it’s difficult to just ask for a non-tracker workflow recommendations sometimes, so the pe tracker/m8 conflation is understandable. Us musicians are known to be the most open minded people in the world 
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Thank you for your answer. It was the newer M8 MK2 model. I couldn’t get to grips with it.
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I am at that stage now. I got a cheap Anbernic and the Teensy, installed all the software and I am playing around with it, but I have not yet had enough time to take a deep dive and focus on this device long enough to have an opinion.
I will probably post an update here later on for those who might be interested.
Nonetheless I am still looking for the perfect thing which does not exist. Designing one from scratch (or almost scratch) is a time-consuming job on its own and I’d prefer to spend my time working on new songs rather than a piece of hardware that might take years to come up with. I am pretty sure someone else would have a way less hard time doing that than me 
We might have a different definition of playability then and maybe another perspective regarding musical imagination 
When I play a live show with the op-1f for example, I just use my fingers on the keyboard and it makes sounds, lol. It can also be used as a 4 track looper for live looping and a bunch of other cool things. Even more options on the OP-XY with the brain track, punch-in FX, and the tape track. But yeah, different strokes for different folks, I guess.
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I played with old trackers before m8 and it was a bad workflow because the pay off was bad. The reward for learning m8 is phenomenal.
I think that’s behind a lot of online heat in chats about devices.
People who can fly on the ot or m8 see people who they feel didn’t give the device time and they just think… Well a frickin cello wld be pretty annoying at first.
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Hello Tanis have you come to a decision?
Yes, I settled on the Ableton Move as it has most of the features I want and it looks like the readmap of the future updates has more features that I would like, too.
I am still looking for the perfect hardware but so far I have been quite busy with the Move and its integration with Ableton Live is definitely a big plus if you want to get your tracks to a finished state.
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Thank you for your reply. I am still searching myself.
Now I have seen this combo M8, LLP and the EC4 which made me think do you have it minimal or you can extend it up to the screen.
Not sure yet though.
Yes the M8 V6.0.1 HAS Built-In compatibility with the novation Launchpad Pro Mark 3. With sequencer and note playing support. It’s pretty good
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I had the M8. Yeah its neat and pretty cool. And its very stable - not a single crash. But to write a tune requires more preparation than running the London marathon. You load Red Means Recordings M8 project songs - the bulk of that music is prepared as loops prior to the M8. But fairplay - they are addressing the song writing aspect of the machine in the past couple of betas.
Hybrid (for me) was the way to go.
Im using the MKS-REC1 (SP1200 clone of sorts) with Ableton and Nome 2 making the pair in solid sync …Dream. The new breed of sync box are some black magic lol - it just works. Modern day conveniences with Ableton and old school tactile sampling drum machines in perfect tandem is a joy.
You are exaggerating for effect, I know. But I created songs on M8 and DN2 in close proximity, and it was more work on DN2. Maybe that’s not saying much, and I have only poked at DAWs, not caring for them much.
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I’m going to try Move paired with M8.
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i used to feel this way too until i established a solid template for my process and commonly used sample chains. now all of my percussion lives in very large chains and im up and running on a new tune in moments
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I have a default template with a few instruments, and a macrosynth pre-mapped to a faderfox for sound exploration.
The other thing I did was spend a couple of days organizing all my samples into sensible folders and sub folders, so I can find stuff fast.
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Ya. Templates for me too. If not I would pull my hair out.
I have lots of sample chains ready to go for octatrack and m8 but other than that I generally start from scratch and I find m8 brilliant for songwriting as well as wild noise.
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Someone should contact the M8 guy and transplant his whole engine into a groovebox for everyone who is allergic to trackers