I bought this because I dislike making music on computers, and because it crosses off so many boxes for me: midi-hub and -controller, a great sampler, drum pads, audio recording, sequencer, a decent keyboard, etc; this has a much more hands-on interface, with the many knobs, drum pads, and touch screen. I run my instruments (guitar, bass, microphones, synths) into a mixer, and then into the MPC for recording. The workflow can be overwhelming at first because it does so many things, so until you get the hang of it at times you'll accidentally switch some setting on or off and wonder what caused the sound to mute, etc, sending you on a Google chase, but the interface is fast and responsive, and I was knocking out some beats and tunes in no time. Compared to a DAW, the downside might be that some things about the workflow will seem unintuitive, and if you make complex tunes you'll have to consider how you manage the constraints (128 midi tracks max, but only 8 tracks with plugins and 8 tracks of audio max). Akai is bringing out a major update soon that, AFAIK, grants the MPC more features akin to both more traditional sequential workflow of DAWs, as well as features similar to Ableton/Force. Workmanship seems solid all around, the semi-weighted keybed is fine for something that has to play a lot more than just piano sounds. I chose this version MPC because it comes with lots of plugin instruments that would otherwise cost a fortune. These all sound excellent, especially the pianos and e-pianos. It comes with various synth plugins that are decent, but I bought the Mini-D plugin to get that oldschool sound. It also comes with countless drumkits and samples that are fine, but cater to a certain genre of music (hiphop, trap, house, etc). I use it for synth/ambient music as well as traditional poprock. All in all, a lot of value for money, if you can dig the Akai workflow and being locked into their eco-system.
