Native Instruments Maschine+

Of the four units we have in this hardware-focussed roundup, we spent rather less time than we would have liked with Maschine+, simply as there weren’t enough units available for NI to get us one in time. That said, we have had enough time with the unit to get a good feel, and certainly enough to discover that Maschine+ is actually a very good piece of equipment.

Maschine+ is unique amongst our ‘DAW killers’ because it was originally a software product-plus-controller that worked with a Mac or PC – it’s migrated out of the computer and into the controller itself, you might say, although even this standalone example can still be used as a controller and audio interface for the computer/software version as well. As well as being a sampler, Maschine+ comes ready loaded with preset sounds from NI