Native Instruments Maschine
A new addition to the studio: Maschine - the hardware MIDI controller, sampler, "groovebox", step sequencer, FX unit, etc, etc from Native Instruments. User-customizable Controller templates allow you to set-up the knobs, pads and buttons to remotely control software instruments such as Massive and Battery - and even DAW's such as Ableton Live.
Beat-making, MPC-style is straight-forward, and after some file-management of various template files I've successfully done sessions in Ableton Live 7 switching effortlessly between Maschine control, controlling Massive and firing clips in Ableton itself.
The hardware build-quality is extremely impressive - especially considering the unit is retailing for around £600 UKP. The Sound Library - as you'd expect from a company such as NI is very extensive - with many (80%?) of the sounds exclusive to Maschine.
There is some confusion as to it's functionality - it's such a multi-purpose unit, I guess that's inevitable. The main complaint seems to be the lack of MIDI exporting of Maschine's own sequencing data. However - this will hopefully be addressed in a future update. For now - the audio is captured via routing of virtual outputs into any DAW.
I've only had the unit for 2 days, so will report back with various findings over the next few weeks. Of particular interest will be any latency issues when using Maschine as a plug-in within DAW's, the extent of custom built templates for controlling software (the Ableton control is fairly limited at present - and there is no visual feedback when navigating around the Arrange view).
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