Hope you don't mind if I hijack Pabs's thread a little bit here. I have similar interests, and am similarly clueless about where to start. Say I pick up a Maschine Mikro or an MPD26 (preference? I feel like you're gonna say Maschine, but the Akai is $150 cheaper and I don't have an iAnything); how do become this guy?
Hijack away. Shigeto uses an MPD26 and Ableton Live. https://www.ableton.com/en/live/new-in-9/ Looks like $500 for Ableton and $200 for a controller. Maschine Mikro: $350 (or less, from Audiodeluxe, but they seem out of stock), includes Maschine, the software that makes things happen. Me? I'd buy a used Maschine Mikro on eBay, mess with it, download a trial of Ableton, mess with it, and decide which software is more intuitive for you. If you want to spend another $500 on Ableton, you totally can. 'cuz Maschine will totally work with Ableton.