Native Instruments Maschine Mikro MKII

Installation without difficulty is authentic plug and play, produced by the activation service center: we are never disappointed with Native Instruments, it works every time. The handling is quite intuitive, and the manual (in good French) managed the feat of being perfectly clear when he described the same time procedures for the use standalone and as VST.

SUITABILITY/PERFORMANCE

Maschine Mikro I use as my STAN VST (Cubase 7.5, but at first I was still in Cubase 6), with a PC i5 processor, 4 MB RAM, sound card RME Fireface UC. This configuration is perfectly stable I never had the slightest problem.

OVERALL OPINION

After 9 months of intensive use, here are my observations.
Already, I can no longer do without Maschine. I practice music styles I mix many audio and programming. Banks and offered kits are of exceptional quality. I use Komplete 9 and integration with Maschine 2.0 software is perfect, everything is always at hand, and as the banks are substantial, the navigation process, which is the center of the famous "workflow" is very well studied, very fluid.
The hardware: very satisfied. I had an MPC and an MPD before, the quality of the pads is equivalent, I use a lot Maschine (the object) as a MIDI controller for other plug-ins, it's very easy to get suitable presets through the Controller Editor software. To choose colors for the pads is very convenient. In short, perfect.
On the sequencer: So, I took some time to find the right formula. Use Maschine standalone for the type of music that I have to forget immediately. Sequencer, which is a sort of mini-STAN is very impractical. Navigation is difficult, the sequencer window itself is still too small (I have yet large screens) and very difficult to adjust zoom. And where there is a problem is that we can not just open MIDI tracks in Cubase to control full kits in Maschine, at least not in the current state of my skills (although I have a little searched the net, I watched tutorials that not work at home, etc..). THEREFORE I am forced to use the Maschine software with its sequencer, it makes me a STAN STAN in. It takes some getting used to manage song structures in both its STAN and Maschine, a bit tedious but you get used. And we must recognize that once used, is happiness. Otherwise another solution is to use samples of Maschine in another plug-in, for example, Battery (I do that sometimes, but it's a shame because we lose some benefits Maschine: organizing samples kits, Maschine effects that are sometimes very nice, the new plug-in Drums, very good, and other stuff too ...).
Anyway the main thing for me was the quality and diversity of the banks and I could not have hoped for better.