Full arrangements with Maschine Mikro Mk3

Maschine’s Scenes and Perform FX offer a fun way to play around with full arrangements

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In the accompanying video, we’ve prepared track elements using multiple Groups, each with Patterns providing different elements of a melodic techno track. Let’s create some Scenes and sequence these.

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In the software, we build up our first few Scenes where each adds a new element from a new Group. We can now trigger these from the controller to build up our track piece by piece. We can rename and colour code these for ease too.

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We use the ‘Unique’ setting to create fresh duplicates of each existing Scene, in order to create ‘break’ versions of each – ie alternate versions of the Scene with small variations, such as having the kick, bass or percussive elements removed. With Retrigger mode set to Off, we can cut into these versions mid-way through bars or phrases in order to create quick breakdowns and turnarounds.

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Maschine’s Perform FX add a fun way to mix up sounds for breakdowns and variations. Add a Reso Echo over our percussion group and use the smart strip to add interesting, expressive effects to these sounds on the fly. Great for build-ups!

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Once we’re happy with a rough arrangement from our Scenes, we use Append To Arrangement in the software to add them to our song one by one. We can now head to song view to change, add to and move around elements, to refine our arrangement further.