It's definitely been awhile since I have posted... For what it's worth, here is my .02
I use to only be a software guy like back during the beginning days of fruity loops then for a short time I borrowed a friends mpc200xl. Many years later, Roland dropped the MV then the 8800 which I copped and have to this day. I was an earlier Maschine adopter and fell in love, and have loved maschine ever since.
However about a year after MPC Ren and Studio came out, I decided to finally give MPC a chance and man o man I sure am happy that I did. I since have given my Maschine to my friend and work solely on the REN to this day. Granted is was slow rolling from the start, but where it's at right now, imo, is pretty amazing. I had no idea that I would use the 16 Qlinks soooo much and have actually become a staple in my work flow. I have not to this day seen a faster way to chop samples ever.
The first column of Qlinks, in samples moves 1000, 100, 10, 1 for adjusting the start point then the 2nd column does the same for the end point and the 3rd column does the same for loop point. I may be wrong about the 1000, 100, 10, 1 but it something close to that from going to course to fine adjustments. There is no quicker way to trim samples that I have ever seen. Then the bottom right corner of the Qlinks allows for zoom and timeline movement. It really is an amazingly fast way to work to keep the creativity flowing. Also, the rather new list editor is absolutely awesome for fine adjustments and moving things around to experiment.
Granted, I have not kept up with Maschine developement as I have been too busy mastering my REN which is also why I have not yet dabbled with the Touch either. As of today, I absolutely love my REN and those dedicated Qlinks are really awesome for reasons already stated plus adjusting internal effects and 3rd party effects plugins as well. I am not a fan of the internal audio interface, so I just dropped a quick $99 on a Presonus Audio Box, and that with Studio One is my perfect combo for complete tracks where I then record my vocals. MPC REN + AudioBox + Studio One + plugins = full of win!!!
and relatively inexpensive at that! Many other combinations of gear/software that are awesome as well, but this is what works amazingly well for me! I hope that helps