Understanding the Maschine Grid System

The Maschine grid system is where a lot of the features find their roots and this tutorial from our resident expert, Jonny, does a great job of explaining how it all works!

Most people producing music or working with audio on more than just a hobbyist level will know how bars, beats, timing etc work. But it’s how the Maschine grid system is tied to the various features throughout the Maschine software that makes it all come together. Understanding the Maschine grid leads to a deeper understanding of how Maschine works as a whole. And this, in turn, unlocks the potential of this incredible hardware/software duo!

The ability to seamlessly switch between scenes in a project is because of the sync feature and this is made possible by the Maschine grid system. Machine sync is based upon the value you have the grid set to. In fact, if you drill down a bit you will see that the loop region snap feature in a scene is based upon the grid setting you make. Quantizing and swing are also based on Maschine grid settings. This is one of the most important lessons to learn if you want to master Maschine!

To take this lesson one step further it is important to understand that there are three different places for you to make adjustments to your Maschine grid system settings. There is one master grid setting for the project, there is another for the group arrange window and one for the step input feature. Between these three, you can gain complete control over how Maschine behaves and interacts with the music you program and what you can do with it. This is definitely a tutorial worth bookmarking if you are new to Maschine or just want to explore the foundations of what is possible!

Cheers,
OhmLab