Sorry if this has already been brought up, but if so please add my voice to the list!
I got the MPC Key 61 mainly to replace my Korg flagship workstation slot, which I use as my main keyboard most of the time - this has been an ST-61 and then a Nautilus(I also have a 61-key Virus TI2 and Novation X-Station on the stand with it, and I'm in batch 9 for a Seaboard Rise 2.
) I really make a lot of use of custom arpeggiator patterns on the Korgs and I had just assumed that you'd be able to record a pattern using the keys and then transpose it using the keys during playback on the MPC Key 61.
Unless I'm missing something, there is no way to transpose midi sequences with the keys or create custom arpeggio patterns with the keys. Or create custom arpeggio patterns in standalone mode at all, even if the UI must be used as with the Korgs.
I may be in the minority here but the absence of these features seems like a crying shame to me, and has forced me to go back to maining the Nautilus. It would be really amazing if we could use midi sequences like arpeggiator patterns and/or record arpeggiator patterns with the keys, then set up a handful of keyzones and control them all on different tracks.
I've spent some time thinking about how this might work, and all that is needed for basic functionality is for the user to define the base note of the scale and assign that to each sequence/pattern after it's been recorded to enable simple global single-key transpose. Another thought that I had was that in addition to the standard arp play modes there could be a couple more called "Align - Fill" and "Align - Stretch" or something like that. I'll try to describe those in the next paragraph.
Say you record a sequence/pattern that only uses 3 different notes, like a bassline. The align scheme allows you to play any 3 notes at once to start or update the arp and it will use the lowest note you played for the lowest note in the pattern, the middle note you played for the middle note in the pattern, and the highest note you played for the highest note in the pattern. This works for any number of notes, and the difference between Fill and Stretch is how it maps the notes you play to the notes in the sequence/pattern when there is less notes played than exist in the pattern. Fill would map the notes you play from the lowest note in the pattern to the highest note in the pattern, and if you didn't play enough notes it would not play the highest notes in the pattern. Stretch would start with the lowest and then the highest note in the pattern, then the middle note, and so on depending on how many notes you played. When you play too many notes, the ones it chooses to ignore could work in a similar way for the two modes, respectively. I realize this mostly sounds like any arpeggiator, but in the context of a recorded sequence/pattern that already has notes defined, the difference is that these "note slots" would be evaluated every time it loads a midi sequence or once when it initially creates an arp pattern from a keyboard recording.
Please do something like this, or if I'm missing a way to get this behavior(even just simple one-note global transpose with the keys instead of a knob or the UI) I'd love to learn about that!