Interesting. I don’t anticipate doing deep sound design as you say. But what I would do is make more use of the stock presets (which I’ve criminally ignored, given how much I rate the included packs), and tweak those. I’ve been slowly making racks for the VSTs I do use, so there’s that possibility too. I’ve always fancied making use of something like Analog, and then I look at that fiddly little middle section, get frustrated with how small it is and just reach for Diva or an NI preset via KK. I used to have a Circuit, and I think that the basic workflow is nice. The LPP looks like it’s the Citrcuit for Ableton, but minus the macros. And the Push looks like the ultra-deluxe Circuit with every bell/whistle imaginable.
But I take your point, and will have to factor that into my thinking. When you describe it like that - like it’s not quiiiiiite as simple as it looks on the surface - that’s when I think about the budget options. Y’know if the integration and the screen is a case of being better in practice than reality, then I tend to think the more basic Circuit style workflow of a Launchpad (eg: just getting notes into Ableton in a more hands on way, with a bit of automation) does the trick. Is that a fair characterisation? And would you consider something like an LPP/APC64 as actually the sweet spot and potentially a smarter buy?