Dubbed the Maschine Studio, it sports a somewhat sturdier, bulkier build than the other Maschine products. Visible on the trailer is a large jog wheel that would make navigating/browsing less of a pain, although it does cause the overall form factor to increase significantly. What gets me drooling all over though, is the inclusion of two high-res, colored screen that replaces the old LCD display. Everything, from scenes and their patterns, waveform editing, plugin view, are displayed beautifully and in great detail.

Is this a declaration of war to Ableton and its Push controller? Time will tell.

Granted, they are both designed for use in an entirely different manner – Live/Push is more about sequencing while Maschine Studio is more about live drumming/triggering. Still though, both competes in finding the middle ground between unlocking live performance potentials along with increasing studio productivity for artists. We have predicted before that such hardware/software combination will be gaining momentum and the day might be fast approaching.

The good: Full software control, Maschine 2.0, Superb onscreen display.
The bad: $999 is a steep price. For something that looks that fat.
The question: The same display for the next Maschine/Maschine Micro? Please?