This article is about processing Maschine Expansions. For help with non-Maschine expansions (Sample Packs), click here.
Please read the full article below before messaging for support.
Basics
What are Maschine Expansions?
“Expansions” are sound packs made by Native Instruments. Originally called “Maschine Expansions”, Native Instruments is rebranding their packs to just be called “Expansions”. This is to encourage customers to buy them for other uses outside of just Maschine.
Kit Maker can convert these Expansions into drum kit presets for various DAWs (as well as the Maschine Factory Library). Examples of Expansions are Crate Cuts and Certified Gold. There are over 150 Expansions, so there are many to choose from!
Native Instruments specifically recommends Kit Maker as a good way to use their Expansions with more DAWs!
A list of all Expansions can be found here.
If a product says “Expansion”, it should be compatible with Kit Maker. You can also check the product details and it will say something like “50 Maschine Kits” are included.
Note that “Massive X Expansions” and “Leap Expansions” also use the word “Expansion”, but these are labeled for specific synth products and are not compatible with Kit Maker.
What are NOT accepted as Maschine Expansions?
Native Instruments (NI) creates a lot of products and not all of them are “Expansions.” Kontakt libraries, encrypted .nki files and vst/au plugins are not compatible with Kit Maker. There are even many drum instruments that are not “Expansions”, such as “Studio Drummer”, “40s Own Drums” etc. These are specific plugins and Kontakt libraries and are not labeled as Expansions. And as stated earlier, Expansions for synth instruments are not compatible with Kit Maker.
Third party Maschine libraries are not supported, but it may be possible to process the .wav files in Sample Pack Mode (see the manual for more info).
There are a rare couple of Maschine Expansions that cannot be processed because they are in a completely different format. Community Drive is a free Expansion that does not work like the others and is not compatible.
Where are the Maschine Expansion folders located?
The folders will be in your main Native Instruments content folder, the location where you install your Maschine content. For Mac users the default Maschine Library install locations are in the Users/Shared directory. PC installation locations may vary.
To find your Maschine Expansion Folders: In the Maschine app Preferences, go the the Library tab. Click on the small Directory icon next to the Maschine 2 Factory Library path. This will show the directory of the Factory Library. The Expansions are installed in the same location as the Factory Library.
If you are not a Maschine user, you should be able to use the Native Access app to locate your Expansion folders.
The Expansion folders are named after the Expansions themselves, ie “Street Swarm”. On mac, the Expansion folders typically end in “Library.” For example, “Maschine 2 Library” or “Street Swarm Library.” On PC, the word “Library” may not always be present in the folder name (ie the Expansion folder may be simply called “Street Swarm”). Another quick way of finding your Expansion folders is searching your computer directories for the name of the Expansion.
More info on finding your Maschine Library locations can be found here.
How do I process the Maschine 2 Factory Library? Or Battery kits?
The “Maschine 2 Library” is installed where you installed your other Native Instruments and Maschine Expansions Folders. Import this folder to process the Maschine factory library.
If you don’t know where you installed your Maschine libraries, check your Maschine preferences or the Native Access app on your computer.
For info on how to find the location of your Maschine 2 Factory Library on your computer, please read this article.
Remember to import the Factory Library folder itself and not inner subfolders such as “Groups.”
In addition to the Maschine Expansions, you can process the “Battery 4 Factory Library” folder in Maschine mode and it will convert the kits. However, because Kit Maker is currently only made for 16 pad drum kits, Battery kits of more than 16 sounds will be scaled down to just 16 samples. Battery libraries outside of the Factory Library are not compatible with Kit Maker.
What about processing Instruments or Multi-Samples?
If you want to make instrument presets from your Maschine Expansions and the Factory Library, check out my other app, Preset Maker which can make some instruments and melodic presets from Maschine Expansions. (It can create multi-sample instruments from any .wav files that are labeled with note info in their filenames — “Soft Piano A1.wav” etc).
Note that Preset Maker is not comptaible with .nki files or Kontakt instruments, and can only work with unencrypted .wav multi-sample files. See the webpage for details.
Having Issues?
Some of the Maschine kits are missing samples.
There are some Maschine kits that will have a few pads that do not transfer over. This is because, in the original Maschine Kits, these pads’ sounds are generated live inside the Maschine software.
There are sometimes software synths and basses that are synthesized “live” and not made of samples, and thus, don’t have .wav sample files to transfer over.
In some cases, drum sounds are generated live inside the Maschine software, such as in the kit “3l3ktro” from the Factory Library. Some Expansions heavily rely on these synthesized sounds, such as the expansion “Lazer DIce”, which uses a lot of computer generated drum sounds. Unfortunately these do not work as well with Kit Maker, but luckily most Expansions primarily use .wav sounds that work great with our app.
There are also a few occasions where a Maschine kit will use samples from a sampled instrument, which wasn’t made directly for that kit.The result is that some kits will have a few blank spots in them. Fortunately, the vast majority of pads do transfer fine.
Note that some kits that are created are made with a slightly different name than their original Maschine kit name, such as Abbey Road 50s being shortened to “AR50s.”
Some Maschine kits are not being created.
There are limited number of kits that are not converting over at the moment, but I am working to fix this in a future update! Amplified Funk and Grey Forge are the two expansions that seem to be affected most by this issue.
Also note that when Kit Maker runs, if a kit has less than 5 samples, the kit does not get made. This is to prevent creating kits that arent very full and may be disappointing for users. The reason there arent always samples for all the sounds is that some expansions have drums that are generated by live synthesis in the Maschine software and/or are not available in the Expansion folder as .wav files. This is uncommon, but happens to some kits. Vintage Heat is an example of an Expansion that has multiple kits with very few drum samples, which do not all get made into kits.
Also note that when Kit Maker runs, if a kit has less than 5 samples, the kit does not get made. This is to prevent creating kits that arent very full and may be disappointing for users. The reason there arent always samples for all the sounds is that some expansions have drums that are generated by live synthesis in the Maschine software and/or are not available in the Expansion folder as .wav files. This is uncommon, but happens to some kits. Vintage Heat is an example of an Expansion that has multiple kits with very few drum samples, which do not all get made into kits.
My third-party Maschine Libraries (not made by Native Instruments) aren’t processing correctly
Only official Maschine Expansions and the Factory Library can be processed in Maschine mode. However, you can process any samples you like in Generic Library mode, which is explained in the manual.
MPC Previews aren’t playing for some kits
Maschine Expansions will typically contain previews for MPC which will be copied over. However, in some cases, the way Native Instruments names the Preview files is different from the way that they name their Kits. This can result in the preview not correctly playing for that kit.
If you experience this, go into the [Previews] folder for the MPC Kits that you created with Kit Maker. Check that these preview audio files are named the same way as the MPC kits themselves. <br><br>
For example, if your .xpm file (kit file) is called “Cool Kit.xpm” but the preview file (in the [Previews] folder) is titled “CoolKit.xpm.wav”, you will need to edit the .wav file so that it matches the .xpm file. In this example, you would name it “Cool Kit.xpm.wav” and add the missing space character.
There are so many Maschine kits that are always coming out that it is not possible for us to account for all of them. Typically the original Maschine preview files are named identically to the kits, but in cases where they are not, they can be fixed by hand.
Additional situations: Unfortunately, the Maschine Factory Library kits do not currently come with preview files.
The Expansion “Chromatic Fire” is a free collection of assorted kits from other Expansions, but the way this library sources it’s preview files makes them unable to convert for MPC.
Having issues that are not explained here?
If the kits aren’t coming out correctly in either Sample Pack Mode OR Maschine Mode, follow the “Troubleshooting Steps” at the bottom of this page.
If the issue is strictly related to Maschine Mode, then message us using the form on this page. Make sure to include as many details you can, which folder you imported that isn’t working, what you expected vs what the resulting kits were —- and so on. The more details the better; vague messages such as “It’s not working” won’t help get to the root of the issue.
It also helps to include the main.log file if you have a second to attach that. Thanks!