Native Instruments today announced the availability of a new expansion for Maschine. ‘Raw Voltage’ is a collection of samples, kits and instruments that recreate the sound of a large scale modular synthesizer, bringing that special character of true analog to the Maschine environment. Here’s how NI describe the expansion on their website:

RAW VOLTAGE puts the unmistakable sound of a huge modular system into your MASCHINE. From noisy and distorted to cool and clinical, this MASCHINE Expansion is packed full of kits, instruments and patterns sharing the unmistakable sound character of rich and organic analog synthesis.
NI’s Webpage =>

Priced at $59 it contains 355mb of goodies divided into 11 projects, 44 kits and 38 instruments / sounds. Reasonably priced for the contents in my opinion.

Listening to the demo tracks on the NI site the expansion sounds solid, but I can’t help asking my self if the Arturia Analog Factory / Lab isn’t a better option if you are looking for great old school analog sounds.

The Arturia packages comes with an awesome controller and presets in the thousands that can all serve as a starting point for your own creations. I’ve found that running the Factory as a VSTi within Maschine is my definite go-to for those types of sounds, and with the controller and the dedicated software I can easily spend hours just tweaking and building sounds. Still I guess you loose some of the convenience that a dedicated Maschine expansion brings, and the Arturia package might be a bit overkill if you are just looking to add a few analog sounding touches…

If you want me to do a more in depth review / comparison let me know :)