Maschine in Reaper Templates

[foxAsteria]

Here are 4 different ways to use Maschine inside Reaper. These downloads are simply track templates, so couldn't be any easier to use. (version 4.2, updated Jan 10 2024):

1) Just One Track This is the simplest one. A single track with 3 kits, each on its own MIDI channel. No Routing.


Download


2) Two Audio Routed Kits, 1 Split Instrument Group, Kick & Snare Tracks This is the way I'm working normally. It's a 6 Track Template.

Each Kit is audio-routed to a Reaper track, which essentially act as summing buss for the Kit. Mixing the sounds of each Kit is done inside the plugin.

There is one "Kick Track" with a dedicated receive of Pads 1 & 5 on every Kit, which are typically used for kicks, so you can have your kicks isolated from the other Sounds, for sidechaining or processing, etc. Same for snare, but on pads 2 & 6.

You can record your patterns and scenes in Maschine and then record your sketch performance of them later as MIDI in Reaper for finer editing, or just start recording into Reaper right away. Best part is that you can loop overdub MIDI items as takes also and use Note Repeat while recording MIDI in Reaper. So, best of both worlds.

Download


3) One Audio Routed Kit (16 Audio Tracks, receiving Maschine Sounds)

Just one kit with each sound routed to its own audio track.

Download


4) Maschine Master Controller (Two MIDI Routed Kits and 14 MIDI Tracks)

This one lets you do all sequencing inside Maschine, using Native Instruments' intended workflow, which is great for sketching out arrangements quickly, but each Sound sends a different MIDI channel from each sound to 16 Reaper tracks to control all your favorite synths from Maschine.

Download


Please let me know if anything's not working for you and I will try to help/fix it. There will be more specific info in the Project Notes.


INSTALLATION:

1. Download your template of choice from the links above and open it in Reaper (or just double click). If you like it, you can save it as a track template for future re-use by selecting all the tracks and right clicking... Yes, they are project files, but they can also be stored as track templates.
2. (Optionally) Download and import this Cycle Action in the Cycle Action Editor and assign it a convenient shortcut on your keyboard or MIDI controller to view the Maschine GUI at any time (relies on the Maschine track name starting with the word "Maschine").
3. Enjoy or be disappointed, but give me some feedback, so I can improve the experience for others.

Important: Be sure to disable this +ROUTING option when loading a kit, to preserve the routing I have made in the templates and not load the routing stored in the kit!

[ChristopherT]

Thanks a lot for doing this.
I am soon to start using Maschine in Reaper and finally get it out of ProTools, so your templates will be awesome to start me off without much hair pulling.

I will definitely use the:
2) One Audio Routed Kit (16 Audio Tracks, receiving Maschine Sounds)

[foxAsteria]

Cool, thanks. All MIDI is recorded on the Maschine track and separated by channel for each group, fyi. People seem to want/expect MIDI on separate tracks per group (which I did too, at first) and it's just not simple or easy to do, so this is the best method I've found in 5 years. I will attempt to explain it better in the new iteration.

[JC777]

Hi fox,

New user Maschine MK3 here, thanks for your help with Maschine and Reaper.

Basically I'm trying to setup a Maschine group as a drum machine and I want to send the Reaper MIDI to it in order to be able to draw the MIDI in Reaper and not have to bother with scenes - to have it synced to my project.

I also want to have the audio output of each piece of the kit on individual tracks (16 total) in Reaper to do further mixing inside the DAW.

I'm really lost and I followed most of the videos on youtube and also used your templates and I can't get any MIDI or audio yet...

I'm also very confused because I don't know if I should use Maschine in Midi CTRL mode and have that set as the input on the track or tracks (so confused sorry) or just leave it as is (when you turn on Maschine and just use it in ''Maschine Mode'' I believe...).

Thanks alot! I'm so lost haha.

[foxAsteria]

@JC777 you should be able to use template 2, load a kit and record MIDI on the Maschine track, regardless of what mode you're in. If you can't get any MIDI activity on the track, your Maschine is probably not set up in Reaper preferences MIDI Devices. It should be enabled+control in MIDI inputs and disabled in outputs.

[JC777]

My Maschine MIDI is setup right but I guess maybe the MIDI routing in Maschine is not correct. Still can't get any MIDI from Reaper on the track. Let me check this with your suggestions and I'll get back to you. Thanks again!

[JC777]

Ok, I got it working!!! I'm so happy right now haha.

What I had to do like you said was to have group to midi notes enabled, use Maschine in CTRL mode in Reaper's input starting from C3 and made sure to specify Manual in MIDI input but that was already setup in your One Kit template.

Thanks again!

[JC777]

I still don't understand why Maschine outside of CTRL mode doesn't send MIDI to the first track using the One Kit template. It seems I am force to use CTRL mode which makes the note repeat unusable.

[foxAsteria]

If Maschine's native mode is not sending MIDI to the track you need select all the sounds and set MIDI output destination to "host." But if you disabled loading routing with the kits as per the image in the OP, you shouldn't have to do this.

[JC777]

Ok that is strange though because I did disable the routing and I checked to make sure and each sound is set to host like you said by default.

In Reaper on the Maschine track the input is set to MIDI All Channels, is that right?
I tried other options for the input and when I record no MIDI is written on the track. I'm trying to record MIDI using the Maschine Controller not a keyboard just to make it clear.

Again, thank you so much for your help

[foxAsteria]

Ok, I see the problem. I forgot to set the track to record output in this template. You need to right click the track input and set it to "record: output (MIDI)", uncheck "Preserve PDC..." and check "monitor track media..." It will then record all incoming MIDI and anything in the Maschine sequencer.

The audio tracks also need to be set to record audio output.

Sorry for the confusion, I will update the templates soon.

[JC777]

Cool I will try at as soon as I get home

[foxAsteria]

Templates have been updated. I was too lazy to test them much or to revise the project notes, so please let me know if something's not right and I will fix it.

[JC777]

Thank you so much it works perfectly now. I couldn't try the template you updated but your tips in the post above worked. Thank you so much man! Saved my life :P

[Geronimo Stevens]

These are exactly what I was looking for. I was expecting to chase links and opinions all night but you saved me from that ugliness. For that, Iam eternally in your debt. Nice work, indeed.
👊

[foxAsteria]

Glad you found them useful. Welcome to the forums!

[rogpfreck]

Got a Maschine MK2 yesterday - eBay, so these are very useful indeed. All templates worked as described for me, latest Reaper, 5.973.

The Project notes are very well done too and show how carefully you have prepared these examples. Top work!

I'm sure you've saved me hours of trawling the internet for a Maschine 'how-to' with REAPER! Thank you.

Mac mini, OS: Mojave 10.14.3.

[TonE]

Why you need Machine? Can the above templates be used with any non-machine hardware as well? Did not test anything. If it works only with machine, I would like to know why only there but not elsewhere? Trying to figure out the differences.

[foxAsteria]

Originally Posted by rogpfreck

All templates worked as described for me, latest Reaper, 5.973.
I'm sure you've saved me hours of trawling the internet for a Maschine 'how-to' with REAPER! Thank you.

Yep, that's the idea. Thanks for the feedback; great to know they are working! I literally spent about a year trying to figure it out (although it was only made possible by certain NI fixes that came a while after my purchase), but I thought others should be spared some of those frustrations...

Originally Posted by TonE

Why you need Machine? Can the above templates be used with any non-machine hardware as well? Did not test anything. If it works only with machine, I would like to know why only there but not elsewhere? Trying to figure out the differences.

They are Maschine Templates made for Maschine and nothing else. Routing must be done within the Maschine plugin as well as Reaper to use it seamlessly in Reaper. It takes some time to figure out how to set it up, so I did all the ground work and shared it to save time for others. Seems most prefer the long route, but there is more to be learned that way...

OTOH, I have a MIDI-Ox setup that can be used for any controller that can send MIDI Program Change messages for on the fly MIDI channel momentary switching, in order to multiply the number of possible controls by up to 8x, if you're interested...

[caronte23]

Thank you for doing these templates! I'm having trouble using the One Audio routed kit. It works fine when I have the maschine track record enabled, but as soon as I hit record a massive latency comes in. I've tried all combinations with input onitoring on or off, recording the audio tracks as well, having them with input monitor on or off.. nothing. As soon as the transport starts the latency comes in :/

[foxAsteria]

@caronte23

So you say there is no latency until you start recording? I've seen some latency when the Maschine track is not armed, but it shouldn't change when playback starts.

Have you got anticipative fx turned on in prefs/audio/buffering? Do you have any fx on your master track? Also check performance monitor for high PDC plugins and try disabling them.

[Tiggerdyret]

Can you use multiple instances of Maschine in a project? I'm thinking of having an instance of maschine routed with a 16 output drum kit and another one with all my other instruments. Would this work? Can I select which Maschine instance the MK3 is controlling?

[foxAsteria]

Originally Posted by Tiggerdyret

Can you use multiple instances of Maschine in a project?

Yes but I found it to be a headache. Idk what model have so look up "instance" in the manual. It's usually shift+another button. You can also click on the Maschine icon in the UI of whatever plugin you want to control.

It's also the reason I made my Maschine Controller template. Since Reaper is better for editing and Maschine is better for quick arrangements, I found it was best to keep things simple while working with Maschine and then shift to Reaper once the project became more developed.

If you can pick up a cheap mk2, having two separate hardware units makes for great workflow. Esp if one is a bigger unit with more screenspace and knobs.

[Tiggerdyret]

Originally Posted by foxAsteria

Yes but I found it to be a headache. Idk what model have so look up "instance" in the manual. It's usually shift+another button. You can also click on the Maschine icon in the UI of whatever plugin you want to control.

It's also the reason I made my Maschine Controller template. Since Reaper is better for editing and Maschine is better for quick arrangements, I found it was best to keep things simple while working with Maschine and then shift to Reaper once the project became more developed.

If you can pick up a cheap mk2, having two separate hardware units makes for great workflow. Esp if one is a bigger unit with more screenspace and knobs.

I actually like to arrange in Reaper. Love working with items and regions. My idea was to build a couple of section in Maschine (maybe even in standalone). Once the idea is fleshed out enough that I want to work in Reaper I load the project as two Maschine instances in Reaper. On one I mute the synths and route the drums out, on the other I do the opposite. I'd then just drag the midi information from Maschine out onto the routed Reaper tracks with the midi going back into Maschine to trigger the sounds. That way I can arrange and edit the midi in Reaper and work the instrument parameters and record the midi in the Maschine VST. The downside to working like this could be that I might have to do the routing again every time I want to import my Maschine projects into Reaper and maybe it's too much of a hassle to drag and drop the midi every time I record.
The better solution would have been of you could route more than 16 outputs out of Maschine though... But I could try to work with under 16 tracks in Maschine and switch to Reaper once the project is more then 16 tracks...

[foxAsteria]

If you really wanna work like that, then yea I'd suggest standalone. Then when you're ready to switch to Reaper just open that file from the plugin.

Do you know how to set up the routing yourself? If so, you should only have to set it up once. Just remember to turn of the +ROUTING button in Maschine, so it keeps the routing when loading kits.

The way you want to work also creates a feedback loop btw. It's not recommended. The templates I have are the result of much trial and error. I think they represent the best approaches given the limitations. However, do what thou wilt.

[Tiggerdyret]

Thanks man. Yes, I know how to set it up. But my method might be too troublesome in the end... Isn't the output routing of Maschine project based? Say I write a track in a project and load up the vst in Reaper and do all the routing in a fresh project and then load the old unrouted project. Wouldn't that break the routing or will it import correctly into the old project when loaded?

If I work with only one instance at first, standalone or not, I'd still have to do the routing for the other instance when I copy it. Thinking about it I don't even know if I can set up the routing from Maschine standalone and then load that project into Reaper with all the routing, if I started the track on standalone. So yeah, one instance in Reaper start to finish might be the best option then.

[foxAsteria]

Originally Posted by Tiggerdyret

Thanks man. Yes, I know how to set it up. But my method might be too troublesome in the end... Isn't the output routing of Maschine project based? Say I write a track in a project and load up the vst in Reaper and do all the routing in a fresh project and then load the old unrouted project. Wouldn't that break the routing or will it import correctly into the old project when loaded?

If I work with only one instance at first, standalone or not, I'd still have to do the routing for the other instance when I copy it. Thinking about it I don't even know if I can set up the routing from Maschine standalone and then load that project into Reaper with all the routing, if I started the track on standalone. So yeah, one instance in Reaper start to finish might be the best option then.

The little routing button bottom of the browser determines whether saved routing is loaded from the project or it's kept the way it is. Great feature we didn't have early on...

[em0]

Hi, your worksflow sounds interesting, been trying to do something similar, so I wanted to give this a try instead of reinventing the wheel. Unfortunately I couldn't open any of the 4 rpp templates linked above in my reaper. It may be an issue with arm vs intel mac? I'm on M1 mac (arm), and I see reaper is trying to open the intel compatibility layer with your templates. Probably because you use VSTi Maschine 2 rather than VST3i, I notice, but you're also loading some other plugins like SPAN? Are those necessary or is there perhaps a leaner/updated version for m1 mac users to try? Thanks!

[foxAsteria]

Hey thanks for letting me know! I will try to update them soon. I think it's just because I used a non-default kit (Abbey Road Drummer). I'll replace with the VST3 version too.

[foxAsteria]

Holy shit were these broken...references to missing track icons, sws tokens, paid plugins and 3rd party, mysterious hidden popup windows...man how did this go unnoticed for years?!

Thanks again for letting me know! Fixing!

[em0]

haha, thank YOU for sharing your templates with us

[foxAsteria]

I went ahead and posted version 4 which is significantly less whack than version 3.

Please test and let me know how it goes/if there are any problems and which template you like best. Enjoy!

[em0]

They work great now, thanks! Ill need some more time to play around and see which one suits me best. That said, first impression, leaning towards the master template, as it seems to allow also recording midi with maschine in keyboard mode as opposed to just pad mode (switching a group to keyboard mode in the one track template didnt immediately give the desired result, but then i might have messed something up, i'm very new to maschine). I'll post here again with some proper feedback in a while.

[foxAsteria]

Originally Posted by em0

switching a group to keyboard mode in the one track template didnt immediately give the desired result

Hmmm, what is the desired result? It works as expected here; selected sound is a different pitch on each pad. I'll test it some more and see if I notice anything amiss.

Glad to hear they are working now (mostly)!

EDIT: So I did notice some problems and fixed them....but if I understand you correctly I can make Kit 3 for Keyboard Sounds and that should do what you want. That way, you can use all 16 MIDI channels and just the first two are for drum kits; the rest of the sounds can be played in keyboard mode.

[em0]

Thanks man! yeah, what I mean is, if I fire up your one track template and record a pattern in maschine in keyboard mode it sounds as desired, i.e. hitting the different pads gives different pitches of the same sound (the kick drum in this case). So then I playback my little pattern of pitch shifted kicks and record it in reaper, and indeed it shows up as different midi notes. But when I then turn off the pattern in maschine and playback just the midi item within reaper, it's not different pitches of the kick but the different drum sounds, i.e. as if I had played in pad mode originally rather than keyboard mode.

Now, maybe people shouldn't use keyboard mode in this kind of setup, but I'm new to maschine, and I can imagine using maschine in my workflow to lay down some drums but also some chords and basslines, and that's done with keyboard mode right?

Besides, but now we're going into another topic, I also like to use some kontakt drums (like abbey road 60s or drumlab). I know you can reassign pads to play different midi notes of a single instrument (with transpose or with note names), so that you play things like abbey road in pad mode, but this seems kind of tedious, and I still have to figure out how best to do this, esp in combination with your template. Wouldn't a quick and easy way be to just play abbey road in keyboard mode (not ideal, but that's how I used to play them on my S49 keyboard before I added the maschine).

[foxAsteria]

Ok so I've fixed up that template and will upload later today. While I'm at it, if you have any ideas for a new template that is not covered, I can try working one up. Thanks again for testing; I definitely did not do enough of that!

[em0]

Allright then, since you ask for feedback... here's some thoughts/observations from a total newbie playing with your templates, some might be useful for other newbies, and/or if you want to further develop your templates.

First, really happy with all 4 templates. They basically work for me, and indeed allow combining some of the nice features of Maschine (quick sketching, live playing/arranging, note repeat, etc) with further tweaking (sidechaining, editing audio tracks, etc) in Reaper. Thanks!

To start, here is how I understand the intended workflow.

1. Fire up reaper; open your template (say the one with kick and snare as separate audio tracks);

2. Arm the maschine track 1 (not the other ones) and open the maschine plugin window;

3. load a kit in group A1

4. press play on reaper (can't do that from maschine hardware). This felt a bit counterintuitive to me -- why does reaper need to just play indefinitely while composing something, and why couldn't the play button on hardware/plugin just get us going? I take it this is just a limitation of the cooperation between maschine and reaper.

5. press record on maschine hardware/plugin and record a beat pattern inside maschine (using all the features of maschine hardware and plugin, like note repeat or step sequencing);

6. make some more patterns and do the same for group B1 and C1, say, and then make a song in the Maschine plugin with those groups and patterns;

7. press stop in reaper and then press record in reaper (still just the first track armed) to record your song into a single reaper multichannel midi item;

8. turn off all patterns in maschine plugin or make an empty scene or something, just so you don't get sounds coming from the maschine arrangement anymore (otherwise you get double sounds in the next step). Actually, how do you do this most efficiently? This step makes sense, but it wasn't immediately obvious to me at first. You might want to put this explicitly in the project notes for simple newbies like me...

9. close the maschine plugin window and unarm and play back your midi track in reaper. Now you have your maschine-made song playing as a single reaper midi item and you can edit the midi in reaper midi editor, and cut the midi item up etc in reaper. It should correctly play back the midi notes through your maschine plugin, where you can also add fx and change kits/sounds etc. Use the shortcuts that foxasteria suggests in project notes to efficiently isolate the different channels (each group creates a different channel).

10. if you're using the first just-one-track template that's all. If you're using the one with audio tracks for kick and snare you can arm the audio tracks and record different audio to them. I guess the point of that is that you can then delete the whole maschine track and plugin, and you can do easy side chaining to make your kick punch through etc. EDIT: actually you don't really need to record the actual audio tracks to set up sidechaining with the kick/snare template, right? I'm also new to sidechaining

This all makes sense to me. But:

a. As I said in my hasty first impression post above, there's issues with keyboard mode. In steps 3-6, in the just-one-track template, I can load, say a kontakt bass instrument in group B1 pad 1 and switch to keyboard mode on the hardware or in plugin to play and record a bass line (probably first setting root note, choosing a key, or even activating chord mode). And you get a nice bass pattern, but when I use that pattern in my song and listen back to the midi item in reaper (step 9) it doesn't come out right. The midi notes of that channel seem fine, but the sound is not. This is because your template transposes the midi outputs (I think?).

b. Workaround? If you use the Master Controller Template you can get separate midi tracks with their own instruments from Group C1, and that does work as expected. You just add all your kontakt instruments on those tracks in reaper and switch which instrument you're playing in maschine by switching between pads 3-16 and going in keyboard mode. Unfortunately the midi is also recorded as separate channels in the basic maschine track 1, and if you play back that track the sound is off as before. Workaround, I guess, just clear those channels of track 1, as you have them as separate midi tracks now anyway, leaving just the drum notes played in pad mode in the track 1 midi item.

c. Related to the above. How to use a kontakt drum kit in this workflow, like abbey road or 40's very own drums or drumlab? One simple option is to load them as instrument and play them in keyboard mode (adjusting the root note 2 octaves down, for instance), but that gets you in the same problem as above (worse if you want to do sidechaining with your kick/snare template). Plus, you might want to make a custom layout. I see in the screenshot in your original post that you have made groups for you abbey road kits. How? I'm having difficulty applying the tricks I find online because they involve tweaking the sound output in maschine, which your template also does.

d. This probably has nothing to do with your templates, but just putting it out there. In addition to a maschine hardware (mikro mk3) I have an s49 keyboard. Is it possible to use that together with the maschine to make my patterns? I can do this in standalone Maschine, but in the plugin I do see the s49 keyboard icon and i can click to activate it, and the keys on the s49 light up etc, but I can't play sounds from it, or use the mod wheel or anything.

e. very minor trivialities, just in case you want to polish more: the master controller templates came with a lot of random patterns inside, which is obviously fine, but feels a bit messy compared to the others; when recording into reaper I get an sws warning that I'm "recording multiple tracks to the same input", which is probably as it should be, and easily ignored, but just so you know; the default tempo is set to a strangely fractional bpm rather than, say 100 or something.


Hope it all doesn't sound negative, I like what you did, just trying to do my part by giving some feedback

[foxAsteria]

Lol, beat me to it! Great feedback and I will use it to improve the templates further! Awesome!!! Wish someone could have been this proactive when I uploaded them years ago...

In the meantime, check this out: https://github.com/brummbrum/reaKontrol

It should allow you to do some basic transport functions from Maschine or your keyboard controller. Host transport function in Maschine was DOA and I never use it since it stupidly disables the entire erase function.

The caveat with this extension is that if anything else is accessing MIDI devices when you launch Reaper, it will crash.

[em0]

both posted at exactly the same time... Re: reakontrol, thanks, yes, I had that working flawlessly, but i uninstalled it recently to try out the alternative 'drivenbymoss' thingy that is supposed to support both s49 and mikro mk3. Now that im using just full Maschine mode on mmk3, thanks to your templates, instead of midimode I might just switch back to reakontrol for s49.

Edit: o and yeah, i know you made this years and years ago, but Reaper and Maschine are probably here to stay for many more years and probably these templates are going to stay relevant, also to new users to come, for quite a while, I hope...

[foxAsteria]

Originally Posted by em0

I see in the screenshot in your original post that you have made groups for you abbey road kits. How?

I have Abbey Road kits that load like Maschine kits (on a Group) as well as versions that load inside of Kontakt ; like you guessed, you have to load latter types as instruments on a Sound.

The main difference here (if it's not obvious) is Groups are on different channels for drumkits, with their Sounds separated by MIDI note, whereas Instruments each need their own MIDI channel and use of all the notes on that channel. But fortunately we can put the rest of these MIDI channels in a single Group.

If you right click the groups, you can see the two ways to batch route their MIDI. I've assigned this appropriately now.

So I believe I've fixed all the templates to address most, if not all of your concerns, as well as cleaning up a ton of overall consistency issues (pretty embarrassing, the state I released these in tbh ).

For recording Instruments, I've now assigned Group 3 (where applicable) to record and playback Keyboard and Chord modes correctly (I hope). I think I wasn't really using these modes when I made the templates initially, so never tested this.

I'd really appreciate if you could test again in version 4.1 and let me know if everything works as expected now.

I do also want to clarify the notes in project settings, so any feedback there is also welcome.

Originally Posted by em0

Reaper and Maschine are probably here to stay for many more years and probably these templates are going to stay relevant, also to new users to come, for quite a while, I hope...

If so, that's thanks to you for getting me to fix the many issues!