>If Akai ever teamed up with, say, Yamaha and created a 100%
>stand alone (with computer integration as a bonus, not a
>necessity) MPC that included the sound and fx engines of the
>Motif series, a big SSHD and a VGA/HDMI port with a decent
>GUI, well, that would be a blistering shot of napalm that
>would pull a sizable portion of the Maschine market. I think
>I'd be among them.

Korg Trinity w/Sampling expansion. Truthfully, a Trinity with every option loaded is *still* a formidable piece of hardware.

Korg Trinity
Yamaha EX5/EX7
Yamaha Motif (the original joint)
Yamaha RS7000
Ensoniq ASR-X/ASR-X Pro (when loaded with an MR-series card)
Roland Fantom series (IIRC most, but not all, Fantom boards had sampling built-in)

Roland came really close to what you're talking about with the MV8800. Sequencer, audio recording, sampling, and a VGA out for a better experience, but it didn't have a synth engine.

>
>>I was one of the earliest cats on the MPD16+DAW shits. It
>was
>>cool, especially when I paired it up with FL Studio, but I
>>still missed the focus I had when I was using an ASR-X
>(which
>>I've always preferred over the MPC).
>
>I was disappointed with the MPD 32 personally. It was great
>for banging out drums and very basic mixing, but otherwise it
>was actually a workflow distraction. I use Cubase so perhaps
>it functioned better with FL, but it was a lackluster
>experience overall. Cubase with a Nektar P4/5 was far better
>and Maschine completely destroyed it.

I also used Cubase with my MPD16, but I used Battery for my drum sampler under Cubase. FL Studio has a module called FPD which is similar to Battery but much faster to work with (and it's got 16 outs, which is dope).