Native Instruments Maschine Mikro MK3 Production and Performance System with Software Reviews

I'm relatively new to recording and quite frankly feel like I'm back in school but this is the easiest piece of equipment to use I've purchased so far! It has everything you would need to make any genre of music and super easy to navigate. Great job NI!

Excellent quality with plenty of features for your music production and hours of fun.
If you like nice big pads that are very responsive, this is the perfect instrument at a great price!

Needing a 16-pad midi controller for Groove Agent, within my Nuendo projects, I struggled to find the right fit. Considering Akai, Nektartech, and Native Instruments, I finally settled on Native Instruments' Maschine Mikro MK3. I can do everything I need, plus have access to added features. For the price, and in my opinion, it's far better than what Nektartech and Akai offer! Plus, I also purchased the Decksaver that keeps the dust off. Great purchase and well worth it! Super thanks to my sale assistant, Chris Leonard!!

I have been eyeing the Mikro Mk3 since it came out. I'm a big fan of the Maschine architecture and find the software/hardware lots of fun. I went from an Mk2 full size to the Maschine Studio over the past 5 Years and just recently found myself not liking the real estate the Studio was taking up on my desk. I really wanted something smaller to do all the same things (mostly) that I normally do on the big version. Finally I pulled the trigger on the Mikro and sold the Studio. Man this thing is small! I have to say I love it, in fact oddly enough my workflow has improved with this version. Yeah i spend a little time mousing the software but I mouse a lot anyway as it is so this doesn't even bother me. I find myself just focusing on the pads so much more, which are a huge improvement over the mk2/studio pads in size. If anyone is on the fence about losing the screens on their maschine, or the macro knobs, I'd say unless you are a live performer with your maschine, I highly doubt you're going to miss them honesly. I don't. I'm so glad I "down-graded" because this is just what I needed and freed up space on my desk for my other hardware. Thanks to Sweetwater for the great deal on the demo version!

The Mikro MK3 was my first entry into the world of computer production. The pads feel awesome, the touch strip is super sensitive, and it provides all the control I've ever needed. It's very flexible, and mobile. I've been tossing it into a backpack with my laptop and taking it on the go. It is just all-round amazing.

I've played guitar and piano my whole life. In the age of the pandemic I've become more interested in getting a whole band sound at home — not only to make my guitar and piano practice sessions more interesting but to also hopefully create some stuff I can eventually play in public. I got this to supplement my guitar rig. I've had it for 4 days. I feel like I've already learned a lot but that I also have a whole lot more to learn. I'm also finding that it falls short in one key aspect that will require buying more gear. More on that later.

This thing is killer for live looping. It's extremely intuitive and easy to make beats and loop them in real-time. I'm a huge fan of the hybrid genre called "jamtronica" which blends elements of psychedelic rock and EDM. That is precisely what I'm trying to accomplish here and the Maschine Mikro MK3 is the perfect, inexpensive device to start down that road.

When paired with my 88 key MIDI controller, a whole lot of additional lead options are opened up, since you can select a pre programmed sound with the pad and play it melodically on a keyboard without switching the pads to "keyboard mode". While this is awesome, it has its shortcomings, and this is what I referred to earlier. There are no good traditional piano sounds, very poor Rhodes and organ options, and extremely limited and clunky LFO functionality for the synths. This essentially means I'm going to have to buy a new sound card with more inputs, and finally plunk down the cash for a MoPho and a used Roland RD series to get anything that sounds like traditional keys or a good rock synth (think Chris Robinson Brotherhood or String Cheese Incident for the piano sound I'm going for). Essentially it's going to force me to finally get the keyboard rig I've always wanted. My guitar rig is finally done after well over $5k so I guess it's time to get the keys. Onto the subject of guitar.

I use a Hughes and Kettner Tubemeister 5 and a Shure SM-57 mic that I run either straight into my board or into my Scarlett solo. I have not tried to record this directly into the maschine software yet, but I've watched demo videos that show how easy it is to run a mic into the software. I'm going to work on that next week. For now I've just been playing my guitar over the beats I've created. It sounds good but I just haven't gotten that far into playing guitar over it yet. One thing at a time.

Bottom line is that this is an extremely powerful and inexpensive piece of equipment that makes live looping projects accessible to just about any budget, and it integrates incredibly well with traditional instruments that can be connected to a sound card. If you're a guitarist looking to get into live looping, this is the first thing you should buy.

I haven't played music in almost 20 years but I saw this come thru my timeline and decide to buy it. When I opened thelittlebox it was love at first sight and play. This little machine is powerful and packed with dope sounds to choose from. I plan on upgrading my spund library soon. For the price you can't beat it!

It is always good to have it.

This would be a 5 star if you could sample with it. But...can't be upset at all by all the functions and features for the price.

I've been producing new music with this great groove machine for a year now and it works great! Wonderful sounds right out of the box, creating unique grooves is pretty intuitive and fun. Standalone and within the DAW, one can create great drum productions that enhance your music no matter what genre you compose. The pads are quick and responsive to every nuance of touch you throw at it. I can see using this as a controller for live performances although I don't need that functionality but it is nice to have that capability. Once again, a great drum groove production for a good price. If you are serious in making quality productions, you must have this unit!

As a non-drummer I was struggling with the art and mystery of bing, bang bong. I have an Akai MPD226 and it has great pads and MIDI for interfacing with my venerable Alesis D4 drum module however MPC software was a challenge. Being a user of Native Instruments and Komplete 13, I had access to many expansions, and this was the trigger to try the Maschine Mikro MK3. Within minutes of connecting Maschine software to the hardware unit I had access to a vast array of percussion kits and projects (great learning tools for non-drummers). True I am tethered to Maschine either standalone or within Ableton Live and I am unable to connect via MIDI out as there are no external MIDI outputs, however the unit provides an inexpensive route to beat making regardless of genre. I`m still learning Maschine but the key point here is that you can achieve great results on Day 1. Thanks to Jeff at Sweetwater for his constant support.
(Disclaimer : I am an actual user and have no ties or any business relationship with NI other than being a customer)

If you're looking for an MPC or SP1200 experience but don't want to give up the flexibility of software based music production this is what you want.

The Maschine bundles allow you to make J-Dilla, Chainsmokers, Pharrell, or any production other style you choose. Adding on the $99 sounds package gives you endless possibilities. You can chop your own samples or find them online.

This entry version is more than capable and the only reasons to look at the bigger version are if you want to do more live playing or prefer to look at the screen of the Maschine to work instead of your computer screen.... Otherwise it's all you need! I love mine, it has the buttons I'll ever use and the pads feel great!

This isn't a review as such, but an info update. As of 9/19/2019, the Mikro Mk3 is now supported by the control editor meaning you can now assign MIDI messages/notes to all the controls and pads. I found this out as I was researching this unit. I wound up with a cheaper controller for the nonce, but am still considering this one because of the top notch pads.

Well...very mixed opinions, the maschine mikro DOES now have midi mode all but two of the buttons are assignable. The integration with maschine software is pretty darn awesome, especially if I"m using the laptop cause it is DEFINITELY portable and I barely have to even touch the laptop other than to mix or change tracks. The little led screen tells you all you need contrary to popular belief...the thing is under 300 dollars...comes with killer software and has awesome pads, user friendly, while being built like a tank..I think the screen is good enough...

However..Native Instruments very well does not lead me to believe they show interest in support for the lower end stuff, there is hardly any guides or anything and it"s been at least two weeks since I"ve emailed them. I couldn"t get it to work with the controller editor. Either I don"t know if it"s meant to or not.

However...all that aside I know my way around software especially My main daw and instruments and such but I"m not good at problem solving a setup issue, so others might not have such a hard time.

Lastly I believe that it is a WONDERFUL first pad controller, with chord mode and scales you don"t even "need" a keyboard (obviously still a learning curve to use pads like a keyboard and I still would keep a portable one anyway) and you can just use Maschine as a plugin and route pads to separate midi channels to play kits into your daw (I just use a template for quick setup) you can program external kits I mean, for example I have my favorite addictive drums kits set up for kit pieces to specific pads.
Also awesome for more experienced ones who just want something portable and wants something that can easily be set up in something besides Ableton....Ableton...Ableton...Ableton....jeeze..there are other daws out there...

It took me awhile to wait for this to get support for my daw but after that I was able to use it and I have loved it since. I've never gotten around to fully learning the maschine software but that is also a pretty smooth experience.

I personally love this device and the included Maschine software. The software has completely improved the way I compose songs.

The frustrating part of owning this device is the lack of integration with modern DAWs. I use Cubase. Currently there is no way to sync the transport buttons to the host DAW. Also, while there is a way to send Midi information to the host DAW via the Maschine VST, there is no native Midi support.

I realize that these should be implemented in a future update. Since no one know when that will be available I would say choose wisely when it comes to considering this product.

Spent some time figuring this out, and I'm not that disappointed because I bought it to get a taste of NI's VSTs, but I just feel that this thing is artificially limited so NI can sell other products. It pretty much doesn't integrate with anything other than the Maschine 2 software. I'm a guitarist, that would love to use this to do basic functions in other DAWs, and it just doesn't work. There are workarounds, but I have yet to find a workaround that just works. It's really a shame because the hardware feels great. After picking this up, I also got a Novation Launchpad Pro, which I feel is a much better piece of kit. That said, I wish that integrated with Logic better as well. Lastly, unless your scoring movies or making generic hip hop beats, NI's komplete select isn't that great as well. Hard to find presets that work in an Indie Rock/Instrumental Lo-Fi genre.

This product is more of a toy than a serious controller. Yes, it works with the Maschine software, and for those who are OK with swapping back and forth from laptop to controller, it can be a fun way to get into music for newbies. The fact that use beyond Maschine is VERY limited is the big problem. You can't use the Controller Editor software to allow it to control transport controls in your DAW, for example.

I think it should be a very simple firmware update to allow this to work and be fully assignable, because the actual hardware itself is very nice: solid build, very firm and awesome pads. If only I could use it for other things like Battery or AD2 or even built in stuff in Logic Pro X.

Almost a year after launch and no word that this is being supported for other uses, so as of now, it's a fancy and expensive toy that I wasted money on.

NI doesn't say this maschine mikro mk3 is extremely limited in software, compared to the previous model. All the futures from the video render useless the second you try to use it in a daw. the only thing that works are the pads and even those are less sensitive in a midi mode than they are in a standalone mode so the one thing that does work doesn't work optimally...

I returned mine, sticking with the old one that is still daw integrate-able.
This is by far the worst experience I have ever had with any midi controller, never thought I can buy a piece of gear that can be so misleadingly advertised, literally all the cool promoted functions are incompatible with a daw, it just seems unreal how well closed off this midi controller is considering it's great design and ads NI advertise.

DON'T BUY