Maschine+ 3 Is Coming: Get Excited for Kontakt 8 Support, New Effects & Stem Separation
Maschine+ is not dead, urges Native Instruments
3,9 / 5,0 | 
Native Instruments announces plans for Maschine+ 3, including Kontakt 8 support and the much-requested bounce-to-audio feature.
Maschine+ 3 Is Coming
When Native Instruments announced at NAMM this year that it was bringing Play Series functionality to Akai Professional MPC devices, the Maschine+ user community lost its collective mind. Perhaps in response to this, NI has posted to the Community section of its website to address this issue and provide a roadmap for all that’s coming to Maschine+ in 2025.
“I know that when communication is sparse, it can feel like there are no developments on your favourite products,” wrote Chris, the Product Lead for Maschine, Kontrol, and NKS Hardware Partnerships. “While we may not always post frequent updates, rest assured that development is ongoing, and our team is working hard to improve and expand the products you love.”
But First Maschine+ 2
One of the things Chris’ team is working on is getting Maschine 3 running in the standalone Maschine+. You can currently use the paid upgrade with Maschine+ in controller mode but for standalone Maschine+ 3 mode, you’ll need to wait a little longer.
First, NI needs to get a new version of Maschine 2 out for Maschine+. Coming in the first quarter of this year (2025), the update will include a kernel upgrade, the possibility to change sampling rate and buffer size for extended compatibility with USB class-compliant audio interfaces, and bring over several desktop effects. It should go into beta very soon.
“This update ensures Maschine 2 on Maschine+ remains stable for those who prefer to stay on this version,” wrote Chris, “while also preparing Maschine+ for an upgrade to Maschine 3 in Q2.”
As for the promised new effects, the post doesn’t specify which ones, just that they’ll be available in Q1 of 2025. These will appear in the Maschine+ library and can be activated if you already own desktop versions of them.
Maschine+ 3 New Features
NI is shooting for Q2 for standalone Maschine+ 3. One of the standout features of version three is Stem Separation. While this would be really cool on Maschine+, NI has acknowledged that we may not be able to generate stems right away due to its “technical complexity.” Maschine+ will be able to play stems generated on desktop though.
NI also posted a picture of Maschine+ running User Chords, new functionality that allows users to “capture and perform custom chords directly from Maschine MK3 and Maschine+,” the latter only in controller mode right now. This will launch in Q1 as part of Maschine 3.1.
Maschine+ 3: Kontakt 8 and Bounce-To-Audio
Now for the real meat. NI confirmed that Kontakt 8 support will be part of Maschine 3 for Maschine+. This will include a clutch of full Kontakt instruments including the Play Series. To aid in being able to run this and other CPU-intensive instruments, we’ll also be getting the much-requested bounce-to-audio function. At last!
Chris also addressed the controversy regarding the Play Series getting ported to MPC before Maschine+.
“It’s also important to note that the Play Series MPC Editions are not direct ports of the original Play Series instruments,” he said. “Instead, they are custom-built for the MPC platform, utilizing its sample engine and featuring MPC-specific presets. This makes them a unique experience tailored to the MPC workflow, rather than a replication of the Play Series desktop version.”
What do you think about Maschine+ 3? Is this enough to get you to pay for an upgrade?
More Information
- Native Instruments Maschine+ product page
- All about Native Instruments
- All about grooveboxes
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One response to “Maschine+ 3 Is Coming: Get Excited for Kontakt 8 Support, New Effects & Stem Separation”
“Working hard to improve and expand the products you love.” All the crashes and restarts with my DAWS are always NI related. And the GUI of some needed an update already a long time ago.