fitness plan.  Lotus stands between the two of them with his laptop propped up and his controller at his fingers to launch into a landmark trio set.

As expected the first thing that hits you is bass.  As Lotus works soundbites from his new album in Ableton, he leaves the majority of their instrumentation in the mix including drum and bass which are then doubled by the live instruments.  It makes for what one would think to be a cluttered mix, but as the songs build a new type of groove is found uncharacteristic of electronic music.  The organic funk of the instrumentation serves to highlight the manipulated funk of Lotus’ production fusing into yet another sound to add to Lotus’ credits.  There’s a connection between the musicians on stage which calls back to the classic jazz trio, trading riffs and precise improvisational timing.  All of the musicians on stage come from jazz lineages, and what they have come together to produce on the stage is an upgrade of that aesthetic for the digital age.  They ride in trio mode for about a half an hour, track after track perfectly mixed like a DJ set.  Lotus then takes some time to solo with his standard fair before hitting back with the band through two threats from security to pull the plug.

As the Neumos staff  usher the audience out, more than a few are inspecting their ears.  The decibel levels have gone way past the red.  Backstage as Lotus goes into his dressing room he keeps repeating “I’m deaf.”  Bruner echos the sentiment sharing that he can’t hear out of his left ear.  Yet both outside and backstage is all smiles.  FlyLo and his friends have brought a sonic convergence well worthy of Decibel.

“Feature creep” is a tricky thing. We all say we want tools that focus more on what we want rather than just add features. But some functionality is there for a reason.

When Maschine came out, Native Instruments’ take on drum machine workflows showed a lot of promise. The biggest draw: Native build a dedicated hardware controller just for the application, making working with the software tool more tangible, but with the flexibility of software. Maschine could integrate with your existing software effects and DAW (like Ableton Live), but without giving up the kind of hands-on control found in hardware.

At least that was the promise. In reality, version 1.0 didn’t quite do some of the things people expected when it came to integration. A series of updates, culminating in the deeper changes in 1.5, has addressed that. 1.5 now allows you to record Maschine events into your DAW, and supports MIDI pitch bend and Control Changes. You can also now drag and drop MIDI patterns. That means if you want to drop Maschine in something like Live or Renoise for sequencing, you can do so more practically.

Also new in 1.5:

• Grain Stretch effect (yes, this part is especially tasty)
• Modeled “vintage sampler” modes for emulating the MPC-60 and SP-1200. NI says they’ve done “sophisticated component modeling.” I haven’t heard the results yet and don’t know exactly what that means, but maybe an expert on one of the original instruments would like to test it out for us? (I’m particularly interested in the SP-1200, as I think there are more reasons to model that sound than an MPC.)
• New slicing and mapping options
• New samples, including Goldbaby’s MPC-60 kits, and special versions of some existing NI packs covering Abbey Road drums, session strings, and vintage synths.

In other words, it’s a huge upgrade. It probably could be called “2.0,” but happily, it’s a free update. (That’s especially good news, as we’ve gotten some fairly negative comments when NI users haven’t had the upgrade path they wanted. This, by contrast, makes a terrific gift to users.)

True to NI’s recent marketing efforts, the launch is accompanied by plenty of celebrity videos. There’s no question who NI hopes will buy Maschine: appearances by major hip-hop producers leave little doubt. But my guess is the tool itself is more of a selling point for that market than any big-name producers on the vendor website – and, for that matter, I think the supposedly-separate interests of electronic and hip-hop communities are more blurred now than ever. Maschine 1.5 is more likely to live or die based on how musically useful it is. Based on what I’ve seen from CDM readers, the gradual improvements – plus simply having more time to get it into musical workflows – have led to growing ranks of Maschine fans. If you count yourselves in those ranks, do let us know what you like or what you’ve found to make it useful.

native-instruments.com/maschine.info