If you’re looking for a midi controller to use directly with the QY700 make sure it has a MIDI port, not just USB midi. 5-pin din midi ports still rule, but some midi controllers come with 1/8” midi ports and a short adapter cable to 5-pin din.
The QY has a big internal memory so can hold lots of MIDI data. You might not need extra storage space. Cross that hurdle if / when you get to it.
I don’t have a Qy700, just considering buying it and actually getting some infos.
The built-in keyboard is not velocity sensitive and I would like to have big pads for finger drumming and actual keys.
I was more worried about software compatibility issues, midi mapping, stuff like that (bear in mind that I have no experience with hardware so I really don’t know if there could be issues)
Thanks for your patience and answer!
If you’re using external controllers with it I’m not sure there is any point in going for it over a laptop. I used to have one and sold it- it is very much like a daw in a lot of ways, so I would seriously consider that approach first.
As @geecen said, it’s probably not worth time or money to do the usb upgrade. I think it holds 20 songs in memory, and saving to floppy is fast enough for me. If you’re highly prolific, you may want a gotek. I’ve heard it’s a fairly easy install. But I agree with the advice: upgrade only when it becomes necessary.
As for controller, any MIDI device will work, though not USB obviously. I use a DX7 and an old Novation Circuit that I may upgrade to a Launchpad at some point. The QY700 has 2 MIDI IN’s which is perfect.
How do you program / input notes into the sequencer? Is it like with the MPC4000 on which you navigate an on-screen cursor on a piano roll with a jog wheel and / or arrow buttons?
It has a built in keyboard.
You can play notes into the QY700 either live, or step-wise, using an external MIDI controller or the little rubber keyboard. The rubber keyboard is fine for simple melodies or for drum hits, but it’s not a replacement for a real keyboard…if you’re a keys player.
One cool thing you can do is record the output of an external sequencer into it, which is helpful for drums or other repeating patterns that loop with variation.
also… to address the second question… you can view notes in a piano roll view or a tracker-style view. The editing capabilities are powerful.
I am certainly considering DAWs (I am currently trying Renoise), but I don’t own a laptop (nor an audio interface) that is powerful enough for music production.
Beside the frequent crashes and thousands of options/possibilities offered by DAWs, I find it difficult to use the laptop because… It doesn’t feel like “making music” in my mind. But sooner or later I know I’ll have to face DAWs XD
Have you considered an Akai MPC?
Being a sampler (which the QY700 isn’t) the sounds it makes will never become dated because you can simply load your own samples into it. You can make complete contemporary sounding tracks with just an MPC. The sounds on the QY are really showing their age in 2021, you can edit them to a certain extent, but you’re still stuck with them. The MPC feels like more of a musical instrument with the pads. Might be worth looking at an MPC One or Live (mk1 or 2). I think it might be better for you than the QY.
I have considered it. Have also considered a Force. (Actually, I’m have considered almost every music-making option available - bar Eurorack. I have been spending every free minute in last 6 months reading reviews and forums and watching videos - it’s that bad XD)
I heard bad things about Akai products, build quality doesn’t look too good. They don’t look that appealing to me, for some reason. Probably I’m just more fascinated by odd, uncommon gear (kinda foolish, I know)
Anyway, if I went for the QY I wouldn’t rely on the in-built sounds - they seem nothing to write home about. I am more interested in pairing it with a good, great-sounding sampler.
One modern option that I would go for is the Toraiz SP-16: great sound, great build quality, good pads, seems really easy to use. Too bad the sequencer is lacking, and the price is too high for my finances.
Anyway, thanks a lot for your advice! Will go and look into MPC again.
If pure going the sampler route I’d get the mpc one- it’s powerful and flexible. If you’re still thinking qy - it really is a great fun sequencer and I used it with a hardware rack sampler for a decent amount of time 
I’d say the MPC Live II build quality is a lot better than the QY. I don’t have any hands-on experience with any other MPCs to compare.
Can you help me out? I’d like each track in pattern mode to receive midi on a different channel. It looks like the midi in from the QY is sent to the songs tracks, not the pattern tracks. All midi channels play the piano preset except 10 which are drums. I use pattern mode and none of tracks has the piano preset on. All ‘Voice Select’ are set to Pattern, not Phrase so I can select a sound in Pattern mode. I have several tracks using the internal sounds and other sending midi to synths. How can I set the midi input channel in Pattern mode for each track so I send midi to qy-700 internal sounds on multiple channels? I use pattern mode only, where do I adjust something in ‘OutCh.’? in ‘Patt.TR’ I’ve set the midi ouputs for the external Synths.
I like to use the QY700 as a sound module. I have al my sounds setup on different tracks in pattern voice mode. I’d like to send midi on different channels that correspond to the tracks numbers but when I send midi to the QY all channels play piano except 10 is drums, it doesn’t play the sounds I’ve set in pattern voice setup. Do you know a solution for this?
I have a problem with my QY700 and that is when I arrange patterns in the song mode there’s a pause between pattern changes. My current method to overcome this issue is to chain the patterns in pattern mode, so the pattern change is governed through the patterns themselves and not the song mode. This is quite contra intuitive, though. Does anyone know how to overcome this?
Not sure if there are any QY70 / 700 people still here…
I’m just playing with a QY70 for the first time.
I get the workflow:
My question is this: can I access the Accompaniment Pattern mixer when in Song mode? So that I can change instruments in the accompaniment while a chord sequence is playing, and mess with mutes, solo, fx etc in the accompaniment, dynamically jamming? Or is it only possible to change the accompaniment instruments and mixer settings when in Pattern Edit mode, when the chord sequence is stopped?
I want to dynamically and interactively play with the accompaniment while my sequence of chords is playing. Not to change the ID number of the accompaniment that is playing, but rather, I want to change the instrument assignment of Chord 1, Bass, drums, etc, and mess with their fx, and so on. I can do that in Pattern Edit mode. But that’s not very dynamic or interactive, because I can only do that while the chord is static!
Does anyone know if there’s something I’m missing? Is the QY700 more flexible?
I know you’re all on tenterhooks for the answer. I think the closest possible solution is “Expand Backing” as per p132 of the qy70 manual, which pushes the accompaniment patterns to conventional midi tracks in the main sequencer channels 9-16, and then you can manually change the mixer and instrument settings with chords playing, albeit the chords you’ve sequenced. So not completely interactive, but a good start.
I got a 70, haven’t messed with it enough yet, but if I wanted to make some chord progressions and send them to my synth is that a difficult process? I’d like to audition the chords first if at all possible, so I can find some more unconventional changes. Not sure if that’s possible or not, but it seems like you have been diving into this device.
In my case it would probably be one synth, no accompaniment, but what could be awesome is sending a chord change and bassline/melody to my (external) synth all at once just to get some ideas.