Hi,
I have started this week with finger drumming. I have been able to configure the free versions of Addictive Drums 2 and SSD 5 in Logic Pro X.
Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to map the pads in NI own instruments. I’ve followed a few videos unsuccessfully. Has anyone been able to configure NI sw instruments + NI Mikro mk3 + Logic Pro X?
I know Robert has a video where he maps the pads with NI Abbey Road drums, which is part of Komplete. But I’m kind of hesitant to buy Komplete while currently I’m not able to map the pads with the instruments that I have.
PD: I think I will buy NI Komplete on the next sale offer, so I’d rather avoid spending money on the paid version of the other drum kits.
@eduard I don’t know anything about Logic as I use Ableton Live. But I much prefer to use Ableton over NI’s DAW type product. Ableton has drum racks, I would imagine (but don’t know) that Logic would have something similar. There is a way to drag the Samples from NI’s drums into an Ableton Drum Rack which then makes it really easy to configure the kit for Q4G pad layout. The other method I use is to look at all my One Shots and make up my kits using those again in the Q4G layout.
So, I have been able to put the NI Maschine into the drum rack in Ableton, but the pads are mapped exactly the same as in Maschine. I don’t know how can I set up in Ableton that “this pad triggers this sound”.
@eduard - If you have Ableton and the drum racks then its possible to use NI Drum Kits in Ableton Drum Racks. If you just load up Maschine as a VST in Ableton, the drum kits stay as they would if you use Maschine as a standalone.
Take a look at Sanjay C’s video on my YouTube Channel: - Reed Sound Productions - YouTube - he explains how to NI sounds without using NI Software. He is another Ableton user. This might help. Its entitled " Using Maschine Sounds without using Maschine".
You can, just drop the samples or one shots into the drum rack in the Q4G format or pattern. In Maschine, there is a way to arrange those kits inside Maschine in the Q4G style too but its not straight forward. I think Rob did a video on this once. The issue is that Maschine doesn’t allow the same sample to be used twice on different notes. I tend to steer away from NI sounds and definitely won’t purchase any, I can’t be bothered to fidle about finding ways to make them record directly into Ableton. I mainly use Ableton Sounds, I do have SSD5 (free version), but I have put together to quite good Q4G drum racks. I have them all in one project for drum practice, about 6 differetn racks on 6 tracks. Then put Robs audio files on Audio tracks because I can change the tempo to suite me (slower to begin and slowly speed up).
Your post is quite old so you probably won’t get this, but on the off chance you are still around I will address it. And maybe this will help someone else. Before I forget, the only AI that seems to give accurate info on key mapping is Grok 3, currently in beta.
I have a Maschine Mikro mk3 and a lot of Native Instrument drum instruments. It would be nice if key mapping was standard from one instrument to the next . . .but they aren’t. Abbey Road and Studio Drummer have a mapping capability that is within Kontakt. It is not very intuitive to locate it, but suffice to say it is done within the instrument.
Battery has a completely different mechanism for mapping the pads. There are a couple of different ways to go, but maybe the easiest is to use the learn function for each pad, which is the tiny MIDI connector symbol next to the key range indicator for each pad. Once you get it set up the way you like it, save the kit with a different name for future use.
Most of the more modern Native Instruments, and even some of the old ones like Drum Lab, require a completely different approach. This would include the play series instruments. Things like London Grit, Butch Vig, and others do not allow you to map to the controller. So you need to use the very important utility Native Instruments Controller Editor. The editor shows the front panel of the Maschine Mikro. At the right is a tab labeled “pages”. Each page has mapping for all 16 pads. You can create a new page with a name like “Polyplex” or “Drum Lab” and assign the correct MIDI notes to each pad. When you start an NI instrument you open the controller and select the appropriate page that you already set up in the past.
So there you have it. NI has a lot of different methods for assigning MIDI notes to pads, and they are not standardized. They do not get the gold star. But it is possible to make your Maschine Mikro mk3 work with them. Just make sure you save your work so you don’t have to rebuild the mapping every time, which would be a real pain.