I have sold my Maschine, because it was too complex for my needs. But I can say: It was 'nearly' stable. I also had versions, that crashed, but NI brings out updates in time. Also what I disliked about the Maschine, was the scanning precedure for libraries (mostly done after updates or adding new libs) - it sometimes lasted up to half an hour....
But once done it ran.
As I said, for me the 'DAW' like GUI of the software was way too overloaded for me (and a few things about operation in Maschine, are - let's say quite NI specific).
So I still hope, that Arturia awakes and aknowledges what great Product they have in their product line - they should first focus on debugging and stability and THEN think about implementation of new features.
The amount of functions in this software is exactly what I was looking for and the 'out of the box' sounds are really usable, inspiring.
The only thing that is sad is the support not taking notice of my trouble till now.
I don't expect the solution from the support team within seconds, but a personal mail from support like this: 'we have received your mail, and I will look into your subject in a few hours/days/weeks/month/years...' would be great and helpful.
I totally agree with you in every single point. The pro, the issues and the hopes.
I used Maschine Mikro to a friend's studio, I wanted to buy it, but yes, it goes far beyond being a drum machine, and this generates a complexity that wasn't required by me at the time. I wanted first of all a drum machine with a good sequencer integration, and Spark was THE drum machine I needed. Its sound didn't die in the mix as others do. I love this! But than came this unlucky update (at least for us PC+Cubase users) and most of all Arturia behavior, in combination with the start of a new project, made me think again at Maschine. I want to start a Psy-Chill project aimed for live execution first of all, and for this, I think Maschine in standalone is perfect. We also tried to open the Virus TI interface inside, record midi and than resample it quickly by usb-audio and works...wow... For fast building this new project, this will be a killer feature! Than, ok, if it's stable enought, I'll use it as drum machine inside Cubase. If not, I'll go back to the included groove agent that always works, and end of the story.
In software, nothing is perfect, higher the complexity, more the bugs. And sequencer + software + hardware are a complex ecosystem of technology.
But there's not only technology, there is also people making it and using it.
If I enter a forum signaling bugs in really basic functions that worked before, "your OS is not supported" is just an excuse to not give me support, and even worst is the silence after that the same bugs has been reported by other users on a supported OS.
Saying ok guys, we'll try to fix it would be enought.
On the contrary, to me, silence SPEAKS: we don't give a fuck. And this is quite arrogant.
And I don't like to deal with arrogance. That's why I turn my head somewhere else, at first.