Native Instruments discontinues Maschine MK1 and MK2, but new Maschine software is on the way - with stem separation and more

Native Instruments has announced that it will be ending software support for several older versions of its pad controller Maschine, discontinuing the products in order to focus on the development of new Maschine software.

Both Maschine MK1 and MK2 and Maschine Mikro MK1 and MK2 will be retired, and owners of these devices will not be able to update them with new Maschine software, or receive technical support, from November 6 onwards. They will, however, be able to continue using their devices with the Maschine 2 software.

"As operating systems advance and as we work on keeping our software up to date and by adding new features, aging hardware requires an increasing amount of attention," reads a statement on NI's website.

"This takes away focus from our development teams and puts limitations on the changes we can make to the software without breaking legacy hardware integrations. As a result, we have decided to retire the earliest versions of Maschine hardware that originally shipped with Maschine 1, so that we can make some bigger changes to Maschine software in the future."

The changes hinted at here will take the form of the Maschine 3, a software update slated for next month that NI says will "significantly expand" what users can do with Maschine. Along with a redesigned and "modern" interface, additional features will include stem separation, per-scene tempo adjustment, MIDI editing workflow improvements and integration with Kontrol S-Series MK3. Also on the way is a new content library, Maschine Central, that features 128 multi-sampled instruments and 70 drum kits.

The latest version of the Maschine software will be compatible with Maschine MK3, Maschine Mikro MK3, and the standalone Maschine+. While we've no word yet on new Maschine hardware, we wouldn't be surprised if MK4 was just around the corner.