That seems more like a personal preference rather than a point to be argued. Personally, I prefer to use arps for their simplicity. Isn’t that why we have them? I’d rather select “random” as the arp pattern, then play away while switching up the octaves, rather than set up conditions or use some other process in a sequencer to recreate random notes/patterns, ie, I’m not militant about recreating the wheel for everything. I also like synth presets 
But this is exactly my point.
If it’s a predictable pattern you’re after, you could simply commit those notes to the sequencer. If, on the other hand, you’d prefer a random pattern, you would typically just latch the arp, and play it accordingly. Rarely is there a need to employ both of those functionalities at the same time.
You were looking for a “sketchpad”, not Bitwig, right? That’s a rhetorical question, you don’t have to answer. I’m just saying… This is getting awfully specific for a tiny, affordable, standalone device for sketching down ideas on the train, that can’t be an iPad or laptop.
Anyway, I hope the MC-101 works out for you.
Cheers!
Op-z has quite a flexible arpeggiator track that you record your notes into and then can toggle the arpeggiator on/off and manipulate various parameters on a per step basis. It has random mode for you, can up the number of octaves and you can switch octave on the keyboard easily.
You could arpeggiate (if that’s a word) any synth track just by setting the track length to the number of notes you want and then use step components to manipulate it melodically and rhythmically in all sorts of ways.
Then there is the master track if you wanted to go beyond that and key change it all.
The synths are kind of lame compared to an mc-101, which is why I have both 
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Thanks for this! Unfortunately, the OPZ is a bit small for my liking. I actually don’t need a super flexible arp. Just a basic one with the standard patterns and timing. I’m just trying to wrap my head around the implementation of MC-101’s arp. It’s supposed to arrive tomorrow, so I’ll find out soon enough.
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You’ve misconstrued my tone. Much gets lost in text. I didn’t mean to offend.
Apologies.
Cheers!
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Why not use a Digitone (+ ripcord/battery if necessary)? It’s great as a sketchpad.
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The OP would like the ability to sample.
Hmm, I thought sampling was ‘icing’ rather than the cake? If sampling is essential, ignore my suggestion.
Thanks all!
Yes, at this point, sampling is icing. Only because there’s nothing on the market for a portable synth/sampler with portamento/chords/scales/arp besides the OP-1 Field, and that price is way out of my league for a sketchpad. That’s why Seqtrak really caught my eye, except there’s no chromatic play with the samples.
My dream sketchpad would be something like lhe Microsampler with a proper ADSR, scales, chords and portamento, I’d love a multitrack looper onboard too, so you could jam away and build tracks uninterrupted, while each overdub is saved as a separate file to an SD card to bring into Renoise (or arranger of choice). It’d be nice to have a simple poly synth onboard too.
Hell a cross between Microsampler and Microkorg with the scales, chords, portamento and looper in the size of a Microfreak with real mini keys would be KILLER.
Also, the new Microkorg has a looper onboard! Not a lot of details about it yet.
OR I’d love to see a Roland Boutique-ish-sized V-Synth.