The work flow is amazing to me... If you have ever used Reason the only way I can explain Maschine is that the MPC1000 and Reason hooked up and made a baby called Maschine.... hahahaha! Sampling, slicing / chopping samples is way faster unless you have the JJOS's then it's close. Also very similar to a Roland MV8800... with the hardware / software combo. Maschine does rely on a decent computer to run as well... Where the MPC needs power and headphones. With Maschine you need a laptop / desktop, headphones and your good to go...
I am very happy so far with Maschine and for years wondered why Akai never ventured to the software hardware route... I had the idea about 6 years ago when I bought my MPC1000. There was a program called BlueBox that I thought would have been dope if it was an exact software version of the MPC1000. Wish it was... Maybe sometime very soon Akai will be releasing a beast to compete with Maschine??? Either way, this is the mark of the future of what we all do!