Yes, some midi things are still missing in the new mpcs, like multichannel midi recording and soft thru. Also as I recall the usb port sends midi but cannot receive midi (or the other way round), when I tested it with my friens op-1.
Of course it could be Iām missing something as Iām fairly new to mpcs.
On the other hand, the mpc does things I didnt expect them too, like opening my octatrackās cf card with the browsers and functioning as a soundcard and usb hub for my ipad, when set to controller mode.
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jb, totally apples and oranges, and like you i had a similar experience trying to get OT to do what MPC can,
I was aware of what it can do that MPC canāt, but still got frustrated that it can not do what MPC canā¦
So yes, the end conclusion was that they are different devices altogetherā¦ I agree that its key to approach something for what it is, not for whats it not.
24 midi lfos, arp with random, conditional trigsā¦
Due to OT limitations, I bought an MPC 1000 JJOS2XL again. I didnāt use it. Sold.
I bought an MPC500 just in case if I want realtime midi overdub, linear sequencer. Still donāt use it, but Iāll keep it.
With a midi processor, it is possible to control OTās slices with pads or any midi controller.
Velocity can be assigned to Vol.
Wait did you sell the 1000 or the OT?
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The Mpc 1000 of course ! 
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Iāve been owning my OT MK2 for about half a year now and Iām thinking of selling it too.
Coming from MPC, I think the OT-sequencer is really stiff and terrible to use, especially because of all the submenus, key-combinations and what not. Itās probably just not what I was looking for.
The Sample-editor is fast, this is a plus, but too sensitive, just one mistake with the nob (like tweaking the wrong one), and you can start from scratch again. Same with Ableton-LIVE but at least god invented the Ctrl-Z-function. Elektron, hello?
But the real fun-killers of the OT are:
Samples play only mono. This is especially shitty when I have a chopped drum-loop, and I canāt have the hi-hat on the same step where a low-tom would hit. Neither do I want to sacrifice a whole new track for a hi-hat-pattern.
Another unfun-fact: Canāt step-edit intuitively by playing the pads, I need to do it with B-knob for all trigs, I can easily lose count and itās just not a very fun thing to do. MPC step edit programs the pad I pushed, and if itās the wrong one, I can correct it easily. This sounds like a non-issue for many, but imagine a 4-bar-drum-loop. Where was that goddamn open crash next to the ghost-kick? Slice 24? ah, no, 25ā¦
Time-stretch, looping position. The submenus of the time-stretch, initial tempo of the loop (Iām talking drum-breaks here; old vinyl shit. Damn, I should call Clide Stubblefield (RIP), what was the BPM of your solo? Ok, maybe it is possible to make the loop roll tight with the metronome on, but I felt better just skipping this whole option with the OT because itās just a PINA.
For those who donāt know: With the MP, you just loop the thing until it sounds ārightā and you have an instant BPM recognition. Adjust the tempo, and here we go. As easy as that.
I could ātime stretchā (or āwarpā) the loop, but I never liked the result soundwise, unless done deliberately on certain slices - but Iāve got the pitch/rate for that.
Since weāre talking loops here: I canāt make an 8-bar loop. Say, I want a pad to subtly change during a sequence - especially pads work better when theyāre long - itās a nightmare to program this into the OT. I could make a 2nd pattern, that would follow up where pattern one left - which means I need to rely on the terrible handling of the copy-paste-pattern combinations. If there is any other way, let me know. The manual doesnāt tell me how (I usually need to read between the lines, which actually means I need to trick out the machine to do what I want it to do).
I donāt need scenes. Never got why everybodyās so in love with them. But to be fair, this my personal problem. I hated the Kaoss Pad too, and the crossfader is pretty much the same thing.
Switching between sequences. Since everything is ruled by ONE Bpm-timecode, you canāt get that much variation. Why is it impossible to save Pattern 1 at 130 bpm and Pattern 2 at 140? Can anybody explain this to me? (Youāre free to tell me in detail to prove me otherwise, but RTFM-answers will be ignored in disdain). Fair enough, you encounter the same problem with LIVE - which brings me to the next issue of why electronic music got boring, but this is beyond scope here.
8 Tracks. No overdubs like the MPC could. I repeat, 8 tracks only, and then not even giving me the chance of creating sub-tracksā¦Weāre in 2018, guys. Seriously? Itās nice to have a hardware-sampler that acts like āSimplerā. But these ālimitationsā are way too big to be ignored, and theyāre not making me creative but pissing me off.
Cuckoo was very enthusiastic about the ātrack-muteā-options in the Arranger. (Oh wow, Iām able to MUTE the tracks, oh wow!!!) So what? I wanna mute WITHIN the pattern; creating sub-sequences like intros, think āhi-hatā-only, then change to kick, then snare plus hihat, And save these transitions as ONE sequence. This goes back to the problem mentioned above, whatās the point in having a sampler where all slices cut-each other off? I could use another track to divide the respective elements - which is killing the options for the arranger.
For the price of an OT MK2, I can get three SP404sx!! THREE!!! Endless resampling, adding of FX and what not.
MK2-manual is suggesting me to create random patterns out of a sliced loop until Iām happy with the result. TILT. Uhm, sorry, Iām not interested. I want precision. But I also want my drum-loops to be longer than 4 bars, and Iām not interested in a 4 x 4 solution (which is a terrible mess with the OT).
All things I mentioned above are more or less about hiphop/drumNbass-issues. Now what about techno?
Just to let you know, when I did Tech with the MPC, I had 15-16 different drum-tracks alone! Different velocities, pitches, unusual patterns, you know, that old-school Hawtin-thing. I canāt enjoy doing this with the OT.
Cuckoo, Carl-Michael, Halution, all nice and sympathetic guys, I can definitely imagine having a beer with them (or a coffee, depending on preference) - but all their tutorials do absolutely NOTHING for me, and none of them are actually even covering the issues Iāve mentioned above. Interesting, huh?
Travelling through YT, Iām actually a bit shocked that I havenāt seen ONE good piece of music done with an OT - my bad for buying it too soon before really checking out. Well, at least I know now.
I might give the AR a chance if I could at least program a pattern thatās actually FUN to program. And Iām totally not interested in a Looper or FX-processor, I got all that already.
All in all - the OT is everything and nothing - which means it can do a lot, but none of it right.
You might ask me why I actually got one? Mhm, good question. Clever marketing Iād say.
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Getting your point(s) here but you donāt have to use the OT if it doesnāt suit your habbits, workflow, style, ā¦ I mean this in a positive way. I donāt use mine a lot either but thatās another story.
All boxes have limitations, with some you (or I, or we) will feel like you are getting served well for the money invested (eg 404SX, MPC,ā¦) If the conceived limitations of a box outweigh the personal advantages it is more than reasonable to sell the box and move on. Or donāt sell it and give it more time? Forget what you ever did before workflow wise and act like a noob?
New things often imply an alternative approach. Damn alternative approaches to stuff we know is as interesting as the new and shiny if not more.
You mention Youtube. Youtube is not to be taken too serious, really. Think infomercial.
Good luck with your musical path(s)
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Have you tried the undo function on elektron gear ?
Itās thereā¦
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Well, you can add a BPM to each scene in live. So can you do on the OT. Just use the arranger.
Regarding 8bar pattern: have you even tried conditional trigs?
And you can always resample to save on tracks.
Some of your issues are real, but most are just bc you do not want to change your workflow or did not read the manual/give yourself more time to wrap your head around it.
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This post qualifies for the mute button again 
I am out
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Dude. Your biggest problem with the Ot seems to be the lack of tracks. You mention the SP404 can resemble endlessly. Guess what? So does the OT. Real simple as well. Just resample your drums into one track and youāre 
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Regarding OPās question, I was there too, I was having buyers remorse for 3 weeks! It took me about half a year to realise what I could do though (would been quicker if I had any live gigs during that period). For my first live gig with this project I was in heaven when I realised the possibilities of putting my mastered stems from already finished songs into my OT. All of a sudden I was remixing myself in ways I didnāt think of before. The OT is an instrument, sure you COULD squeeze it into being a production centrepiece, but I donāt know. Itās at the heart of my live setup thatās for sure, but a multi track production performance is just way better in Ableton. The OT is an awesome piece of kit that enables you to do many many things. SO! A couple things I love about it!
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The slicing. You do NEED to learn the procedure, like you would an instrument. When you got the muscle memory, things fly by, and you start to listen instead of looking at the screen (first thing I donāt like about the OT).
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The scenes, yes the scenes. This is something that most people start to get into real late, because it demands you setting it up first. But once youāve done that, itās just fun, man.
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The depth. This instrument will keep on giving as long as youāre interested. The more time you invest, I promise you, the more you will realise what crazy things this little black box can do.
With all this said, some things that still bothers me.
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Longer patterns are just a mess. At times I want really long patterns (like x1/8 tempo, master at 512 steps before pattern change), and something gets messed up along the way, you need so it all over. Eats ridiculous amounts of time. Thatās when you want the linear, conventional type of MPC sequencing.
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The FX just like you said, are of utility-level. I still use them, and no one would think bad of them in a mix. But I wouldnāt do minimal productions that heavily rely on them. Hence I use outboard FX, and it works like a charm!
Well thatās my opinion, and of course itās personal. Ciao!
SP comparisionsā¦I was talking about 10 pad banks with 12 different samples each, more or less infinite lengthā¦
Dude, I can slice samples with the OT. Itās just not the perfect experience.
I know I can resample with OT - which get me to the problem of slices muting each other.
And yes, the sequence-length is ruining this to me .
Bottom line:
I think you said it best. After all, I think the OT is best used as a processing unit, like an advanced mixer.
But again, this is not what Iām looking for, I want a stand-alone machine, probably like a groovebox.
Thatās why Iāll try out the AR, Iāll be more happy with it I guess.
Sounds like you may not be thinking about song creation in OT. An OT Project can be set up as a single song. (The supplied preset patterns can get us thinking in a limited way, IMO.) Then, the various patterns can be parts of the song. If you need more than 64 steps, for a particular part, you can create another pattern and set up to automatically move to the next pattern.
1 uhā¦ the name of the machine is the OCTATRACK (like octagon lol)ā¦again OCTATRACK
2 If youāre creative with PARTS and using sample locksā¦ the possibilities are endless
SPs have the poorest sequencer of Roland / Boss history !
Up to 3 hours samples with OT and CF card.
MPCs sequences are boring to edit, even with JJOSXL.
+1 for midi overdub, longer patterns, linear recording, polyphony
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Name another sampler that can change playback speed and transition to reverse playback in real time as the OT does.
And nobody has written a good piece of music with an OT? A good artist never blames his tools so I guess everyone here is a shitty artist, eh?
Didnāt say there arenāt. I was talking bout YouTube, and yes most of the demos there are pretty average to me in terms of music (found one dude who was good with it, to be fair.), and I donāt blame their studio or recording options
10 pad banks with more or less unlimited sample length is pretty comparable to static machines alone on the OT, too. 128 statistic samples per project, 120 sampleI spread across the pad banks of the 404.
What jazz musician in their right mind would ever touch an OT I wonder, silly 