Maschine Gets Real-Time Stretching mode in 2.7 update

Native Instrument’s Maschine is finally getting real-time stretching of loops in its new update. It is the third iteration of its popular Maschine beat-making hardware. Through a blog, the company has outlined some new changes to the Maschine software, including time-stretching, loop hot-swapping and a gate mode.

“Pre-cut loops will simply play in time with the project, no matter their speed, and they’ll adjust automatically to the project’s tempo changes,” NI’s Chad Carrier says on the NI blog. “The Audio plug-in does the hard work for you. After that, the Pattern behaves as it always has, whether it contains MIDI, audio loops, or a combination of both.”

NI declares that the new loop hot-swapping feature is useful when someone needs creative inspiration in the studio. It allows loading audio loops into the Maschine project to change a synth preset, enabling browsing loops quickly to something that fits. The gate mode, meanwhile, means a loop will only be heard when the pad was hit, also opening up possibilities for melodic re-pitching.

Maschine 2.7 is available as a free update for Maschine 2 owners.