So does everyone now digg what a real groovebox is?
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Itās super intuitive, yet very deep. Hard to impress anyone with plocks nowadays, but the real strength lies in step components. The most obvious things are basic variations like ādonāt play this step every 4th timeā, but given that they can affect each other and also plocks, things get wild really fast, giving you crazy stuff like step jumps. The other strength of the OP-Z is the master track that will change the modes of selected melodic tracks, and of course it can be sequenced as well, easily turning your 4 chords into a 16 chord progression. Add punch-in effects sequencing and youāre set for a banger.
To sum up, it lets you compose quickly and efficiently without relying on randomization and happy accidents.
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I love SunVox, runs on cheap windows mobile pdaās up to the latest version.
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From what I gather the Syntakt doesnāt have āplays freeā tracks, is that correct? Because using them creatively on the Octatrack is one of the best ways to break out of the loop I think, Iām still figuring them out myself. Would be nice if other Elektron devices could use them too.
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The op-z is the best sequencer Iāve used in any hardware synth. The problem with the op-z is its like having one of the worlds greatest singers being stuck in a 3rd world country. Unbelievable sequencer, horrible and plastic build that will fall apart on you and average to below synth engine that takes way too much work to get sounding good. I think thatās why people are begging so much for an op-z field, because TE have an absolute magical formula on their hands that they just need to take to the next level. Aluminum build and better synth engines and it will be the best of the portable devices.
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Pads on the early ones were bad and often failed, and tact switches need replacing now and then, but if you have the later black models the build quality is fine. Well, I thought so when I had mine, but somebody else has been using it for a few years now so maybe heād disagree!
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Ok, quality asideā¦ whatās your impression on the workflow. Did you enjoy the 2000xl more than the JJOS models?
Iāve had a black 1000 from new since 2010 and all itās ever needed is a drop of Deoxit on the buttons when they started losing responsiveness. Been fine ever since.
JJOS 2kxl is the best OS of any MPC. Turns it into a full workstation with audio tracks, deep and useful editing options, etc. Going back to the official Akai ones is very unpleasant after getting deep into the JJ style of working.
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Iāve only ever used the mpc1000. I liked the paid jjos more than the official firmware.
But on the topic of best groovebox, I prefer korg esx and octatrack and analog four to the mpc1000.
Edit: oh and the mc303 can do one. Never gelled with that thing.
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My favorite is the Digitakt. There are a handful of things that I would love to see added to it but I love the UI and the Elektron sequencer is the only one that I want to use at this point.
Big caveat here is that Iāve never been able to get my hands on an Octatrack. I think I might like it better since it has proper sample slicing and more routing options. But Iāve got no way of knowing. So Iāll just stick with the Digitakt.
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Itās Digitakt for me, Iāve not really had many of the high end grooveboxes in the past.
In fact, I bought one of these previous to DT 
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Mic drop.
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this is how the elektron model boxes will look like in a few years
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Thatās what I can use my recently retired N900 for!
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the only sampler Iāve ever had that Iāve actually not usedā¦ still in a sealed box foreverā¦ The Millennium Sampler!
it does have some unique features though
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M8. Amazing little beast
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I used it once, itās actually ok for what it is and really quick to get something down.
But like yourself mine currently resides in its box.
I canāt remember where I bought it but the store was trying to get rid of em.
Think it was about Ā£70 new
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I might be mistaken but I think it has the fx scene like features similar to the Rytm before the Rytm?
Iām not a collector but I got it for almost nothingā¦ I wonder if bad gear has a clip on it, I wanna get it painted in the real M Falcon colors and hang it from the ceiling or something
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Yeah, that reminds me of how I missed those sales for the goofy looking disc groovebox that Zoom made, the Arq. Iām still kind of curious about those but not enough to scrape together the money to pick one up.
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