Only three (iirc) step components mess with the timing, and I always thought that this was kind of the point of them. Especially the jump component.
The rest stay in time. For me, the step components are the whole reason to use the OP-Z. I’d far rather vary one pattern with step components, than have to manage 12 separate patterns to do the same thing. And they’re so intuitive.
I was working out how to use it to slice samples today. I hooked it up to an OP-1, and used the OP-Z to sequence the drum sampler on the OP-1. You can use the randomizer step component to get some really glitchy patterns. Then, you can resample into the drum sampler on the fly, and the new sample gets chopped up.
It’s like a mini Octatrack!
You can also use the sweep step component as an LFO to modulate up any two knobs on the OP-1. Slice start, drum pitch, volume. Anything that can be accessed by the OP-1’s own MIDI-in LFO.