Maschine Mikro M k3

direction, given that the ability to use Maschine
without looking at your computer monitor most
of the time – or at least a lot of the time with
previous Mikros – has always been a key selling
point for the system. We’ll come back to this…
On the buttons
The layout of Mikro Mk3 has been made to
match that of Maschine Mk3 as closely as
possible, but there are unavoidable diferences.
The Auto, Lock and Note Repeat buttons form a
section along with the Group button, which
‘shifts’ pads 1216 to Group selection. While this
makes for an efective stand-in for Maschine
Mk3’s discrete Group AH buttons, the same
can’t be said of the browser controls. Despite the
single Browser button of Maschine Mk3 being
substituted for three separate ones – switching
the rotary encoder between scrolling and
loading Projects, Favourites and the visible
browser results list – the whole setup is hobbled
by a lack of lateral movement (see Rotary Club).
Happily, though, the intuitive button banks to
the left of and above the pads have been
retained. Crucially, this includes the top row of
four for quick switching between Pad, Keyboard
and Step sequencing modes, and entering the
Scale and Chord engine.
Also included is the Smart Strip ribbon
controller that we liked so much with Maschine
Mk3. This handles pitch and mod wheel duties,
ties into Maschine’s Perform FX modules, and
lets you ‘strum’ MIDI chords.
Mikro’s scope
The famously slick Maschine worklow is all
about lying around between Groups and
Sounds, playing and recording MIDI and audio
parts, tweaking and automating instruments
and efects, and even arranging tracks, entirely
from the controller without any breaks in
playback. The big question, then, is: how heavily
do Mikro Mk3’s cutbacks impact on that?
First of all, the removal of the screen is a
workable compromise in the interest of keeping
the price down. Maschine Mikro Mk2’s display
served as a slightly cumbersome halfway house
between Maschine Mk3’s display and no display
at all, anyway, and when that wee OLED doesn’t
tell you what you need to know, having to look
up at your monitor isn’t much of a speedbump.
What does make – and always has made – the
Mikro experience somewhat ‘lesser’ than that
ofered by Maschine Mk3 and Studio, however, is
the single rotary. There’s simply no getting away
from the fact that eight knobs are considerably
better than one when it comes to plugin and
mixer control. Plus, with no soft keys, there’s far
less editing of notes, samples, the arrangement,
etc; and the browser and mixer navigation
currently feel slightly broken – surely NI are
planning to activate the left/right buttons.
Ultimately, yes, Mikro is, in many ways, a
compromised Maschine , but the software, and
those all-important pads and their modal
controls are exactly the same as those of its big
sibling, and it’s really quite remarkable how
hands-on you can get with it considering how
much has been taken away. For beatmakers on a
budget, and existing Maschine users looking for
a perfectly portable controller to take on the
road, Maschine Mikro Mk3 should be seen as an
empowering opportunity rather than a
qualitatively ‘inferior’ option.
Web www.native-instruments.com
Verdict
For Liberatingly portable and cheap
Same pads as Maschine Mk3
Superb build quality
Cleverly adapted Maschine worklow
Against Poor browser navigation
Pad backlights aren’t terribly bright
The most portable, afordable Maschine
hardware yet wins us over with its footprint
and functionality, but inevitably involves a
degree of compromise
8 / 1 0
Alternatively
Maschine Mk3
249 » 9/10 » £479
The full-on dual-screen Maschine
controller is unarguably superior,
but costs more than twice as much
Arturia SparkLE
194 » 9/10 » €199
Take command of the SparkLE
software (or any MIDI-compatible
app) with this cute control ler
Maschine Mikro Mk3’s push button
rotary encoder isn’t of the ‘4D’ kind
found on Maschine Mk3, so there’s no
up/down/left/right ‘joystick’
functionality. That’s ine – it keeps the
cost down – but we’re very surprised
the horizontal axis hasn’t been
replicated in the left/right buttons for
stepping through browser categories
and mixer channels, both of which,
consequently, have to be done
onscreen using the mouse. Weird.
The other buttons to the right of the
encoder switch it between control of
Volume, Swing, Tempo and the
parameters in Maschine’s Control Area
– plugins, Macros, mixer levels and pan,
etc. Select a parameter to assign it or
step through adjacent parameters with
the left/right buttons. The Sampling
button, which puts the Maschine Mk3
into full-on sampling, audio editing and
slicing mode, merely sets the encoder
push button to starting and stopping
recording. Ironically, its location, above
the left/right navigation buttons, would
be perfect for an up/down pair…
Being detented, the rotary itself is
great for easily stepping through
presets, etc, but although the Shift
button sets it to iner resolution, we’re
undecided as to whether or not we’d
prefer a smooth action, as would better
suit most plugin controls.
Rotary club
The tiny OLED readout obviously doesn’t make any sort
of substitute for the dual displays of Maschine Mk3
A highlight appears around the parameter currently assigned to the rotary encoder
“There’s simply no
getting away from the
fact that eight knobs
are better than one”
January 2019 / COMPUTER MUSIC / 89
native instruments maschine mikro mk3 / reviews <
CMU264.rev_mikromk3.indd 89 13/11/2018 17:13