QY700 or RM1x? ...or something else? (Page 1 of 2)

Hello,

I've been looking for a hardware sequencer recently, and at the moment, I think the QY700 or the RM1x might be the best choice for me.

First, I read about older machines like the Kawai Q80 or the old Roland MC series, but I discovered that they might not suit my needs perfectly. I want to use the sequencer as a live thing, so it should be possible to do pattern based stuff, but I also want to use it in the studio, where I've only been using software so far. There where others which might have been cool (Akai ASQ-10 for example), but they are hard to find, and if they ever break down, they can't be replaced too quickly. So I looked at some more modern stuff, like the MC-303, which is verrry easy to get, but its MIDI-Out capabilities seem to be absolutely unsatisfying.

My current hardware setup looks like this:
Electribe ES-1
Electribe EA-1
Nord Rack 2
Alesis Micron

I want to replace the EA-1, as it only has two mono tracks, which is kinda limited for a sequencer of course, but I think about keeping the ES-1 as a sampler, because the sequencers that I prefer at the moment don't have samplers and I also don't want/need to have everything in one machine (and the sequencer's internal sounds are not too important for me, actually). One thing that also bothers me about those Electribes is that the maximum pattern length is only 4 bars.

So now I've got the QY700 and the RM1x on my top list, but I also read about the RS7000, and an MPC 2000 (xl) might also be an option, though the latter two are twice the price, and I don't know if the MPC's way of sequencing might be what I'm looking for.
One thing that got me absolutely stunned is when I saw that the QY700 has not only patterns, but also Intro/Ending and Fill-Ins. That's what I know from my old KORG keyboard, and I hope it can be used in exactly the same way. Instead of having e.g. a long 16 bar pattern, which always ends in the same drum roll at the end, I could just flexibly throw in one of several Fill-Ins at any time. That would mean absolute amazingness! And as far as I read, the RM1x seems to have this feature as well, only that you actually have 16 patterns available for every song ("style"), which can be freely defined to act as a normal pattern or a Fill-In. Is that correct? That would be so cool! Not only for live performances, but also for the studio, where I like to improvise and get ideas by simply acting as if I'm live perfoming

But I'm still unsure about choosing one of them... or are there any more alternatives? I also read about the QY300 which has a nicer form factor in my opinion, but it fails for live performing because you can't mute and unmute tracks with a single button press big big sadness... it seemed so sexy!

So here's what I think about both remaining sequencers:

- QY700 looks more "general": the internal sounds will be more allround, nothing special, the sequencer might be more "complete". I don't know if there will be lots of usable drum sounds in it (fitting to electronic music), and it doesn't have too many live controls. It's a bit big for my taste, but this also results in having a bigger display, which might be a good thing. On the other hand, my electribes only have a 3-digit-display and working with them is - apart from their limitations - a breeze. I actually hope that programming sequences on it won't be too complicated and cumbersome Last but not least, it has 2 MIDI-Outs!

- RM1x looks more "rave": internal sounds are definitely targeted towards special tastes, the sequencer might lack some completeness, but maybe it's better live-oriented? It has "mute memory" buttons, for example. It has a big "sequence remixer" label on it and this gives me some kind of "techno toys for little boys" impression I do have to say that I prefer non-fancy looks, but I don't want to let that influence my decision too much. It could be a LOT worse actually (Roland D2...

What I like about both is that they have a 3,5" disk drive. No special Compact Flash / SD / PCMCIA / whatever cards, just simple diskettes which are highly available and straight forward. And of course the Fill-In stuff if that's really implemented the way I understand it

So what do you think? Is there anyone who has used them both? Is programming easy-going? Which one do you prefer and why? Do the Fill-Ins really work the way I think? And might buying a completely different machine be the better decision for my needs?

Greetings
ZeHa

PS: One thing that bothers me about my Electribe ES-1 is that if you trigger the samples over MIDI, they will be played no matter if they're set to muted on the ES or not. Is this true for many samplers / drum machines? This is annoying... I'd like to be able to sequence everything on my hardware sequencer, but still be able to mute the sounds on the actual sound modules...