Making NI Massive Recognize Maschine as a MIDI Controller

This tutorial will hopefully help you make NI Massive recognize Maschine as a MIDI controller. Many people have launched Maschine in MIDI mode to control Massive, can play notes but cannot actually control any of the parameters. Let’s fix that!

Some of you have probably already encountered a problem where NI Massive does not automatically recognize Maschine as a MIDI controller. Sure you can press the pads and get notes to come out, but nothing else really seems to function as it should. Luckily this is not a big issue! In fact, there is a very quick fix that you can apply. First of all, let’s make sure you have Massive loaded and running. If you click on the File button, seen in the image below in the upper left-hand corner, then select Options…

Now press the MIDI button at the top of the small window that opens. You should see an option for Maschine Controller. Click on this and then click Load. Now click OK to close this window.

Now that you have set up Maschine as a MIDI controller, you should now be able to turn a knob on the Maschine hardware and see that the corresponding parameter is changing in Massive. Now, if you prefer to use the software rather than the hardware controls, you can launch the Native Instruments Controller Editor.

This is the program used for managing the templates used for interfacing your NI controllers with various programs. Once you launch the software, you will see a list of pre-made templates in the right-hand sidebar.

I would suggest clicking on the Massive template, then click on the Edit button at the bottom of this panel. Click on Duplicate.

This creates an exact replica of the default Massive template, but now you can begin making changes without worrying about ruining the original template. You are safe to play around and experiment to your heart’s content.

I hope this quick pro tip has saved you some time and frustration! If you have more tutorial requests, please let us know by sending a message our way today. Thanks for stopping by!

Cheers,
OhmLab