Setup instructions for the Maschine Mk1 controller with Maschine 2 on macOS Catalina 10.15.7

maschine-mk1-macos-10-15-7.md

Setup instructions for the Maschine Mk1 controller with Maschine 2 on macOS Catalina 10.15.7

Background

I wanted to open my old Maschine projects created prior to travel in 2015. I picked up a second hand Maschine Mk1 for a good price.

There are compatability issues between Maschine Mk1 and macOS Catalina 10.15.7

Onboarding

License Transfer

As this is a second hand product, the old owner has organised a license transfer. Without this step, the Mk1 would just be a glorified MIDI controller.

The old owner has forwarded Native Instruments' (NI's) reply to his support request to me. I head over to http://www.native-instruments.com/complete-transfer/ and paste in my transfer ID.

I already have the Native Access download manager installed, to manage the software for my Traktor controllers. I open it and click Add a serial.

This works but there's no link to download the Maschine software.

Controller activation

Plugging the controller in, there's nothing on its two LCD screens. I think historically it is supposed to show something even when the Maschine software is not running.

Googling this, I find that the Maschine Mk1 controller is not supported by macOS 10.15

macOS 10.15 (Catalina) - Compatibility with Native Instruments Products

This is a WTF moment. Thankfully a bit more hunting reveals more useful information.

I got Maschine MK1 Hardware to work with MacOS Catalina (here's how)

I just downloaded the "MASCHINE Controller Driver 2.8.0 - Mac OS X 10.9 - 10.11" Controller Driver software, even thought I am running MacOS 10.15.7 Catalina:

https://www.native-instruments.com/en/support/downloads/drivers-other-files/

After the install process, it fails as described, but I just rebooted the machine. Then I saw the "System extension blocked" dialog pop up and I allowed the extension. After that, opening the "Controller Editor" software from NI caused the Maschine to light up and it's all systems go :)

I follow these instructions and the LCDs now light up to show that the controller is recognised by the system but Maschine is not running yet.

Maschine 2 software download

The Maschine Mk1 box comes with installer CDs, but my 2018 Macbook Pro doesn't have an optical drive.

There's also a link somewhere to https://www.native-instruments.com/en/specials/maschine-setup/, which recommends using Native Access to download software.

Native Instruments has now sent me two emails, Download links for your Native Instruments order.

Thanks for your recent purchase or registration of your new product.

Your included software is now available to download via Native Access – just sign in, and you’ll see it waiting for you

All your downloads and your order history are listed in My Account.

My Account page is at https://www.native-instruments.com/en/my-account/my-products-serials-downloads/.

The first email mentions KOMPLETE SELECT Maschine 2 Update for Maschine

The seond email mentions Native Browser Preview Library.

I head over to my account page and download this file, which in hindsight is the wrong one (it's not the 'update'): MASCHINE incl. Komplete Elements - Maschine.iso

This download silently fails in Google Chrome 87.0.4280.141 (Official Build) (x86_64).

There's a Help widget on that page, but it doesn't offer any relevant suggestions. Nor is there any mention of macOS Catalina compatability issues in either the page or the download modal.

However a glance at the developer console shows this message:

Mixed Content: The site at 'https://www.native-instruments.com/' was loaded over a secure connection, but the file at 'http://protected-cdn-ec.native-instruments.com/direct/Maschine.iso?Pp7LNgj2YjR8tgv_mrcYH4xJpGSeQCT4LJe__bZ5wEqItDXTa0GepijeBcNbNaVQWKwgbnt_eVU23sOhRfQX6y9TPzZMXtMSkX9uvwUxrWpF6A&token=6b19890a0fe1ea915e0a16ad174b83dd&tstamp=5fff3ade&_ga=2.9045237.11457054.1610516745-1197670262.1599202269' was redirected through an insecure connection. This file should be served over HTTPS. This download has been blocked. See https://blog.chromium.org/2020/02/protecting-users-from-insecure.html for more details.

This is easily solved by opening a new tab and downloading http://protected-cdn-ec.native-instruments.com/direct/Maschine.iso?... directly.

The file is massive - 5-6GB. Actually, most of this is the Factory Library.

After the download has finished, I launch the installer and after a few steps it fails. The installer does not support my current version of macOS. There is no advice about what to do about this.

Installing Maschine 2 and the Maschine 2 Factory Library

When Native will be ready for macOS 10.15 Catalina ?

I get on to Google and find a helpful post from Marshall Thompson in the NI forums thread. Following these instructions I am able to download Maschine 2 (2.12.1, 252MB) and Maschine 2 Factory Library (1.3.5, 5.63GB) via Native Access.

I recently purchased Komplete 12 Ultimate Collector's Edition and had things working great. Then I had to get a new computer with Catalina installed. After a month (ish) of trying to get Native Access and Maschine running with OS X Catalina, I finally got things to work. I used the following steps:

1. Run "sudo spctl --master-disable" in a terminal window to deactivate the macOS X Gatekeeper. (Thanks to Davis Jork, above, for this part)
2. Open System Preferences > Security & Privacy > Privacy (tab) and select "Full Disk Access" in the left pane. Check the box for Native Access. See the below screenshot. Screen Shot 2019-11-08 at 6.57.03 PM.jpg
3. If your plugins are installed on an external drive, you may need to rename the external drive. My plugins are all installed on a 1TB external SSD, so I had to perform this step to get things working. My drive was called "Marshall 1TB" and I renamed it to "MusicProduction". To rename, right-click on the drive in the left sidebar of finder and select the option to rename.
4. Open Native Access and install or repair each plugin / application that requires it.
5. Run "sudo spctl --master-enable" in a terminal window to enable the security gatekeeper, again. (Again thanks to Davis Jork)
6. Open Open System Preferences > Security & Privacy > General (tab) and select "App Store and identified developers". Screen Shot 2019-11-08 at 7.02.03 PM.jpg

All above steps were necessary for things to work. I was able to repair broken modules and install all remaining modules. Number 7, below, is a personal preference to avoid possible future issues.

7. Go back into System Preferences > Security & Privacy > Privacy (tab) and select "Full Disk Access" in the left pane. Check the box for all remaining Native Instruments products. Maschine was actually working before I performed this step, but it makes sense to me to avoid possible issues in the future by allowing all Native Instruments products to access hard disks.

These applications are automatically installed after download, and the installer automatically deletes itself afterwards.

Opening old Maschine 1 projects (.mprj) in Maschine 2 (.mxprj)

The final hurdle was Maschine 2 could not open my .mprj Maschine 1 projects.

If I double click an .mprj file. Maschine 1 opens. But I cannot save the project as the software is not licensed.

How to Import MASCHINE 1 Projects In MASCHINE 2

I Google again, and find a thread (??) which links me to this article.

Unfortunately, MASCHINE 1 projects can only be imported in MASCHINE 2 up to version 2.8.7. Please follow these steps in order to temporarily downgrade to MASCHINE 2.8.7 and import your MASCHINE 1 projects in MASCHINE 2:

Downgrade to MASCHINE 2.8.7:

1. Download the installer for your operating system:

MASCHINE 2.8.7 for Mac

MASCHINE 2.8.7 for Windows

2. Run the installer and follow the instructions.

Import your MASCHINE 1 project in MASCHINE 2:

1. Start MASCHINE 2 standalone from:

Mac: Macintosh HD > Applications > Native Instruments

Windows: C: > Program Files > Native Instruments

2. Select File > Import Maschine 1.x Format...
3. Navigate to the main folder that contains all of your MASCHINE 1 user content. By default, the MASCHINE 1 user content path is:

Mac: Documents > Native Instruments > Maschine

Win: C: > Users > Username > My Documents > Native Instruments > Maschine

4. Select the main Maschine folder and click Choose:

In order to see your imported MASCHINE 1 user content in MASCHINE 2's browser, make sure to select the Library Tab and set the Content Selector to User:

After conversion, each .mprj Maschine 1 project file has been joined by a .mxprj file for Maschine 2.

These .mxprj files load fine in Maschine 2 and I can save them.

Presumably I can upgrade from Maschine 2.8.7 to Maschine 2.12.1 when I don't need to import any more Maschine 1 projects.

Using Maschine 2

It's been 6 years since I used Maschine and I'm quite disorientated. I suspect that the latest software is optimised for the latest controllers and that perhaps it's not very usable on the old gear which NI cannot properly support.

However after a few hours of experimentation and YouTubing I'm starting to get the hang of it again. This controller may not be the latest and greatest, but it's still fun - and most importantly it works :)

MIDI Mapping Rebirth running on Windows 10 (in VMware Fusion)

rtpMIDI transmits MIDI over the local network.

Rebirth > Edit > Preferences > MIDI Input > Remote MIDI Control > Use Standard Mapping

Controls which can be mapped are listed in the Standard MIDI Mapping Tables shown from page 194 of the Propellerhead ReBirth 2.0.1 Owner's Manual

In Maschine, macros can be used to MIDI map external gear (including the VM via rtpMIDI) within the Maschine 2 software. The benefit of this approach is that controls can be automated using the Maschine software sequencer.

Agreed - even more years later. Still works in OS15.6 Catalina just be wary of the new Tahoe upgrade which will end support for older NI Hardware indefinitely.

Interesting post. I've been using Maschine and the MK1 Controller since 2010. Maschine 3 doesn't support the MK1 Controller, so I am focussing on Maschine 2 instead.

Thanks to Claude AI I figured out that the Maschine MK1 Controller Driver installer fails on macOS Catalina and newer because one of its post-install scripts relies on a 32-bit/PPC-only helper binary (pathhelper) that can no longer be executed, since macOS 10.15+ dropped support for 32-bit applications. This component is only responsible for writing installation-path preferences and placing documentation — it is not part of the actual driver. The installer therefore reports a failure even though the driver kext and MIDI plugin have already been successfully copied to disk.

So if SIP is disabled, the MK1 Controller still works in Maschine 2 on Sequoia and earlier.

However, on macOS Tahoe, the kext no longer loads. Manually attempting to load it (sudo kmutil load -p /Library/Extensions/NIUSBMaschineController.kext) returns:

Unable to resolve dependencies: 'com.caiaq.driver.NIUSBMaschineControllerDriver' names a dependency on 'com.apple.iokit.IOUSBFamily', which was not found.

I confirmed the cause: IOUSBFamily.kext — Apple's long-deprecated legacy USB stack, superseded by IOUSBHostFamily — is still present at /System/Library/Extensions/IOUSBFamily.kext on Sequoia, but has been removed entirely on Tahoe. So this isn't an old, long-standing removal — Apple appears to have finally dropped the legacy USB family specifically in Tahoe, which is what broke the MK1 driver.

At this point I don't see a way to get the original kext working on Tahoe short of someone recompiling/patching it against IOUSBHostFamily. NI has released newer drivers, but they don't cover the original MK1 hardware. If anyone knows of an updated or community-patched build of this kext, or has had different luck, I'd like to hear about it.

Other Useful Stuff:

Maschine 2 Legacy Installers for Older Operating Systems: https://support.native-instruments.com/support/solutions/articles/69000879558-maschine-2-legacy-installers-for-older-operating-systems

NI Products Copatibility on macOS: https://support.native-instruments.com/support/solutions/articles/69000879296-compatibility-of-native-instruments-products-on-macos

@LuminousVelocity Thanks, I am avoiding Tahoe as I also have a Traktor S8. After Tahoe even my Intel Macbook isn't supported anymore. Must be getting old..

@5T33Z0 Thanks for the investigation!

I just reinstalled Maschine 2.8.7 on Sequoia 15.7.9 using my existing copy of the 2.8.7 installer.

I also installed the 2.8.0 Maschine Controller which got to the end of the installation process and announced that it failed.

Regardless the Mk1 controller is working with Maschine 2 again.