Native Instruments Maschine continues to be a popular choice with hip hop producers and if you’re looking to pack out your Maschine with ready to go hip hop sounds then here are 5 of the best. Note that I’ve carefully selected a few different styles of hip hop here so there is something to suit all tastes.
If you’re a beginner at music production avoid the temptation to pack out your Maschine with a million samples and presets – a few carefully selected expansions are all you need to get started.
My top 5 Hip Hop Maschine Expansions 2021:
- DJ Khalil
- Crate Cuts
- Pure Drip
- Street Swarm
- Magnetic Coast
DJ Khalil Artist Expansion
If you’re looking to get started making hip hop op on your Maschine then getting hold of ready to go sounds, loops and projects from a DJ and Producer who has worked with the likes of 50 Cent, Pink, ASAP Rocky, Drake, Eminem, G-Unit and many more is a no-brainer.
For your hard earned bucks you get 185 loops, 215 drum samples, 115 one-shots, 25 Maschine kits (all named after neighborhoods in LA where Khalil grew up) , 7 Projects and 105 patterns and more. There’s enough content here to inspire albums worth of material and it’s a genuine thrill to be able to fire up projects created by Khalil himself and tear them down and inspect how they were put together – this is about as close to working with a L.A. producer as I am ever likely to get!
As well as drum hits you get samples from Khalil’s own synth collection, quality recordings of live musicians, vocal cuts, melodies and a treasure trove of useful sound effects that could find easily a place on your next beat or track.
There’s a vintage and nostalgic vibe to much of this material so it’s a great choice if you’re scoring for movies, adverts or games set in the 90s – you could easily create an entire movie score with this one expansion!
Crate Cuts
Crate Cuts was produced by the London based award winning composer/produce Jamie Wilder.
Forget spending months trawling charity shops looking for vinyl you can sample – and then worrying about copyright issues – this expansion is bursting with useful loops – 526 in total – so if your next project requires jazzy guitars and gentle piano melodies then you can’t go wrong with Crate Cuts.
Beyond the loops there is everything you need to create authentic sounding beats and soundtracks. The 367 individual drum samples here should keep even the most hard working hip hop heads going for months or years.
The drum sunds are useful for a wide variety of Hip Hop and down tempo music projects although the focus is clearly on the warmer, chilled and lofi end of the spectrum. If you’re looking to evoke warm Summer evening vibes then Crate Cuts has you covered but look elsewhere if you’re hoping to produce a filthy, in your face, Run the Jewels style club banger (check out Pure Drip below in that case!)
Pure Drip
Moving away from the more chilled out and vintage vibes of Crate Cuts, my next pick is Pure Drip created by Grammy Award winning producer and writer Snipe Young. Pure Drip is all about powerful 808 beats and dirty melodies. Forget harking back to the late 80s or early 90s – this is the sound of the 2020s!
Moving effortlessly between the world’s of trap, hip hop, and pop this expansion is a great choice if you’re looking to create contemporary, hard-hitting, down tempo club music in any number of modern styles.
The Pure Drip expansion delivers 50 Maschine kits, 481 drum samples, 467 loops and 33 one-shots sounds. You also get 9 useful Maschine projects and 193 patterns to kick start your next hit record (or your next 800 unfinished FL Studio projects!)
Street Swarm
It’s back to the 90s with the Street Swarm Hip hop expansion, also from Snipe Young. The focus here is on 90s New York hip hop vibes and what could be done with a legendary SP-1200 sampler. Snipe takes inspiration from the sound sources that inspired producers back in the 90s including the sounds of cult 70s movies and the music of composers such as Isaac Hayes and Herbie Hancock.
Street Swarm is packed with sounds that are raw, urban, funky and fierce – loops, Boom-Bap drums and a plethora of one shots with enough punch to be heard over the sounds of wailing police sirens and the hustle and bustle of every day in the city that never sleeps!
For those times when your beats need to be funky and dirty, Street Swarm is a fantastic source of dusty sampled keyboards, horns, synth stabs, bass lines and licks all organized by key and dripping with attitude.
This expansion will keep you digging for inspiring sounds and presets for a long time and it is perfect for all you movie score and video game composers who are working on creating pastiches of 70s soundtracks.
Word on the mean streets is that Street Swarm is a stash of 289 loops, 480 drum hits, 189 one shots and 50 ready to go Maschine kits plus 20 sampled instruments.
Magnetic Coast
For my 5th pick I’m leaving behind the grime and dirt of New York City and heading to the coast. Native Instruments state that Magnetic Coast is inspired by the likes of Flying Lotus, NxWorries and Smino, amongst others, and the loops and drum kits capture that more relaxed vibe nicely.
Where Street Swarm is capable of evoking scenes of inner-city action, cop cars and shady characters, Magnetic Coast’s sounds conjure up an atmosphere of beautiful people soaking up the sun, convertibles cruising along palm tree lined roads and slow dances with soul mates. This pack is all about creating those 2am Summer night, good time vibes.
There is a danger with a pack of sounds like this that you get a decent but somewhat anodyne collection of sounds but there’s so much useful material to work with here that the potential to get creative is limited only by your imagination.
When you need to create any kind of down tempo music that evokes sunshine and good times, rather than the hustle and bustle of city life, then Magnetic Coast makes a great jumping off point.
Magnetic Coast features 396 loops, 374 drum samples, 344 one shots and 46 Maschine kits. There are 8 projects to play around with and 140 patterns plus you get sampled instruments, Massive presets and Monark presets too.