I'm a former maschine user that bought a live 2 retro edition 6 months ago. Maschine workflow is incredibly smooth and well made. I almost regreted my purchase when I got into MPC world. On one hand, Akai could definitly learn and apply alot of ideas from other groove boxes out there (we'll see in patch 3.0). On the other hand, Maschine plus lacks of many features that would made me stay on NI side. They could have implemetend a SS drive slot, battery, touch screen as everyone said when it came out. IMO, as a synth lover, the biggest thing that made me choose to MPC live over maschine is the I/O and the CV as well as the standalone features that it has compared to Maschine plus. The perfect groovebox is somewhere between these 2. They should make a baby.
Nah, Akai MPC is fine as it is! Classic workflow! Maschine's standalone is standing ALONE.... looking fraudulant. NO ONE is buying those units/ Why??/ because they're just NOT the MPC. Anyone who loves the Maschine over the MPC is usually younger and probably was a baby when the MPC came out originally. The maschine is dope... but it is NO WAY better!!! The only things it has better is the functionality of scrolling through sounds. After that.... it ain't even close! If they don't come up with something better than that Frankenstein fake standalone.... Maschine will be done in the next 5years!
Very informative and well presented. I got a Maschine to use the looper on guitar while making basic backing tracks. I haven’t even used the looper yet. Browsing in the Maschine has been so easy and inspiring, I’ve been discovering music I wouldn’t have otherwise.
I've watched a ton of comparisons of these machine to help me make my choice between them - this was by far the most helpful. Thanks for your good work!
I also have one of each(MPC ONE&Maschine+) mainly because I love them both, One thing I did notice is that using the exact same samples sometimes they sound different in each machine and software I actually love that and the swing in each of the machines are different I love that too, I use all my NI expansions in my Mpc I just made folders and dropped the samples in my Mpc Sd card 99% work without covering them, also I found on the Maschine+ by dropping the battery 4 library samples in the user folder on the sd card it will read them and they will be tagged just like the expansions
Maschine has a really good sound/vibe when using only it's internal plugins. It's crunchy, vibey, punchy. All the DAWs have a sound of their own when using only their stock plugins but Maschine just has that extra musicality about it. I like this as it reminds me of the days when one would purchase a particular mixing console for the sound.
@@dannykirsch They’re both unique with their swing the MPC is more aggressive but on the 1/16th gives the classic boom bap sound the Maschine let’s you dial in a fine tuned swing I use my Mpc more because it gives any sample you put in a warmer sound but I prefer the swing in the maschine
MPC Live 2 is a mf beast! The best hip hop machine ever! If NI add battery, normal browser, hard disk possibility and touch screen i will buy it. It's not worth price.
Browser is comming, ssd via usb is already possible, but I use a low profile 1tb usb /thumb drive, sticks out 3mm, better than a cable and box that hangs on to it. But it is better integrated on the mpc. (Have the plus and the one, i love em both, and combining them you cann do crazy ish, like sequencing snapshots and scenes from maschine with the mpc, it´s a great time to be a producer :) )
@@nieprawdopodobniebystry2158 i love each and every one of them on both devices. Just a pitty that the cpu usage is so high in maschine for some synths.
Came here 2 see,if my Maschine MK3 (not +) was a good decision. Learned more about its functionality and how to use it in 1h of your comparision than in the 5 days i own it, playin around and watching youtube tutorials. Thank you :-D Now im sure,that it fits my workflow better than a MPC would do it. P.S. i love the pads in comparison to the "concrete" Akai Pads ( i own a MPK Mini)
The Mpc Live actually has short cuts to the other menus by way of the rubber buttons under the screen they double as short cuts if you double click them. So you don’t have to hold a button & a pad down simultaneously unless your into that type of thing.
I have a MPC live 1 and a Maschine MK3 (not plus), and I never can finish anything with the Maschine because of some dumb missing library. I spend more time updating and fixing it than making music. The Akai is ready to play whenever I want to.
@@jamarmiller3608 I had a Maschine mk3 and MPC one at the same time, and there's not really a benefit to having both at the same time, except that the MPC is a bit more useful to use on the go, if you travel and want to make music at the same time. Basically I found it boiled down primarily to which workflow works best for you, I sample a lot and timestretch everything I work on, so the MPC range became quite limiting without plugging it into a laptop to do the time stretching on the desktop, which was annoying, the reason I got the MPC one was to use it on the go
@@kryzoxy1 true, but unless there's been some firmware update that improved it, I found it would totally destroy the sample fidelity even when making an adjustment as small as 15BPM up or down. I believe it works better when tethered to a PC, but I bought the MPC one, and eventually maschine + to be away from my computer
Great video. I was deciding between MPC One/Live II or Maschine Mk3/+. I didn't need a standalone, but having options is never a bad thing. Each Brand has pro's and con's. Got a cheap used Maschine mk3 to try out. Stil learning, but so far I am enjoying it. No bad choice these days as long as it fits your needs and your making music.
Idk man, I have both. Drums on maschine+ sounds weak...sounds in general. The maschine sounds all sound processed, but the same sounds used on MPC knock so much harder. I battled myself back and forth for months before deciding to go with mpc for it's raw sound, and connectability. MPC plays very well with others, very quickly. Maschine+ will always have a better and more comprehensive/intuitive workflow though. MAschine mk3 is better than MAschine plus though, most people are not gonna wanna be stuck at the desk, hooked to a wall to use standalone. Live does that better too.
I think most people say Maschine plus because of the sounds it comes with but if you're someone who has all their plugins that won't matter. Nothing can compare to that MPC sound. We gotta remember who was first. The legends didn't use Maschine, they still don't. Kanye, Zaytoven, Brian Michael Cox, Jermaine Dupri, Mannie Fresh, J Dilla, Dr.Dre, Timbaland, 9th Wonder, Q-Tip, Pete Rock, Tim Kelly from Tim&Bob, DJ Toomp, Shawty Redd, Battlecat, DJ Premier, Swizz Beatz, Lil Jon, Cassius Jay, Metro Boomin (his mom bought him one as a gift when he was a teen, he barely used it. Now he's using it! DJ Plugg, Araab Muzik, Scott Storch, even Big Boi from OutKast used MPC to make some grooves. I could go on and on homie about HISTORY! None of them niggas personally use Maschine. It's something about that MPC sound. Gritty, original, and the feel.
@@Sol_Keez Yeah I'm just saying, the AD/DA converters on any piece of 16+ bit modern gear don't do anything audible to the sound alone, that's all hype.
@@Sol_Keez All history proves is who uses it or not. That's preference, my bet is most people use MPCs for the familiarity of the workflow. And a great rep sheet (history) + marketing of course.
The one area you missed is connecting to outboard gear and external synths. That’s the single biggest use for my MPC. And your point about the Maschine + being an in studio device and MPC is spot on. My maschine+ never leaves the studio. All in all a great breakdown!
Autosampler is huge too…I have sampled over 20 hardware synths in depth in my Live 2 which us like taking my studio out with me. Without autosampler thats a lot of work.
I have a maschine plus but hopefully next iteration of the next hardware is more of a DAW in box/ with SSD storage and more step sequencer functionality. The maschine workflow is just amazing. I had an MPC ONE and it was just way to clunky to get up and running. Sent it back with the quickness.
one thing to mention in maschine+ you have to have to use the maschine SW in order to manage midi cc and prog changes coming in/out from external gear. This management cannot be done locally on maschine+
Very few of us have both of these units. I still struggle with which to use. This vid helps me decide. And...well...you are also hilarious. That helps when digesting the nerd info. I still refer to a "knob" as a "k'nob" to friends who don't "k'now" you. But its makes me laugh.
Great content Blezz! I've had MPC for a few years and most recently the Retro Edition. I can't lie.. I bought a Maschine Plus 2 weeks ago, and I absolutely LOVE it! Both have their Pros and Cons, but I'm all in with Maschine 🙏🏾✊🏾
OMG!!! Not the Sample chop master! Lol Your picking machine over mpc? I can’t lie tho, I had a hard time at first on which on I should buy, and I’ve been studying the maschine lately!! I really think I’m going to break down and get one! It’s super dope
@@ashleytvisualstv LOL!!! I never thought I'd be picking Maschine over my MPC, but it's really been bringing out another level of creativity in me! I'm waiting for you to join me Ashley, and I can't wait to see you chopping it up with that smooth bop you got lol🙏🏾✊🏾❤
@@lindasson LOL I feel you!! You can tell I’m researching it, if I’m finding your comments under other videos! 😂😂😂 looking like a stalker. But yessir I can’t wait to join the maschine gang!💪🏾❤️
@@ashleytvisualstv LMBOOOOOO!!!! Naw, it's all good. Trust me I have watched countless videos over and over and over again, since January and JUST made my decision 2 weeks ago lol! Trust me, I'm following you too lol🙏🏾✊🏾💚
@@ashleytvisualstv I already know you gonna love this jawn tho. It came with about 6 free Expansion Packs, gave me a E-Voucher for a buy one get one free Expansion Pack, and I bought 2 more Saturday lol. You gonna kill it 🙏🏾✊🏾💚
I'm not a big fan of making entire songs on an MPC as if it were a DAW. I sold my MPC live 2 due to some bad details, the speaker grille can be deformed and give a bad appearance to the machine, mine had a knock and was ugly for a while, it was expensive for me to change the speaker protective grille and I didn't like that, because I had to be afraid of hitting her or putting my hands in that area. The touch screen is a problem, it is not as good as the one on my iPad Pro, seriously, I know that Apple has no rival in that, but MPC live 2 is hell if you dirty it with a few fingerprints, its screen is similar to My Samsung Tab is very sensitive to fingerprints and must always be cleaned for a better experience. A friend of mine had the misfortune that his screen died a year after purchasing it and I had had my MPC live for 5 months. When I saw that big problem, I realized my bad purchase, if the screen dies, the device dies. sampler and you get a very nice paperweight. Maschine+ is my favorite machine, and I have my Machine Studio which is as good as Maschine+, I have never had to repair anything from Maschine Studio, which gives me a lot of confidence knowing that I am buying a machine of identical quality, with the difference that It is a standalone sampler. Maschine, it's genius, to use without a sequencer, I've been using my Akai s950 for more than 30 years, this thing doesn't have a sequencer, nor arpeggiators or chord memory tricks or chain effects. One piece of advice I give to everyone is that these machines are not perfect to use as DAWs with plugins and things like that, plus you already do this on a MacBookPro with Cubase or Logic, so that part would be stupid to cover, although I do. Maschine+ and MPC live 2 can be great for multitrack recorders and creating sketches or small ideas. I, Maschine+, use it as an independent instrument to double tracks in Logic, each sample can also be a great chromatic instrument, but using reaktor, massive, monark, FM8, Absynth, they are the beasts that you don't have in an MPC live 2, the software and Maschine+ samples are inherited from kontakt and things from kontakt you can use without the sequencer. So, in this aspect it has a sampleplayer within an independent sampler, and you don't have this in Akai. Maschine+ for me as a synthesizer to play live is much more stable than MPC live2. The 24-bit sound is great and when I use 16-bit samples the truth is that the DAC makes its sound good. Maschine+ has a complete A6 audio interface, I like that. Another great thing is that I use a Xenyx X1204 USB mixer to achieve 4 microphone inputs and 12 jack and At home, in my case with the Behringer Xenyx Maschine+, that really makes it a good, very stable live machine thanks to its 4 GB of ram. This is why I sold my MPC live 2 and kept Maschine +. Thanks for the well-prepared video, greetings.
Man, M+ here. This just happened to me again today, and even reloading the track doesn't fix it, it's almost like the issue is baked into the samples... What happens is, I have a chopped up sample, applied to group, and it seems like if I go into those individual slices, and say stretch one, truncate it whatever, suddenly all pads in that group are the same thing, or slices are missing etc, so it ruins the sequences I've made. Sometimes I've had a track running perfectly, come back to it the next day and all the slices are messed up or some are duplicated to other pads, or missing etc 😡 I've tried multiple SD cards too. It happens so randomly and I know my way around the machine very well. Soul destroying when it happens. I don't get it, and can't see anyone else ever mentioning it. Have you ever had anything like this? I sometimes wonder if my M+ is faulty :( So paranoid when making tracks now Any thoughts on this?
MaschineStudio user since it dropped... but always wanted an MPC and seeing StemSep nowadays? Im def buying an MPC LiveII and hopefully find an old Access Virus synth lol
Yeah true, the selection on the piano roll on a touch screen is very fluid. Not to mention drawing and modifying notes, just like drawing a phrase, copying it pasting it.
The Live has a very similar tagging system. You can also create your own sample banks and make cascading tags like the Maschine and keep them in your 1TB SSD. The screen is bigger on Live and it's a touch screen which eliminates the need for all the dedicated buttons because they're on the screen. The Live has a battery. The Live is far better in almost every way. Also you can adjust pad sensitivity on Live and if you need to you can add corx which make them extremely sensitive. You can also buy clear fat pads which have a softer touch, just like the Maschine. Yeah some of the things I mentioned are sold separately but they are available and they just add to the already awesome machine.
Programs and Keygroups have been the bedrock of AKAI, Korg and Roland for decades. They made it that way so anyone who knows synths can use it with ease. You can put the Sequencer in linear mode just like DAW
Great review !!! Aluminiiiiiium indeed there is a i in it hehe. We are laughing in europe as well when we hear tomadoessss and studio monidorssss as well instead of tomatoes and monittttors lol
was there a part on the sound of both... I always hear mpc kicks hitting harder than maschine kicks... different overall tone somehow... do you know anything about this :)
Your breakdown of the 2 machines is on point. I wouldn't so much say that I've made any switch to either as such; I use both (and have kept both). Which one is better will always depend on the user. The focus should be on the music. I do wonder though, how much it cost to manufacture each unit.
When we danced back in the 80s we used to have everywhere these color lit dance floors made of thick white plexiglass squares. The Maschine pads look like that.
★★★★★ Great side-by-side review, dude. I was considering getting an MPC Live II for live jamming but after seeing the workflow I’ll just move my Maschine+ around when I need it, I think - like you, it’s pretty stationary in my studio otherwise. Now that I “get” the Maschine+ workflow (it took a while!), an MPC seems too Windows 95 in comparison to me. The Maschine+ paradigm makes so much more sense to my mind now that I understand it. Anyway... Great comparison. Thank you. ❤️
I have both and must say the browser in the Native Instruments is superior but the MPC outweighs machine in every other category especially ease of sampling
@BlezzBeats that's what slice mode on the Mpc is for...plus it chops long samples directly to the pads...laying each chop in succession on the pads. But don't get me wrong...the Maschine has great sampling capabilities. I just prefer MPC because of the many different ways you can easily chop and build programs. I use both together simultaneously with midi
@BlezzBeats I found a way to midi drum kits...using maschine 2 as a vst inside of mpc software..on one plugin track in mpc I can trigger 16 drum sounds per plugin track. I previously could only use a single maschine plugin or drum sound per track but recently discovered how to use whole NI drumkits per track thru midi channels .
Yeah manual chops ftw you can do that on both of them. That realtime chopping i feel was one of the simple but great inventions of the 21st century. Honestly with the combos we have now we can do anything, it’s hard to even think about what the next level will be 😁 To that, happy new fuckin year my bro
Something important to be noticed is the auto sampler on MPC live which is a good advantage. I’am a Komplete 12 owner, and what is blocking me is the impossibility to install my Komplete 12 sound bank on the MPC
I’ve got komplete and a MASCHINE STUDIO, but IAM just looking for a way to store and organise all my instruments, create loops to export to a computer DAW. The MPC is a good choice in my opinion, because of the possibility to add an SSD hard drive. + The MPC can be used as a sound module, an expander.
Is there any difference in sound between MPC and Maschine? (ie, whatever sound the different softwares and hardware/interfaces may or may not impart to your samples?)
Nope, just a regular ol' contemporary soundcard sound. People claim they do, they're insane or trying to be smartasses lol. You gotta go below 16 bit and 44kHz for that.
thanks for comparison , i think it seems here that Live II has littlebit cleaner or better signal output quality , while at some other comparisons Maschine+ signal output seems better than Mpc One .
I’ve used the MPC Live 1 with no firmware updates at probably 100 shows so far and have never experienced a crash or a problem. Would you say that the Maschine + with the latest firmware update is more stable than the MPC Live 1? Because if so, I would say that that’s perfectly fine for live shows. I’ve been using it for live finger drumming, just playing one drum kit at a time, no sequencing or heavy cpu stuff.
Heyo, I appreciate your deep coverage of these devices. Can anyone help with these questions? Regarding the Maschine+, Is there a GUI yet? Also on the Maschine, are the plugins the full versions or just tweakable presets? Apparantly, if own full Kontakt license on mac/pc, then can use full version on Maschine+, is this true? And is disk streaming possible, like it is on the MPC? Chears.
@@BlezzBeats thank you for clarifying all of that. Very efficiently done. I think I confused disk streaming with loading sounds format the ssd. Thought it was the same thing.
The king of groove boxes is back to stay.... whether we like it or not. AKAI is KILLING the game!!! ... And NI knows it. Now... what is NI gonna do about it? Hmmmm.... do I hear crickets? Lmao!!!!!
@@levondarratt787 Are you kidding me? LOL! NI maschine is for producers that need training wheels with their midi chord soundpacks! And NI is MADE for DJ's... NOT the other way around. Maschine doesn't even have a fraction of the hit records the MPC has.... and NEVER will!! The NI standalone is an absolute joke... do you know anybody who actually bought one?... ( cricket... cricket)... yea, me neither Lol!
@@beeisbad look I get it in the 90s mpc was big. Now all the pro guys are using machine and the big vast ecosystem that's behind it. ninety-five percent does machine... It's just got more sounds and easier workflow...
52:20 fun fact, there used to be standalone devices that were actually as good if not better than computers over 15 years ago. There was a brand called ''Open Labs'' and they had these machines called NEKO and MIKO. You might find some videos on youtube. They stopped producing these, I don't know why. You could even clone instruments from hardware workstations or synthesizers.
Yeah it was literally a PC wrapped in a keyboard lol, a pretty good one though but suuperexpensive. I remember drewling over them thinking I'll never get them. But then again compared to the "consumer market samplers" like the Fairlight it wasn't too bad I guess.
@@BlezzBeats Hey Blezz love your videos, you make me laugh on my worst days. Wanted to chime in: you can do the same exact workflow you were doing on the Maschine for cutting up the sample by assigning sample to pad 1 (e.g. If it is a chopped sample be sure to select Pad Parameters and NOT Non-destructive slice) , then click and hold the COPY button, hit PAD 1 (while still holding copy) and then hit pad 2 and release button. Hope it helps! :D
From mpc 62 to 2000xl to 2500 to mv8000. I was way more active on the XL.. I mentioned being right handed because it matters just as much as a guitar player when it comes to the down beat. Which made me buckle down and choose the maschine plus when I comes to workflow. No other Pro drum machines accommodate right handed finger drummers like these 2
I have the MPCX and MK3. I often miss my inspiration window on the MPCX because there is so much track maintenance! Keeping up with track programs are ridiculous. Especially when you name them both. Asigning this...asigning that...we are knocking on year 2022 and its unnecessary. However with the Maschine MK3 I can get my inspiration out but it doesn't bounce! The swing just isn't there. The MPCX drum bounce is amazing. Also Maschine MK3 sampler is stupid..I have to use Serato sample with it. B-Bye!
Blezz, what is the Blezz Beats Academy? Is it a paid tutorial you have for Maschine? Can you send me a link for it? Thank you for all your videos. Blessings and Merry Christmas!
Maybe stupid question but Can I use i mean upload carpet and pass files sounds from MPC library to Maschine from the SD card or USB? Also the sounds and plug ins from Logic? And Ableton? Or third party like sugar bytes?
I take it you're biased toward the MPC? Most commenters saying similar things are already MPC users. Which is a bit ironic to me. Of course it's biased. I count on people to make their own decisions. These are the points that matter to me + more. If those points are relevant to you - good. If not watch another video.
What sd card are you using in the maschine? I have a samsung card with the recommended specs, if i put it in ,format on maschine, everything goes slowww. When i put the micro sd card in the ni adapter, everything is fine??! We should take a default project song, and compare the cpu. There is solething with the sd card types imo...It cant be that some guys can run 16 vsts , and i hit 70 percent with 8 groups with 1 sample...(almost no fx)
So, does the “+” add anything at all, if you are only ever going to use it tethered to your desktop computer anyway … ?! Ie, does the fact it has some internal processing power(?) mean that it runs faster and/or more stable, or add to its functionality at all/significantly (versus just using a Mk3 tethered like that)?
I have both. They are both based on sh*tty little single board computers that are 4+ years old at this point. The only thing you’re buying is a controller and a dedicated version of Linux OS. If some hackers could find a way to install the OS on a newer/better SBC, then we could get somewhere.
To me those 2 grooveboxes would have been cool in the 90s or beginning of 2000s. Daws were not advanced back in the days when i started producing, today you better off with a good daw a pad controller and a good sampler, far better workflow, mpc live and maschine are a bit gimmicky when you have plenty of work to do, cool gadgets though to sketch pad.
Does Akai have the password not recognised bug that I love on the plus lol I’m very attached to my plus now , I’d drop the money I paid on a drum synth, and the plus kicks most drum machines in hardware out of the water. It so well thought out , but spoilt by user verification bugs , I.e. Monark doesn’t always get saved, NI fixed for me , but the bugs returned.
Monark uses so much cpu. Some patches go into 60%. I hope they can still optimise the cpu, for 1400 euro they put in an atom processor that´s good for office work but not making music. The mpc arm processor kicks the plus ass in terms of cpu
I don't think either device is very suited for true live performance, as neither one is truly designed around continuous playback, mixed with live finger drumming, playing longer samples etc. They are still both more of a studio piece. At least, in my opinion. I do know the MPC will allow you to load up quite a lot of your music at once and go from there, without destroying memory usage, but using it _truly_ live is a whole different ballgame. Are people really going to hook up a lot of other synths and modules in a live setup to make use of the sequencer in a live gig? Have to doubt it. Can it be done? Sure thing. But it's not very nice unless you literally have a never-ending techno beat going. And you can kind of forget about on-the-fly pattern editing. On the MPC you will have to prepare basically an entire show beforehand, zero true 'live' play. (I mean, sure, you can trigger sounds from pads, but you could do that with literally any pad based sampler / groovebox / recorder, even something like a SP-303. I probably wouldn't build a live show around that though.). It would be interesting to see how people managed to use either device on stage, in actual live shows. Maybe I'm too skeptical.
You can connect a synth and a usb midi keyboard and start playing live on a mpc no ? I can do that with my mpc1000 by daisy chaining 2 mono synths and a midi keyboard and perform like normal while the sequence triggers internally sampled drum patterns. I can even record that performance on the fly (although you have to escape the track mute page , go to main page and press record for that to happen. Not very intuitive but you at least you have the option).
NI wins hands down. Bigger pads, bigger device and way way more sounds, synths and DAW capability. Bit MPCL2 is more fun, for the occasional beat making. But as far as actual studio integration, that ship sailed a long time ago for Akai. There is no catching up to teh insane NI ecosystem that exists.
Dude I don't own any but I watched all of that . Ok I have the X and I don't like putting notes on the screen. I tend to press the screen a few times. I wish , they would out step input using the pads instead of touch screen inputting.
As someone who started making beats on Maschine the MPC is just the better device workflow wise and has a better sequencer as well. Other then that Maschine is still a dope sampler to use and its software is a bit better then the MPC Software.
@@BlezzBeats aight. I sounded kinda mean, but I'm genuinely curious as you have a very special way of talking. (With certain words). I didn't mean to upset you. Have a nice day🤟
Im going to try for a hostile takeover of Native Instruments then Im going to employ you to head up the Maschine division. First new product will be an updated Maschine Jam with 16 faders and because it will be modular more stuff can be connected to it. OH and there will be a super X version with real Penny and Giles 120mm gold plated faders
Had Maschine since 2010, haven’t touched it since the first MPC Live came out. For me my issue with Maschine was never that it was tethered to a computer, just way prefer the MPC workflow. It takes more of an investment but I think I far prefer being in Akais ecosystem. I still use S samplers and have added a live II retro, studio 2, and an Akai Force (which is hard to beat as a studio brain). I did miss NIs expansions but Ive converted them over using kit maker. Might still pick up a plus but not sure how much Id use it as it diesnt beat the firce as a studio brain and isnt as portable as the Live 2.
MPC L2 all day my Machine p collecting dust with computers. Till Maschine get a touch screen and speaker theres no comparison. You have to stop at those major points before starting. Most people that use the machine still on the computer titty with it.
I disagree, sure you can compare all you want without even going into those topics. You gotta speak for yourself and what's important to you, it's not Robot Wars. They're both useless without the user. To me, Maschine is still way faster and smoother when it comes to sampling and sequencing, even without the touchscreen. It never needed it cause the controller is already laid out in such a way, if you have the muscle memory worked in you don't even think about it for a sec. But speaker and battery would have been nice for sure if the discussion is about standalone. The reason I went from MPC 2kxl to Maschine in the first place when it came out was to make it a smoother process cause it ends up on the computer sooner or later anyways.