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Maschine 3.7 adds probability and Euclidean sequencing, and launches alongside a new Maschine Expansion packs.

In May, following a turbulent few years of leadership changes, mergers and financial struggles, Native Instruments was acquired by InMusic, joining a roster of brands that already includes the likes of Moog Music, Akai, Rane and Alesis.

While some longtime users might be wary of the move, it promises to bring stability to a brand responsible for some of the most notable – and widely used – product lines in the music technology space, including Kontakt, Traktor and Maschine.

Against this backdrop Native Instruments is also approaching its 30th anniversary, having released its first software instrument, the Reaktor precursor Generator, back in 1996. To mark the anniversary the company is releasing Maschine 3.7, the platform’s first major update since the InMusic acquisition, as well as three Maschine-focused sound packs. (Maschine 3.6 did land after the announcement, focused mostly on compatibility, bug fixes and UI/audio improvements).

The main focus of Maschine 3.7 is a trio of sequencing tools designed to add spontaneity and variation to patterns. The first of these is a random note generator designed to generate patterns based on probability. This can be used to create randomised percussive, melodic or chord patterns. Users also get the option to control the level of velocity randomisation within the notes created.

This is joined by note probability, which lets users dictate a chance level for each note in a sequence. This dictates the level of randomisation for each note every time the sequence cycles. Probability Lock allows users to capture a cycle of randomised notes, offering another way to generate pattern ideas using the randomisation tools.

The third new tool is a Euclidean sequencer, a popular tool in the modular realm that lets users program sequences by distributing events as evenly as possible over a set number of steps. Here, a real time mode lets Maschine users alter the step length, events and rotation in real time to create shifting patterns. These are undoubtedly welcome additions to the Maschine toolkit.

Native Instruments is clearly aware of the need to reassure longtime users that Maschine hasn’t been forgotten with the move to InMusic, issuing a press release that pitches the update as: ‘New update. New sounds. Continued support. Maschine is alive and evolving, and this update packs in a host of fresh features.’

Alongside the new features for Maschine 3.7, the company is launching new Maschine Expansion packs. The first of these, Thirty, is a compilation of sounds ‘resampled’ from the company’s own back catalogue, drawing on samples from Reaktor, Spotlight Series, Play Series, Massive X and more to create 30 Maschine kits, 89 loops, 291 drum samples and 85 one-shots. Whether you call this a celebration of NI’s legacy or a bundle of repackaged sounds probably depends on how generous you’re feeling towards Native Instruments.

The second pack is named Paris Heat and focuses on the classic French house sound of the ‘90s and early-’00s. This totals 40 Maschine kits, 108 loops, 314 drum samples and 127 one-shots, aiming to capture the crunchy drum machines, filtered samples and warm synth tones that defined the sound.

The final pack is more forward-looking. Titled Rage Circuit, it focuses on the sound of the EDM-adjacent trap sub-genre associated with artists like Lil Uzi Vert and Playboi Carti. The pack is created in collaboration with US producer Snipe Young, who has worked with the likes of Beyonce and Justin Bieber, and has created a variety of other NI and Akai sound packs in the past.

“30 years is a moment worth celebrating. This milestone couldn’t be reached without the producers and musicians who took NI’s instruments and made history with them,” says Tim Adnitt, Senior Director of Product Management at Native Instruments. “Maschine 3.7 gives those producers and musicians new ways to write, sequence, and perform, and with Thirty, Paris Heat, and Rage Circuit arriving together, this is one of the biggest weeks for Maschine sound content we’ve ever had.”

Maschine 3.7 is available now as a free update for Maschine 3 users. The new packs are all available now. Paris Heat and Rage Circuit are $49/49€ each, while Thirty is available for $30/30€. Visit the Native Instruments site for more info.

Reports have surfaced suggesting that inMusic has shut down Native Instruments’ UK office, putting a number of jobs under threat following extensive layoffs across the company rumoured to have taken place in July.

News of the office’s alleged closure arrived in a Reddit post shared on August 5, titled “The layoffs continue: InMusic just fired the whole Native Instruments UK office”.

While it’s unclear how many Native Instruments employees have been affected, a representative for inMusic says that the company is “simplifying its organizational and legal structure, including Native Instruments UK” as part of the “ongoing integration” of the company into the “inMusic family of brands”.

Native Instruments CEO Nick Williams and Chief Product & Technology Officer Simon Cross have also been removed from their posts, according to reports from MusicTech, who reviewed company filings from July. inMusic Europe’s CEO Richard Seymour has since been appointed as a director of Native Instruments UK, suggesting that he has replaced Williams as CEO.

inMusic is the parent company that owns Moog Music, Akai Professional, Rane, Denon DJ, Numark, Alesis and M-Audio, among others. inMusic announced its acquisition of Native Instruments in May, several months after the company entered preliminary insolvency.

Since then, it’s been reported that layoffs across “nearly all departments” have taken place at Native Instruments, with “around 100 individuals” affected. inMusic has declined to comment on the extent of the layoffs.

Following its acquisition of Native Instruments, inMusic shared a video in which CEO Jack O’Donnell and Akai Professional Director Andy Mac discussed O’Donnell’s plans for the company. During the conversation, the inMusic CEO said that the future for Native Instruments would be “very exciting, very bright and very secure”, and that the acquisition was the highlight of his career.

MusicTech also reports that several new positions have recently appeared in inMusic’s directory of career opportunities, including Content Development Engineer, Engineering Manager and Data Product Developer. A number of these roles are based in Rhode Island, USA, and Cambridge, where inMusic has its UK headquarters.

A representative for inMusic provided us with the following statement:

“As part of the ongoing integration of Native Instruments into the inMusic family of brands, we are simplifying our organizational and legal structure, including Native Instruments UK. This includes removing layers that were established to support a private equity ownership model, as well as streamlining other areas of the business to create a faster, more efficient organization focused on innovation, customers, and long-term growth.

“We recognize the impact these changes have on affected employees and are committed to supporting them throughout the transition.

 “Native Instruments remains a strategically important part of inMusic, and our commitment to the brand is unchanged. Product development continues at a strong pace, with major new hardware and software initiatives already underway for 2027 and beyond.”

Today, Native Instruments has announced the release of Super*Saw, a new software synth developed in collaboration with A. G. Cook, the Grammy-nominated producer, solo artist and PC Music founder best known for his work with Charli XCX, Caroline Polachek and Beyoncé.

Super*Saw is inspired by the supersaw, a classic synth patch that has figured prominently in Cook’s production work. Built by layering multiple detuned sawtooth waves together, it’s a bold, bright and aggressive sound that’s closely associated with trance music of the ‘90s and early ‘00s. Though the technique itself predated the synth, it was Roland’s virtual analogue JP-8000 that popularized the sound through its dedicated Super Saw oscillator.

Native Instruments says that Super*Saw seeks to push the supersaw “further than it was designed to go”, turning a “time-consuming production technique into a fast, fun, and flexible workflow” and producing everything from “rich harmonies to metallic dissonance, ravey leads to impossible glides, euphoria to tension, all from the same sound source”.

Super*Saw is an eight-voice polyphonic synth, but also features monophonic, unison and poly-unison assignment modes. In the Voice Control menu, you’ll find controls to adjust the detuning and stereo width of the voices in Unison mode, along with sophisticated glide controls that can be used to set individual portamento times for each of the synth’s eight voices, and a Shape control that adjusts the contour of the portamento.

The synth features five modulation sources, each of which can be assigned to an unlimited number of parameters. There’s a single tempo-syncable LFO with rate, shape, phase and retrig controls that can be applied per-voice or globally, and this is joined by two tempo-syncable, velocity-sensitive ADSR envelopes.

The instrument uses two independent oscillator banks, Swarm 1 and Swarm 2. Each containing up to 16 detuned saw waves, and combines them with an X/Y Morpher that continuously interpolates between four stored sound states in each corner of the grid.

Additional features include chord and scale constraints, per-voice glide and offset controls, multimode filtering, integrated effects, and a preset library covering a range of lead, chord, pad, and experimental sounds.

Super*Saw also comes with a broad preset library of A. G. Cook-style patches, covering basses, leads, pads, plucks, soundscapes and more.

“It’s funny having my own synth plugin,” Cook says in the video embedded above. “It’s something that’s always been a goal of mine… I’m really interested in very specific tools, and I’ve been excited when I’ve seen certain artists do their own tools around the ideology they have.

“I’ve really enjoyed building on what was established as the supersaw in the ‘90s. A lot of instrument design is about taking things that exist in the world and looking at the corners of it, like: ‘what could we do?’, or ‘what could be improved or flipped on its head?’ To actually be involved in that sort of process, that’s the enjoyment – you’re building into this family tree of a musical idea that was started a long time ago.”

Features:

• Two independent oscillator banks with up to 16 saw waves per bank
• Four-corner X/Y Morpher for continuously blending between four stored sound states
• Chord mode for generating harmonized voicings
• Scale and quantize functions for constraining note output
• Adjustable detune, spread, width, and retrigger parameters for each oscillator bank
• Per-voice glide controls
• Per-voice pitch offset controls
• Stereo motion controls
• Low-pass, band-pass, and high-pass filter modes
• Selectable two-pole and four-pole filter slopes
• Built-in chorus effect
• Built-in delay effect
• Built-in reverb effect
• Mono and polyphonic operating modes
• Factory preset library covering leads, pads, chords, glides, and experimental textures
• Integration with Komplete Kontrol keyboards
• Integration with Maschine hardware and software

Super*Saw is available now for macOS and Windows in VST3/AU formats, and is priced at US$99 / €99.