Analogue-sequencer

>>I just arranged to buy a doepfer maq 16/3. I have a P3 and I am
wondering about the differences? Do you like the doepfer? How does it
compare to the P3?<<

like having a push-bike & a range-rover-sports, if I can go all jeremy
clarkson on you for a moment. :-)

want to go to the top of the hill & admire the view? 
use the bike. 
want to go to the top of the hill with several friends, take a picnic
& make a short film up there? take the range rover. put the bike in
the back of the range rover aswell. I hope this helps... :-)

immediacy/hands-on interaction vs complexity/fleibility/depth. they
are complemetary in my live-rig, not mutually exclusive. I have posted
elsewhere as to why & how... 

the maq, running on more than one channel, & potentially at different
step-ratios, allows one to quickly realise counterpointed, syncopated
& polyrhythmic patterns which can then be copied across into the p3; I
find (& YMMV) this to be quicker than using the p3 alone, whilst the
p3 allows better access to multiple versions of the results, & greater
flexibility in arranging them, especially so that they can interact.

the p3 can be used to force-to-scale the maq's output, a feature
otherwise only achievable by the use of custom patches in y'r synth
engine (we used special patches in emu samplers & later the audity &
proteus modules to achieve non-bum-note stage performances.)

use of the maq is greatly enhanced, btw, if you set up a midi
controller upstream of it to adjust things like the start/loop-point,
the range of adjustment of each row of knobs (number of octaves & so
forth) & this kind of thing. 
with a merge/through arrangement, the same controller can conveniently
be programmed to do things to a downstream device (synth module,
w.h.y.), with the controls arranged by row or midi channel. we
currently use doepfer pocket controls & evolution keyboards to do
this, with merge/thru devices concealed in the backs of the maqs. I
guess it helps to be an engineer.... :-)
again, this arrangement prompted some of the code changes in the p3,
not least the behaviour of the midi-through filtering with controller
messages while the p3 is recording it's midi-input.

I hope some of this is useful.

duncan.