I've got an Alesis Micron right now, but I'm considering swapping it for an MC 505 in order to have a groovebox / sampler chain rather than simply sampling my synth onto my sampler (thus taking up voices). Any opinions? How does the MC 505 sound in comparison to the Micron? Everything will be sequenced by my Alesis MMT-8 by the way so I'll have eight tracks rather than the SP 606's 4 tracks.

The Micron's got a good sound. Why don't you use the MMT8 to sequence the 606 & the Micron together?

can't comment on the micron too much, but what i've heard i've liked.
i have an mc505 tho, and its awesome. sounds good, flexible.

The Alesis Micron does sound great, but I want something more real-time tweekable. My music is mainly guitar loops that'll be triggered by the SP 606 with minor percussion stuff also being triggered by the sampler. With the sampler only capable of eight voices, I think that I'd like a groovebox that makes it easier to incorporate multiple sounds than the Alesis Micron does. I'm considering the EMX-1 although the lack of polyphony is very deterring.

sure. and the advantage on the mc505 is that you have 8 (i think) sliders, so you can bring stuff into the mix live, as need be (ie: fade out drums, bring up synth part). of course, its not a sampler, but since you've already got one, it sounds like yr looking for more fleshing out of a one-man-band set up.

mc505 is a little big by today's standards, tho....not super small and portable.

Yeah, that's pretty much what I'm going for. I'm looking closely at the EMX-1. It's simplicity is very appealing and I could theoretically just layer synth parts in order to create polyphony. I'm thinking I could run my Alesis MMT-8 into the EMX-1 into the SP 606 and send both start messages in order to trigger patterns as well as sequencing messages. That way I can have 4 tracks on the 606, 9 on the EMX-1, and an additional 8 from the MMT-8 that go to either or both machines which is plenty more than I'll need. Now if only I could afford a good looping station that'll sync to MIDI and supports tricky time signatures like the Echoplex or Repeater. For now I'll just be triggering my guitar parts with the 606.

for sure. as i noted in another post, i'm a fan of the electribe stuffs. i'm looking / waiting for that device that just magically generates the sounds i hear in my head without me pressing anything.

advantage - hearing what i imagine.

disadvantage - midi plugs in my skull.

I can tell you that the emx is excellent but to get the best sound out of it you need to put better tubes in than the stock.