Polyend instruments combined with the Maschines

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This is a topic inspired by Tracker and FX Pedals tutorial. :slight_smile:

Anyone else combining the Play / Tracker / Medusa with any Maschine device? How do you combine them? Are you looking for additional effects or instruments? Any MIDI synchronization?

I got a second hand Maschine before anything Polyend, and now I’m using it mostly for effects together with Medusa. I use mainly Raum (Reverb-Delay) and sometimes I scan through Guitar Rig 6 presets. Any recommendations? I feel I’m just scratching the surface.

Although pedals are very tempting, they choice is overwhelming and, most importantly, for the very basic amateur use I have, I think I must keep honest to myself and recognize that the underutilized Maschine MK3 I already have offers everything I need.

Thoughts?

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I think I’ve used machine in the past with other synths and was awesome. I don’t remember exactly but I’ve used it like and effect box and perform FX. And if you have the machine jam is simply awesome. You can play with macros and the snapshots…

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I’m curious, how do you (connection wise) combine your Medusa, Tracker, Play? And then integrate Maschine into it too? I haven’t been able to get my MIDI connections right for Polyend let alone start thinking about Maschine (I have an old MK2). This all sounds awesome but I’m a super-newbie to MIDI and digital coming from simple analog mono synths.

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I have done quite a bit of trial and fine-tuning. I am happy to share my setup but do you mind sharing what gear you want to connect, so maybe I can help you better?

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Thank you so much! I guess I’m most curious (and lost) right now about these three setups…

  1. Play controlling Medusa and possibly something else at the same time? (Like Play dual control Medusa hardware + soft synths? I’ve only been able to get Play-control one soft synth so far and that was kind of awkward)
  2. How to do the polyphonic Play/Tracker setup and if you use it more in a performance aspect or recording (I read the manual but it just seems to show the hardware connections and not how to config it then in the software? But maybe I missed it).
  3. The Play/Tracker performance setup in this vid blew my mind but I again couldn’t get the connections/software, I thought it was a tutorial but it was just a performance…have you gotten something similar to work? https://youtu.be/r8fwJbCa2VU

Bonus - Seeing you mention Maschine integration into all this really blew my mind. I had no idea it could also be implemented. How you set it up and use its controls/capabilities would be really interesting if you’re willing to share b/c mine has just been sitting.

And my apologies for my newb questions. I’m taking a MIDI and synthesis crash course in a few months to finally start learning more. Your config and setup sounds so cool!

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Thank you!

After many combinations, I ended up with these principles:

  • Play sends clock and transport to the rest.
  • Medusa has full MIDI Thru, so you can connect it to the Play and then have another device behind it (e.g. Tracker or Maschine)
  • Tracker doesn’t have full MIDI Thru (see MIDI thru should forward the channel data it receives and therefore it is better to have it at the end of a MIDI chain.

Then there is this little friend that becomes very handy: a MIDI DIN Y splitter cable.

My MIDI setup:

  1. Play sends clock and transport. Settings: MIDI Out DIN and USB (if the USB is connected to a PC, then you can sync a DAW or software instrument as well).
  2. Play MIDI Out plug, connect MIDI adapter and then the DIN Y splitter connected to MIDI IN on the Medusa and the Tracker.
  3. Medusa MIDI Thru plug, connect DIN cable to the Maschine’s MIDI In.

For the audio, I plug every device to a mixer / audio interface (Onyx 8). I have tried the Line In’s from Medusa and Tracker but personally I didn’t have much use for them.

I thought I would use the Maschine more for MIDI (i.e. playing the acousting drum sets or acoustic sampled instrumens but in the end… for MIDI I switched the Maschine for the Dreadbox Nymphes, and as said above I’m using the Maschine as a big effects pedal (mainly for the Medusa although the audio sent to Maschine is coming from the mixer, so I can send the audio from other instruments as well. Still, the effects on the Play and Tracker are good, and enough especially for all the percusive / short samples, so in the end I use it mostly to spice up the Medusa and the Nymphes.

I never play with all this gear at once. Too much for my little brain and hesitant fingers. But I appreciate the possibility to turn on gear and decide which combos I want to use without having to change cables and settings.

A little detail, in the setup above, the Medusa still has the MIDI Out port free. I have ti connected to the Maschine, and sometimes I go for Medusa sequencing the Maschine and also adding effects, without touching the Play or Tracker.

And another detail, the Play’s MIDI IN port is also free in this setup. I have a piano keyboard connected for whenever I prefer that over the Play’s pads. I had this keyboard already, so I had to plug it anyway. :slight_smile:

Sorry, long post, it’s late, and I haven´t replied directly to your questions above. I hope this helps. If you get stuck somewhere specifically, please ask. I got stuck especially in the Maschine MIDI configuration (maybe it was me, but it took me a while to understand their “paradigm” and I’m still not sure I have understood it, but my setup finally worked and I’m not touching it now). :smiley:

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This is solid gold. Thank you so much for taking the time to lay it all out! I’m just getting started integrating all of these tips so I may hit you up if I have more questions later if that’s ok. But this was so helpful, thank you again!

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