Yes it costs a bit, but you get what you pay for; quality is better then quantity. And this is sure as hell quality and worth every penny.

Used to have a TR-808 that I sold to pay for the MachineDrum (plus change left over) and I have not regretted it for a moment yet.

I use this in my rig, playing it live and sequencing an Access Virus with it. A killer combination.

Sometimes the red screen can get a wee touch hard on the eyes, but using a virus as well, guess I'm used to the red ;)

Add to that the fact that the guys at Elektron are genuinly nice guys and were very helpful with all my questions. I hope I will never need their tech support, but if I do, I'm sure they will be good.

Bottom line:

Buy it, you won't regret it. And even if you do, the resale on these puppies is so high. You want quality kit, get the MachineDrum, you want a 808 or 909? Buy that, but you would have made the wrong choice.

Seriously an awesome machine!

If you have the moola then buy it its the last drum machine youll ever need.

Some of the synthesis controls (for individual drum "machines") don't seem to do much, though. The reverb is kinda tin can sounding (like an old midiverb) and I wish there was some way to offset individual steps in the sequencer besides the swing control (so I can "drag" just the snare- swing is global to all tracks in a sequence which is not what I want). There's also no way to do triplets or flams (except by using the e12 machine retrig parameters). So I'll need an external sequencer for that stuff. On the other hand, this is the only xox style sequencer I've seen that can do odd time signatures, and even compound time sequencers via song mode. Kudos to the song mode- it's set up like a tracker, has loop and jump commands, programmable mutes, and be jumped around in live. Very cool. What's beyond cool is that you can do pretty much everything without stopping the sequencer...you can load an entirely new kit, with different effect settings, and it doesn't hiccup. The sound? Amazing. Completely blows away any sample-based drum machine I've tried (incl. the RY30, R8, 309, and MPC2000) and pretty much cancels the plans I had to pick up a Vermona or Airbase.

Is it worth the money? Depends. If you want the best, this is it. If you like Aphex Twin, Download, Squarepusher et al get out your credit card now. If hip-hop is your game, you can make Timberland beats on this without breaking a sweat. Want to get away from running a DAT tape at the gig? This is your ticket. You can trigger a sampler with it. Are you poor? I am, and after selling a bunch of gear I didn't need, it was down to this, or a laptop and Ableton. I like synthesis and fine control over my sound, so I went with this. I'm eating peanut butter this month, and couldn't be happier.