Trent Reznor

Trent Reznor rocking the Akai Pro MPD32 with Nine Inch Nails (NIN); shown clearly in photo from start of this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mWH_4UZ_mfQ.

at 0:50, Trent is seen using this controller

NIN using Livid Instruments CNTRL:R on their new tour.

In the video provided by Nine Inch Nails on YouTube, Trent Reznor is seen using the Monome Grid 256 MIDI controller in the studio, which is connected to a piano (timestamp 30:5).

In the video titled "Nine Inch Nails - Happiness In Slavery - October 26, 2018 - Aragon Ballroom, Chicago," at the timestamp 4:40, you can see Trent Reznor using an Akai MPD232 MIDI pad controller to trigger samples. This performance, part of the band's 2018 tour "Cold and Black and Infinite," was documented by Serfi on YouTube.

In this YouTube video taken at a Nine Inch Nails show in 2025, at the very beginning the Ableton Push 3 is seen from the back, sitting directly in front of Trent Reznor on top of his piano (seen clearly at 0:57 as the camera steadies and comes more into focus). You can see the connections on the back of the Push unit with the Ableton logo, which matches the configuration of Push 3.

In plenty of other videos from the same tour (2025-2026 Peel It Back tour) you can see the front, and it appears that he is using it to trigger scenes using the scene buttons. (see 8:30 here: https://youtu.be/fhhNyPkKibI?si=J7E6hkm58KWP09Ye&t=510 )

It's impossible to know if this is the standalone or tethered configuration based on the videos, but in this one you can see that there are two cables connected to the back: one is the AC power connection, and the other is the USB-C connection. Since he is using the AC power it is safe to say he is not running it off USB-C bus power, so it is likely that the USB-C connection is being used either to control a computer or transmit audio.

Trent is on record in an interview with Synth History as recently as 2023 saying he has switched to Ableton:

https://www.synthhistory.com/post/interview-with-trent-reznor

"The last few years I've written exclusively on Ableton rather than Pro Tools, I fucking hate Pro Tools, but I like the way [Ableton] makes me think."

It is unclear if he uses the Push as exclusively a live tool or if he also uses it to produce and compose, but as the above quote illustrates via the word "written", it is entirely plausible/likely that Push is part of his studio process.