Corry BanksIn this edition of BEAT MAKERS TOOL KIT we will explore “5 Must Have Maschine Kits.” There is something to be said for the fact that the market for beat making tools is ever-expanding. It’s no secret that Native Instruments Maschine is one of the foremost tools for beatmaking today. So I thought it would be a worthy idea to compile some of the resources for those of us that have incorporated the Maschine into our Beat Making lifestyles.
Here we have a list of Maschine Kits that you must have in your collection. So let’s dig in.
The Native Instruments Maschine Expansion, Conant Gardens is a Maschine made in honor of J Dilla. For all those wishing to get a piece of what Dilla had to offer sound wise this is the kit for you. This kit was made in conjunction with the man who is credited with introducing J Dilla to the MPC, Amp Fiddler. Amp sourced drums from his and Dilla’s collection for this kit. So says Native Instruments, “The sounds in CONANT GARDENS were created exclusively by Amp Fiddler – renowned artist and producer, studio wizard, former keyboardist with Parliament/Funkadelic, and long-time collaborator and mentor of the late, legendary J Dilla. Amp is also in the privileged position of having access to sounds from J Dilla’s extensive collection.” There is enough reason in that alone for this to be a staple in your Maschine kits collection. You actually get drums directly from J Dilla’s personal collection. Another cool point to this kit is that a percentage of each CONANT GARDENS purchase will be donated to the J Dilla Foundation.
Flux from Fluxwithit.com put together an incredibly detailed kit of sounds from everywhere. Flux says, poetically, “For the Past year this Expansion Pack has been cultivated by going to some extreme environments with choice gear and destructive mentality.” Flux sampled things that you’d likely not think to sample in a million years. Flux went out and painstakingly sampled huge industrial equipment in places like Junk Yards to capture the sounds of things like “100 ton cranes to Large Iron and concrete destroyed while Sampled in HUGE environments with Real industrial equipment.” The Flux302 Dystopia kit comes with 25 Drum Kits, 11 Multi FX kits, 14 Maschine Instruments, 125+ Drum patterns, 400+ Browser Tagged Samples in WAV format. I’m certain this kit will add a welcomed flare that you’ve likely not had in your arsenal.
The Producer’s Choice is known for high quality professionally engineered drums. This kit is certainly no exception. Designed for Native instruments Maschine the ‘Survival’ Drum Kit comes jam-packed with “1.14GB of ‘One Shot’ content.” It includes tons of Kicks, Hats, Snares, Percs, Claps, Loops. There are over 300MB of drum loops constructed using the contents of this very kit. The loops come in WAV and REX Formats. Included are “144 KILLER kick samples” & 185 Snares & Claps.
Goldbaby is the golden standard in warm, crunchy and hard-hitting drums. In the Urban Cook Book Volumes 1 & 2 Goldbaby’s signature high quality yet lo-fi goodness.
Let’s take a look at the Goldbaby nutrition label for “Urban Cook Book Vol. 1 & 2” – “The ingredients are full of saturated fat, MSG, a heap of sugar and are not suitable for a low cholesterol diet. The recipes are perfect for these dishes: Hip Hop, Dub Step, Drum & Bass, Breaks, Grime, Dance Hall, Electro… Although chefs making other dishes like: IDM, House and Techno will appreciate the varied high quality ingredients. Punchy Kicks, Solid Snares, Hi Hats, Toms, Percussion, Claps, Cymbals, Layering tools, FX, Vinyl Hits, Chord Hits, Bass tools and Rex Loops… just over 1 GB of the freshest ingredients.”
Push Button Bang drops a Flying Lotus inspired kit for Maschine. This kit is for the left field beat maker in you. If you want warmth in your classic or glitchy hip-hop composition this a good kit to go with. Certainly if you aspire to make Flying Lotus style beats or classic golden era west coast beats this is a great place to start. So whats included? 220 Wav files, 70 Midi files, 15 Groove kits and 15 Maschine Kits including 11 Full Construction Kits, each containing 2 Kicks, 2 Snares, 4 Hi Hats, 4 Percussions and 4 Musical Elements (Bass, FX, Synth, Ethnic Instruments)
PushButtonBag.com describes Lotus Style: L.A. Beats Maschine Kit as a “faithful reenactments of original hip hop sounds shaped by classic equipment (SP1200, MPC60, Neve Consoles, lo-fi, Tape and Tube Saturation devices), this collection bursts out of the box with over 220 lovingly produced, fat and crunchy, analogue-style Drum, Instrument and SFX sounds.”