MASCHINE 2.6 comes with more tools to spark your creativity, make you more productive in the studio, and add flair to your live sessions.

Native Instruments have added a new update to MASCHINE that is free to any existing owners of their MASCHINE 2 software. It adds a bunch of wicked new features to MASCHINE STUDIO, MASCHINE MK1 and 2, and MASCHINE MIKRO, with a spokesperson saying: “It includes a suite of features that help spark creativity, add variety to tracks, and add flair to live performances. It also extends MASCHINE’s powerful workflow to external synths by introducing MIDI CC capabilities.”

Variation Engine: Randomization and Humanization

The new Variation Engine helps add variety and spontaneity to your patterns. Humanize lets you shake off the shackles of quantization and loosen up a drum beat or melody. And Randomize kickstarts new tracks by creating new patterns with random velocities and positions — the perfect tool for spawning new ideas.

Lock and Morph Snapshots

Whether you want to experiment creatively or just want to add some improvisation during a live performance, Lock has you covered. Simply freeze your current settings, tweak a sound’s characters, change an envelope, open a filter, and when you’re ready, return back to your initial settings at the press of a button, for up to 64 snapshots. And with the new Morph function, MASCHINE blends seamlessly from one snapshot to the next, making it easy to discover new transitions.

Control External Gear with MIDI CC

With new MIDI CC capabilities, you can control your MIDI-capable external instruments, like your favourite Roland groovebox or Korg synth, as if they were plugins. Simply load the controller template for your device in your MASCHINE software, and you can play with any MIDI-enabled parameters, like tweaking a filter or adjusting a sound’s attack, directly from MACHINE’s ultra-responsive pads and knobs.

To get you started Native Instruments have built a library of presets for popular devices, which you can find on their Downloads page – and if you can’t find a preset for your favourite synth, it’s easy to build your own.

The update also brings classic features standard on MASCHINE STUDIO, MASCHINE MK1 and 2, and MASCHINE MIKRO to the MASCHINE JAM. Now producers can change a note’s pitch, velocity, length, swing, and position directly from the MASCHINE JAM via the step sequencer. It’s also possible to modulate parameters, like changing reverb depth, adjusting a favourite plugin, or tuning a drum, on each step. With MASCHINE 2.6, users can also quickly adjust the velocity levels on each note in step mode by pressing any of the 16 fixed velocity levels on a dedicated grid.

If you don’t already you can get NI’s brilliant MASCHINE instruments and software here: www.native-instruments.com/en/products/maschine