With the official announcement due to come later today or later this week, Native Instruments have quietly made the latest 2.3 update for Maschine available via the NI Service Center. There's tons of improvements as well as new (read, FREE) instruments and effects. (You see, NI do love you!)

Here's what Keir from NI has posted on the NI forums about Maschine 2.3:

The update will include the following improvements:

USABILITY IMPROVEMENTS:

• Empty Sounds are exported as MIDI when exporting Group Patterns. (ie. Sound one is always on MIDI channel one, sound two is always on MIDI channel two, sound three is always on MIDI channel three and so on, even if the group contains sounds with no MIDI.)
  
• Komplete Kontrol Keyboards can now be connected to a Maschine instance using a toolbar icon.
  
• MIDI input options have changed. "None" now actually means none (ie. no MIDI input even if the sound is in focus), and a new "Focus" entry has been added which allows MIDI input only when the sound is focused.
  
• Scene changes can now be recorded in the DAW.
  
• It is now possible to navigate between plugin slots when in the browser by pressing SHIFT.
  
• A timer has been added to the page numbers on the Maschine classic HW, meaning that the page number no longer blocks the display of sections names.
  
• Macros and plugin parameters can now be cut and pasted between pages, as well as renamed.
  
• Plugin pages can now be cleared and deleted.
  
• Events can now be quantized from the software (using the right click context menu in the pattern area)
  
• Root note is automatically selected when slicing sounds to a new group (partial fix for a bug introduced in 2.2)
  
• NIS roundtrip (saving presets in KK will update Maschine and the standalone version of the plugins browser with the preset)
  

NEW INSTRUMENTS AND EFFECTS:

• A new "Analog" mode has been added to the distortion module (based on the Skreamer module in Guitar Rig). The old distortion is the "Mulholland" mode.
  
• A new Cabient Emulation effect has been added (based on control room from Guitar Rig)
  
• A new "Breaker" engine has been added to the snare drumsynth.
  
• A new "High" engine has been added to the Tom drumsynth.
  
• A new "Cymbal" drumsynth has been added, with two modes "Crash" and "Ride".
  
• A new "Hybrid" engine has been added to the Hi-Hat module.
  
• The limiter has been updated. The old limiter is available as a "Legacy" mode.
  
• Two new reverb modes have been added "Hall" and "Room". The plate reverb has been moved, so it is in the reverb module. The old reverb has been renamed as "Reverb (Legacy)"
  

Learn about the new Analog mode:

SHARED CHANGES FROM KOMPLETE KONTROL 1.1

• PluginHost refactoring
  
• Arp Hold added
  
• Scale Key Mode "Guide"
  
• Master/Sound Volume Control added
  
• Octave Display added
  
• Touchstrip Modes "Tempo", "Spring" and "Stepped"
  
• Touchstrip Controller Page added
  
• Kontakt Key Switch String Display
  
• Foldable Tag Clouds functionality added
  
• Common Abbreviations Update
  

KOMPLETE SELECT

MASCHINE 2.3 also includes KOMPLETE SELECT '" a premium selection of instruments and effects (free for all registered MASCHINE 2 software users):

• MASSIVE - definitive synth for basses and leads
  
• MONARK '" iconic monophonic syntheisizer
  
• THE GENTLEMAN'" vintage upright piano
  
• DRUMLAB '" acoustic and electronic drums
  
• REAKTOR PRISM '" vibrant modal synth and effects
  
• SCARBEE MARK I '" classic electric piano
  
• RETRO MACHINES '" vintage analog synth and keyboards
  
• VINTAGE ORGANS '" five drawbar legends reborn
  
• WEST AFRICA '" polyrhythmic percussion and melodies
  
• SOLID BUS COMP '" versatile compressor effect
  

An overview of Komplete Select:

Watch & Learn Maschine 2.3 Explored at AskVideo

Web: NI Maschine 2.3 (this page hadn't yet been updated at time of writing)