I have the mpc one, the toraiz sp-16, and the octatrack mk2. I know the latter wasn't mentioned, and can see you've ordered the mpc one, so this is likely not a helpful response at this time. This is also subjective and not a full review of the ins and outs. If there are specific questions however, I will be happy to answer them.
Anyway ...
Toraiz sp-16 -
This is an immediate box, that sounds great, is intuitive and has a few tricks up it's.
The killer usp is of course, the DSI filters and overdrive. They impart a really unique sound to your samples, and beg to be played with live. It has 8 outs, and using a mixer really utelises these. I actually use it as part of our live act in this way, and it's great fun. Really is a playable device.
The timestretch is good and doesn't have obvious artifacts, unless pushed to extremes.
The on board fx and good, and although dsp, they do sound musical and comparable to stand alone fx. The ducker is really good and can be shaped to created rhythmic gating that can lead to interesting results.
The screen is fine, and reactive, although it's not as quick as your ipads etc.
There's a mixer section that has sends, and master fx.
There's a compressor available on every track and it's very usable. There's two fx slot per track, as well as the send fx.
It can handle external gear, and process incoming audio.
The sequencer is basic, and won't change the world, but if you're after a sampler with xox style sequencing, then it's fine.
Storage is via USB stick
Octatrack mk2 :
There's a myth that it has a steep learning curve, however this is a fallacy. The truth is that it's as easy to learn as anything else, if you take your time to learn it. The idea is to learn one segment at a time, before moving on to the next - bite sized chunks.
It's also a blank canvas. It can be a sampler, looper, mixer, fx box, remixer, midi brain.... The trick is to know what you want to do with it.
The OT is a fantastic sampler, which lends itself to performance, and audio manipulation, rather than being a daw away from the computer.
Full tracks are able to be made, however the lack of outs (four, but two are main, two are cue) means that tracks made on the OT are self contained, unless you track out one by one- which is what I do. It takes a whole but it's how things were done in the old days, and it can be a medative experience!
The cross fader is used to morph between scenes. Scenes, without telling you how to suck eggs, are the current state of the sample - so say on track one you have a 4 x4 kick drum, you can move to the next scene and that 4x4 could be pitched down, retrigged (beat repeat), reversed, sample start point changed, filtered, fx added.... Basically morph into something completely different, before flipping the cross fader back to the original scene and everything returning to how it was.
There's 8 tracks, and this scene manipulation /morphing can be done on each one.....
There's two fx slots per track and there's some very useful fx on board. You can't have delay and reverb on the same track without a workaround (which is less of a workaround and more about the manipulation of a bug)
The sequencer is where it shines. Conditional trigs are when a certain percentage or muscical measure, dictates when the trig or step will be active. So say you have a 64 step, 4x4 kick pattern, you can have the 64th step trigger an extra kick every 8 bars - this means you can both extend the amount of steps and create rhythmic variations.
The trigs/steps can also have different samples in a pattern - take the 4x4 kick pattern again. 1,5,9,13 have a kick, but if you wanted to stick a hat on 2,and a snare of 6, you can. This not only frees up tracks, the conditional rules can also be applied, so you can create rhythmically dynamic patterns on each of the eight tracks - it can get very confusing, as well as being very good fun.
Conditional trigs can also be applied when sequencing midi tracks, and you have eight of these also.
There's three lfos and these can be used In many ways, I clouding them being assigned to conditional trigs, and scenes.
Timestretch is great and there's a couple of ways to do this, so there's always options if you're not happy.
The screen is OK, but it's not what I would expect from a machine these days. It's not touchscreen, and it has a pseudo gameboy vibe. However it's useable and gives the information required.
Sampling is great with the OT and there's many ways to do it.
Slicing samples is great fun and they can be randomised, with conditional trigs on each slice, as well as being able to manipulate them via the scenes paradigm--you can get really out there.
The OT is immense, and I absolutely love mine, but I am not even scratching the surface here and am definitely not doing it justice in this reply.
Mpc one:
I won't go into too much detail, as there's many people here who can give you a better overview, however as this isy first foray into the mpc world, I can give you some thoughts from my perspective.
I'm using it as a way to flesh out the main idea of a track, before exporting the stems to my daw.
The fx are great, and performing with track mutes is really good.
Pads are great, and better than the toraiz sp-16
16 levels is immediate and enjoyable.
Manipulation of samples, whilst not as fast as the OT, is achievable, but this is not what it's for.
I really like my mpc and its definitely a keeper.
The sound is great and the storage options tell me a lot of other companies are just phoning it in - Elektron in particular...
Screen is fine and responsive, again not an ipad, but fine for what it is.
Piano roll is a bit fiddly, but you have pads and various options to get chords and notes in, so it's not a major issue.
XY fx are fun.
A lack of outs is a shame but not a major issue as everything is exported via sd
I've not explored song mode yet but seems straightforward.
I've had difficulty with loops (warping being out and more) but to be honest, I'm not using it for loops now as those duties are taken care of by the toraiz sp-16.
Chopping samples is a dream and inspiring.
I've been using it with the OT recently, whilst putting together a solo set and I've very much enjoyed using the two with the mpc ones mute pad function shining as I build up the track.
It's not the most portable but it's more portable than a lot of things - the decksaver will make this easier for me.
You come from the mpc side of things, so the one will be like meeting an old friend, that's dumped the ex, and had a make over.
I hope that has been useful in some way.
Glad its not just me handing out the KO'S!!
Or would you need advise on that too?
appreciate it.