PLAYING MELODIES
MASCHINE is not only about drums and percussion, and those pads aren’t just for rhythms. This section shows how you can bring your tracks to life by adding instruments and creating melodies in Keyboard Mode.
Creating a New Group
Press and hold GROUP and then press the white, lit-up pad to create a new Group – it is automatically selected. Now you have another sixteen Sound slots to fill up, starting with number 1 in the bottom left corner.
Loading an Instrument
To load an Instrument, click Instruments (keyboard icon) in the top row of the Browser. Now you see all available instrument presets. To refine the list, select tags from the TYPES and MODES areas. To load a preset, simply double-click it.
Switching to Keyboard Mode
In Keyboard mode, the pads represent sixteen pitches of the selected scale. To switch to keyboard mode, press the KEYBOARD button. You can now play the Pads like a keyboard.
Selecting a Scale
To set a Scale in Keyboard Mode, press the right arrow button and turn the encoder to select a bank of scales. Then press the right page button again and turn the encoder to select the type of scale. Note that the root notes for the selected scale are highlighted.
Now, you’re ready to play and record your melodies. Move on if you want to learn how to easily add some chords.