One of the great aspects of Native Instruments Maschine is that it is as much of a performance tool as it is a production tool. You can compose everything from the simplest 4/4 kick drum loop to entire tracks with the hand on controls at your fingertips. If you’re using Traktor as your primary DJ application it is incredibly easy to sync with Maschine. Syncing the two applications will ensure that all the elements of your mix will be in sync. You won’t have to worry about drifting beats and can spend more time in the mix. Before we begin to sync Traktor and Maschine make sure that you have your Maschine controller connected and have launched both applications.
NOTE: This tutorial is intended for Mac users who want to run both programs on the same computer only. If you are PC user you can either use a virtual midi cable program like MIDI-OX or Maple.
Start in Traktor
- Open Traktor’s preferences and go to the Controller Manager settings
- Add a Generic Media Device
- Set In-Port to None and set the Out-port to Traktor Virtual Output
- Go to the MIDI Clock settings
- Enable Send MIDI Clock and leave Sending Offset at 0 ms
Now Switch to Maschine
- Open Audio and Midi Settings
- Select the MIDI Tab
- Set Traktor Virtual Output to On and set all other options to off
- Close Audio MIDI Settings
- Under File, enable Sync to External Midi Clock
Back to Traktor
- Open Traktor’s Clock panel
- Set Clock to Internal
- Press the Play/Pause MIDI Clock button
- Press the Sync button
- Enable Traktor’s metronome by enabling Tick and previewing a deck
- Enable Maschine’s metronome by pressing Shift + Play on your controller
- Adjust the Sending Offset so that both metronomes are in time with each other
You should see that Maschine’s tempo is now synced to Traktor’s internal clock. The tempo in Maschine will change to match the BPM that you set in Traktor. Note that if you want to change the BPM that your tracks sync to in Traktor you must use the clock tempo controls to do so.
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