Hi slutz,

I was looking at purchasing a Maschinemk2, and I was wondering if you could get sounds like this?

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=HBBcjgIUoeA

The chord part fades in at 2:12. Are these considered chord stabs?

Maschine is a controller. The Maschine software is comparable to a DAW. It comes with a set of included plugins that are sold by Native Instruments; I believe one of those is Massive. mk2 is already a few years old, so I'm assuming you're buying it secondhand. When you buy it, make sure that the seller transfers the license to your name properly, because the software or licenses can't be sold separately. Ask Native Instruments support or check the user forum to confirm this; I believe some people got burned by not handling this properly so they only got a controller.

Massive can make chord stabs without a problem! However, the process of making such stabs should be seen as a recipe that allows a lot of leeway. You don't necessarily need Massive for this; lots of other plugins and hardware are very suitable for this.

Attached is a short demo of a simple Massive patch with a swept bandpass filter doing chord stabs. Also attached is the Massive preset itself. For delay, I'm using Ableton Live's built-in delay effect.

Thanks a lot for the info! I was going to buy it new. Dumb question, but do those sound like stabs to you in the linked song? Is there a recommended midi controller that has a “chord” function like maschine or komplete kontrol?

If you are just starting and want ton of more mainstream synth sounds like that I like Korg Gadget VSTs. From there branch out with hardware or more complex synth VST.

Classificiation and categorization of sounds in general is tricky. When someone talks about a "stab", I take they mean a short sound with zero attack time - i.e. hitting a key immediately puts the sound at full volume, and it only lasts for a brief time.

Chord stabs in electronic dance music can also be achieved by sampling a chord from existing music - check https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2r1h2XmWXBI

Instead of MIDI controllers, you can find much more flexibility and variety in plugins that play chords based on the notes you put in. https://xferrecords.com/products/cthulhu does this.

That way you can pick your favorite controller and solve it in software.