You all know I’ve been using Maschine for a while, and one question I get quite a bit is how to lay out a song using scenes.
It’s a little different than traditional song mode in a beat machine…
where you just put a pattern in a list and tell it how many times to loop.
But once you understand it…
you’ll be making songs very quickly.
Here are some things to remember about scenes, patterns, and tracks in Maschine:
- a scene is pretty much a “snapshot” that holds the state of the current pattern for each group
- There are 8 groups, each can have 64 different patterns
- Each scene can only hold up to 8 patterns, 1 for each group
- Each pattern in a group can hold 16 tracks or “sounds”
- a scene will play as long as the longest pattern in the scene, smaller patterns will repeat to match the lenght of the longest pattern
- patterns are linked across scenes, if you change a pattern in one scene, it changes in others, it’s best to use different patterns to make changes
- renaming the scenes can help you keep track and have a nice overview of your song
I hope this helps you out, if you have any questions feel free to ask as usual. Maschine is very powerful and capable of full productions, sometimes it just takes a little help to understand the best workflow for doing so.
This is by no means the only way to use Maschine, I’ve just found that this way works for a lot of folks used to building songs with patterns, and working on sections.
With all the scenes and patterns it’s definitely very flexible for live use and performance, but that’s not something I do so I wouldn’t be the best person to show you how to set that up lol.
Been following you reviews on BPM and Maschine.. in hopes of figuring out which would be best suited for me and my style/workflow.. This video helped. As Always.. Thanks bro!
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saintjoe Reply:
July 20th, 2010 at 10:56 am
@KILLAHCANE, no doubt fam, thanks for checkin in on it!
Yo, go to gravatar.com and setup your icon, so it will show a better avatar than the pastel flower patterns lol. You’re around a lot, so it’s be cool to have an icon on the site for ya lol.
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Good video you alway have good info.
This might sound crazy but I take an empty group and then I make a blank patterns as long as I want each scene to be 2,4,8,16 or what ever just a habbit I got in to. Just thougt I would share another way to do it.
Peace
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saintjoe Reply:
July 20th, 2010 at 11:55 am
@Myke, yep, you could do that too, but I’d rather leave my patterns open for use if I need
But the blank pattern thing works too and is actually a very useful way to organize as well.
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Excellent video as always!
~M
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saintjoe Reply:
July 20th, 2010 at 12:40 pm
@Michael Blue, thanks man, thanks yo for watchin!
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You’re a Saint
Ta!
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saintjoe Reply:
July 20th, 2010 at 1:44 pm
@everythingbutthegirl, lol, glad to help!
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everythingbutthegirl Reply:
July 21st, 2010 at 10:24 am
@saintjoe, Hi Joe
I’ve tried to transpose a scene either up or down and have become stuck as all my song changes up. How can I get round that?
Infact even when changing time signatures up and down things fall apart.
Help me out man!
Please
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saintjoe Reply:
July 21st, 2010 at 10:42 am
@everythingbutthegirl, not sure I understand what you are doing. If you change the time sig, it’s for the overall project I believe, as far as transpose, I would imagine you’d want to change it in the patterns instead of on the scene.
I’d have to see an example of what you are trying to do lol.
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everythingbutthegirl Reply:
July 22nd, 2010 at 7:39 am
@saintjoe, I’ll hit you up on what I’m trying to explain to you
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saintjoe Reply:
July 22nd, 2010 at 9:01 am
@everythingbutthegirl, aight cool
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everythingbutthegirl Reply:
July 27th, 2010 at 1:33 pm
@saintjoe, OK Joe, thought about what I’m trying to say. Hear goes…… In this vid you set up your scenes and as you said you what to make a changes up say with the horns in one of the scenes. Transpose I think is the word…. Change up or down to have a complete change them in the next scene change back to the original. Is this possible.
I hope this is clear!
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saintjoe Reply:
July 27th, 2010 at 1:44 pm
@everythingbutthegirl, just use a different pattern for the horn part in that scene, change it up, and put it in that scene, then that scene will be different. The scenes only play back the patterns, make your changes in the patterns.
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Good lookin’ w/this vid! I could’ve used it when I first got Maschine and then one day while watching Ten Tigers it came to me. What worked for me was thinking of things from the concept of OOD (object oriented design) from my scripting classes. From that point things just seemed to fall into place except for me constantly making pattern variations, now if NI comes up with a non-liner tool and/or allows fades,etc. during composition with recordable actions…yeah buddy!
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saintjoe Reply:
July 20th, 2010 at 4:39 pm
@jamari, yeah man I feel ya! I’m not programmer lol, so I didn’t have the OOD to make it click lol. When I first got it I was like “what?” lol, but then looking at it, it makes real sense. I used to think it was sort of limited with 1 pattern per group, but it’s really not, on other beat machines I made up patterns with 8-16 tracks, I can do that in 1 group! lol. The more I play with it the more I like it of course. Thanks for checkin it.
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Official Salute !! No doubt that was informative fam. Song mode is the best to arrange patterns and seq’s to me. on the mpc it has a mode for that all by itsself. i was always wondering if software developers would ever creat a song mode that just takes your seq and you can arrabge them how you want. Hmmm so now im wondering does ableton live have any features like this that i could be missin?? cause what i do Is make the full beat with every sound i have , then i duplicate it numerous times them edit each to make the song sound complete. I dont know if this makes sense the way im explaining it but it works. Sometime i find myself counting the bar measures to make sure its on time for rappers so they can rap to it. ( artist friendly tracks lol )
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saintjoe Reply:
July 20th, 2010 at 4:41 pm
@Dro Fontaine, no doubt fam lol, yeah Ableton has a dope song mode man, I love it, I did a video on it too. I basically use it the same way, each scene I setup as a part of my song. Here’s the link: http://soundsandgear.com/ableton-live-tutorial-for-producers-used-to-hardware-sequencing/
peace!
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yo simplicity @ it’s finest bro respect for laying out this tutorial man . peace
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saintjoe Reply:
July 20th, 2010 at 4:41 pm
@Funk Bandit, no doubt fam, I want peeps to use it to it’s fullest, and I got this question a lot, but I know once a person sees it, it’s over, and they got it!
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thanks for the info on song mode but i got 1 question are you able to record live audio with maschine ?
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saintjoe Reply:
July 20th, 2010 at 7:48 pm
@tony, not sure what you’re asking me, it’s a sampler so you can record whatever you want into it. It’s not a daw so it doesn’t record linear audio on a timeline like cubase or something. It will record whatever you want as a sample, you’d then have to trigger it in whatever pattern you want. I suppose you could create a long pattern and trigger long pieces of audio if you wish.
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You’re the man Joe..Always flippin some funky beats and giving good advice and being a good sport to the music community and doin your thing and lettin me know what sounds good for how much lol how much else can we ask for as people makin music?..
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saintjoe Reply:
July 23rd, 2010 at 5:33 am
@Mark Cassidy, always glad to help yo! thanks for checkin it out!
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How do you record at more than one scene at a time? As in allowing it to jump from Scene 1 to Scene 2 without having to press anything while recording. When laying keys over a song it’s much easier to do it this way but I can’t figure it out. Help!!
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saintjoe Reply:
July 28th, 2010 at 7:51 pm
@Hersh, really not sure what you’re trying to do, you don’t record into scenes, scenes just hold the patterns, you record into patterns and put them together into scenes.
there’s nothing to record from one scene to another because there is no data being recorded into a scene.
they don’t have a “song track” or something that will allow you to record a long linear sequence across scenes. Definitely would be a dope addition.
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What’s good St. Joe? Man, I meant to hit you up the day you posted this, but got off track. Been using this method the last few days and just remembered where I learned it. Very good instructions man. I wasn’t making much progress until I saw this. Much appreciated!!
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saintjoe Reply:
July 29th, 2010 at 2:10 pm
@DefCience, cool man, glad it helped ya!
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Yo what’s the best place (website) to get a good deal on maschine?
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saintjoe Reply:
July 30th, 2010 at 1:54 pm
@panoramic, I have a friend selling one on eBay right now, brand new for 499 buy it now
http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fcgi.ebay.com%2Fws%2FeBayISAPI.dll%3FViewItem%26item%3D280542057491%23ht_500wt_1009&h=8651f
other than that checkout zZounds, they got the payment plan thing
http://www.zzounds.com/a–1786589/item–NINMASCHINE
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as always another great video. can’t wait for the next update.
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saintjoe Reply:
August 1st, 2010 at 8:07 am
@flux302, thanks fam, I can’t wait either.
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Bro, I’ll be hooking my MPC back up soon. Just brought a Quik Lok QL400 Console Mixer MPC Stand today so I’ll have some room for it. I figure since I still own it I might well use it plus I can carry it with me to lay down some beats when away from the house.
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saintjoe Reply:
October 11th, 2010 at 6:17 am
@Madbull1971, cool man, may as well, if ya got it still lol.
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Saintjoe u the man for real homeboy. This is the EXACT video I’ve been looking for. U just taught me how to make a full beat. As I was saying on Facebook ( Cortney Warren) I own Maschine but didn’t know how to make a beat. I can’t WAIT to get off work tonight!! It’s on!! GOD bless u bro. Can u make the same video again but this time using the hardware? Peace bro.
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saintjoe Reply:
November 11th, 2010 at 8:03 pm
@C-FELLA, glad to help man! I used a combination of hardware and software here, I used the hardware to duplicate my patterns and then the software to arrange them in the scenes.
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C-FELLA Reply:
November 12th, 2010 at 11:14 am
@saintjoe, Thanks bro!
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saintjoe Reply:
November 12th, 2010 at 11:26 am
@C-FELLA, no doubt yo!!
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C-FELLA Reply:
November 12th, 2010 at 12:07 pm
@saintjoe, 1 quick question bro, u said that u used the hardware to duplicate the pattern. How to u execute that task with the hardware? i’m over here trying with the hardware but having problems.
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saintjoe Reply:
November 12th, 2010 at 12:09 pm
@C-FELLA, hold pattern button, then hit duplicate in the left screen
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C-FELLA Reply:
November 13th, 2010 at 9:37 am
@saintjoe, Thanks man!
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saintjoe Reply:
November 13th, 2010 at 8:43 pm
@C-FELLA, no problem!
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Thank you for doing this video. It was very generous of you and very helpful.
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saintjoe Reply:
May 6th, 2011 at 4:00 pm
@david frank, no problem bro, glad to help
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Hey Man,
Way to explain things. Here’s a tough question for some of the noobies of Maschines; (Myself)
1.) How do I Quantize at a custom percentage?
2.) It would be great if you did a video on making a beat solely with the Maschine for the Party man on the go. Because you have a simple way of articulating the process.. This would answer many of my questions… and could allow me to master the Maschine So I could make Beats on the fly while barely using the screen.
3.) What’s the best High Quality Soundbanks out right now.. In your opinion?
Thanks Bro
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saintjoe Reply:
October 9th, 2011 at 1:28 pm
@Ryan C.,
1. you can only quantize by full or 50%, or you can change the quantize grid
2. That would be a long video
3. check my product review page, too many out there just depends on what you want
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@saintjoe, I c wat u sayin in the video but im still havin hella problems cuz im new 2 this beat mashine thing & i was wounderin if u can hit my line up & help on the process of makin a beat/song if thats not 2 much 2 ask i wounld really appreciate it man.
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saintjoe Reply:
October 9th, 2011 at 4:14 pm
@SQ, I have much more tutorials for Maschine on http://maschinetutorials.com, there’s a lot of free stuff there too.
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how did you double the length of the pattern on the hardware?
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saintjoe Reply:
December 11th, 2011 at 12:34 pm
@Zed-One, press the pattern button then you’ll see the double option.
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Quick question regarding saving scenes. im a fresh newb with the maschine so any help with this or tips for other things related would very much appreciated.
I recently got the maschine and absolutely love it! i hit a wall last night in regards to recording/saving/uploading. i was working in step mode and had record on while practicing and then saved what i had programmed. after messing around with what i had i finally came up with a finished version of the song i was putting together. i then hit record again and played the song in its entirety. when i went to save it i then tried to open it on my computer. every time i open it it plays the practice version i had originally saved and its only 15 seconds long or so and not the finished product i had most recently saved.
it comes up in itunes and plays the unfinished song every time. i got very frustrated and tried so many times with no luck, and i really want to avoid starting from scratch and re-programming each pad for each step. this is my first post on the forum and any help would be greatly appreciated…
essentially what im asking is how do i record and save over something i already recorded to get my finished song? and then how do i open that finished song and eventually upload it to something like soundcloud?
please help!
thanks in advance
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saintjoe Reply:
January 5th, 2012 at 1:04 pm
@Brent, once you arrange it and save it, you can use the file menu to export it. Make sure you choose to export “all scenes” and the “master” output to get a wave file of your entire song. You can then upload this to souncloud, etc.
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Brent Reply:
January 5th, 2012 at 1:14 pm
@saintjoe, thank you sir, but i have the feeling that this is what i have been doing. i titled it “1st song”…i hit play then record when i practiced it and then saved it. once i put it all together in the same open file on the software (“1st song”) i hit play and record again and performed the song in its entirety. then i stopped the recording and clicked save again. i went to the file menu and did all of what you said above. when i opened the song it appeared in my itunes as the 15 seconds of practice i had done originally. its like it wont save over and replace the practice run i did.
im sorry if this isnt clear or if i am just being a total noob and not getting it. as always, the help is greatly appreciated
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saintjoe Reply:
January 5th, 2012 at 1:48 pm
@Brent, you can’t record your song like that, you have to build the patterns and put them into the arranger like a chain, then you can export it. If you only have one scene up there in the arranger, that’s all it will export
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i am soooo sorry im an idiot. i meant to say i was recording in scene mode not step mode. not sure if this is any different in regards to saving. but i have things working in 3 dif scenes on the software and it only seems to pick up what i practiced. then when i hit play and record and perform my song using all 3 scenes and try to save its coming up with the original thing saved. god i need so much help
thanks again for listening
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saintjoe Reply:
January 5th, 2012 at 2:58 pm
@Brent, you don’t record anything in scene mode, scenes just play back your various patterns.
To connect them you drag the gray bar at the top to connect all 3 scenes, then when you export tell it to export all 3 scenes. It will only export the 3 scenes, if you want it longer, you need to extend the arrangement by making more scenes.
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now that, my good man, is very helpful lol. thank you so much im gonna tackle that thing when i get home from work and see if i can figure it out. i might bother you 1 or 2 more times if thats cool. i really appreciate everything.
know anyone in chicago that could give me a few lessons to get me started? i will obviously pay $$$
thanks!
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saintjoe Reply:
January 5th, 2012 at 3:04 pm
@Brent, glad to help sir! I don’t know anyone in Chi town, but you should checkout our tutorial site
maschinetutorials.com
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expect me to sign up for the tutorials this evening. last question regarding my little issue. since i have my scenes created and know what order to play them in to create my song, how/what do i do to put these scenes in a format where i can record, save, and then upload?
you replied to me…”To connect them you drag the gray bar at the top to connect all 3 scenes”
once i do this where do i go from there in regards to performing them to record?
im sure ive exhausted you at this point
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saintjoe Reply:
January 5th, 2012 at 3:15 pm
@Brent, you don’t perform them, once you have that gray bar connecting them, just go to your file menu and click export. Make sure it’s set to “all scenes” and for the output it should be “master” then you just export it as a wave file
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