Big beats from a small Maschine!

Big-B is the newest member of the agiprodj family, but has been a DJ, Rap Artist, vocalist and producer for over two decades.  His love of music, sound, and performance makes him a perfect fit to our team bringing knowledge of studio and live gear along with mobile DJ systems.

Earlier this week we took a walk around the shop and asked some of the team to share some personal thoughts about a new piece of gear they have added to their set ups recently.  Here is Big B’s take on the Native Instruments Maschine Mikro.

I just picked up the new Maschine Mikro for my studio production. This is the smaller more compact controller that comes with the N.I. Maschine software.  If you have ever done studio production work with an AKAI MPC this software/hardware combo may look familiar. The MIKRO is just like the name suggest because it’s literally half the size but still with the full capabilities and resources of the software. It does everything the bigger version has to offer except in the hardware area where you have less pads, buttons, and no direct old school midi output. No problem, midi has all turned to USB anyways and I have another compact controller for that.

To be honest I am not a “PADS” person nor was I a huge MPC fan but that’s not what drew me to the Maschine, the first thing about the Maschine that caught my ear were the sounds that the software comes with.  Every drum kit and synth patch has extremely high quality output and sounds great.  When a loop is playing you can really hear the bass drum and the snare crack along with the crisp sounding hi hats.  If you are familiar with Native Instruments you know they offer a variety of awesome synth sounds and instruments and in this package the Maschine is one big production studio with drums, synths and samples. The other really cool thing that makes it more like an MPC is the sampling capabilities. You can take any wave form and edit it then trigger it right from your controller as well as drop it in to your sequence song. The bottom line here is that the Maschine either the Mikro or the full size controller is definitely built for the DJ, Musician, or producer.

See the Maschine Mikro in action! 

Learn more about the Maschine and Maschine Mikro

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A Brief Historical Overview of Traktor

Native Instruments Traktor is fast becoming one of the most popular software solutions for DJ's.  Offering options for traditional turntable DJ's as well as CD and Controller DJ's to scratch, blend, mix, and remix all from your digital library on your computer.  Before we show you some of the more popular Traktor controllers lets take a look at the progression of NI and Traktor.

***Information collected from Wikipedia

Traktor was first released in 2000 and has gone through several major application changes. The initial versions of Traktor were Traktor Studio and Traktor DJ, with Traktor Studio being more full featured (and expensive).

In 2002, Traktor DJ Studio 2 was released, which offered several new features including scratch macros. It also expanded its looping, MIDI, and cue point functionality.

In 2003, Traktor DJ Studio 2.5 was released. This new version expanded the time stretching functionality, added Open Sound Control (OSC) support, and gave the user limited ability to customize the look of the interface.

In 2003, Native Instruments partnered with Stanton Magnetics to develop the software for their "Final Scratch" digital vinyl system. This partnership gave Stanton a Win/Mac version of the Final Scratch software (which previously ran in a version of Debian Linux) and allowed Native Instruments to use the Final Scratch timecode engine in their own Traktor line.

In 2005, Native Instruments added vinyl emulation capability to version 2.6 of Traktor DJ Studio. Version 2.6 included live input, streaming internet broadcasting, support for more file formats, and greatly expanded MIDI capability. Soon afterward, Traktor DJ Studio 3 added two more playback decks (for a total of four), built-in effects, Beatport online store integration, a four-channel mixer, aUniversal Binary version, deck caching, and minor improvements to existing features.

On October 11, 2006, the partnership between Native Instruments and Stanton Magnetics ended, and Traktor DJ Studio 3 was renamed Traktor 3.[1]

In 2008, an updated version of Traktor Pro, and a new version of the DJ studio, Traktor Scratch Pro were released. Traktor Scratch Pro had additional DVS functionality enabled, includes the specifically designed Audio 8 DJ audio interface, and timecoded CD or vinyl control.

On April 1, 2011, version 2 of Traktor was released. This upgrade includes new sample decks, "truwave" waveforms, an optimized UI, a loop recorder, and a new series of traktor audio interfaces, among other features.

On April 2, 2011, version 2.5 of Traktor was planned to be released on May 30, 2012. This upgrade is set to include "Remix" decks and will be released on the same day as their new "Kontrol F1" controller.

On May 25, 2012, version 2.5 of Traktor has been released.

On Feb 21, 2013   TRAKTOR DJ is introduced as the the world’s first professional DJ software for iOS. Use familiar hand gestures to perform powerful, truly hands-on sets on your iPad.

If you would like to learn more about Traktor and the variety of compatible controllers check any of these links

For Traktor Controllers.  For Traktor Hardware. For Traktor Mixers

Here is one our videos of the most popular Traktor controller the Kontrol S4

agiprodj.com is a Proud & Authorized Native Instruments Dealer.

Get Connected!

Become a Fan http://www.facebook.com/agiprodj
Follow us !  http://www.twitter.com/agiprodj
Blog http:www.agiprodj.blogspot.com
Tumblr http://agiprodj.tumblr.com
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866-PRO-MIXX (776-6499)