Native Instruments have a great reputation for the ongoing development of their products long after they’ve been released. Their developers continue to refine and add new functions via firmware updates. Maschine+ is the latest addition of NI’s music-making arsenal to get an update. NI bring forward a sweet new virtual analogue Poly Synth, MIDI enhancements as well as a sweet new update to the arpeggiator.

Poly Synth is a dual-oscillator synth that provides warm vintage tones, gritty bases and classic detuned pads and leads which is reminiscent of many popular synths from the ’80s. In fact, Poly Synth is based on the NI’s Pro-53 plugin, which was discontinued back in 2009 and was a digital emulation of the classic Sequential Circuits Prophet 5. If you’re using controller versions of Maschine, don’t stress, there’s a Maschine software update available that features Poly Synth and everything else from the Maschine+ update. Poly Synth features 16 voices, dual oscillators, a multi-mode filter, dual envelope generators, LFO, modulation system and 250 presets —trust me when I say it sounds awesome! Check out our video.

Additionally, there are some MIDI enhancements along with a new and interesting addition to the arpeggiator mode. It’s now possible to trigger scenes, patterns and lock snapshots changes via an external MIDI controller, which provides greater flexibility when performing live. The Arp mode now includes advanced arpeggiator modes, including retrigger, repeat, offset and inversion, allowing you to explore alternative versions of the same arpeggiator sequence. I love these kinds of additions as they can generate new and interesting melody and bassline ideas.

Check out the full update here: https://www.native-instruments.com/en/products/maschine/production-systems/maschine-plus/software-updates/