Analogue-sequencer

>>If the Octopus is anything like the Nemo I'm surprised by the statement "that works fine". :)

I found the Nemo nothing more than a hugely frustrating, albeit very pretty, box of tricks that I could trip up almost without trying.<<

well, then, maybe the nemo was as bad for you as the zeit has been a waste of itself for me, though I suspect you are referring to perceived shortcomings of the O/S or interface rather than a definite hardware problem. :-)
my octopus, a very early one, has two significant issues, besides the relatively high cost of entry.
 
one is the very steep learning curve, especially now that there are 3rd-party versions of the o/s. gabriel & marcel always said it was their intention to go down this route, rightly or wrongly. if I spend more than a few weeks away from it, I forget how to drive it. it really is a complex beast. & very good-looking. here, it has that elusive quality of being approved of by the mrs, along with my big tannoys & an elderly revox A700. lucky me. :-)
(she likes the red perspex P3 too, btw. the notrons stay in their boxes, though)

the second is a more esoteric problem to do with midi timing; in short, the midi data leaving the octopus is "early" with respect to other midi sequencers in my set-up. I can fix this with an aftermarket hardware delay, but it's maddening all the same.

I don't know what you mean by "trip up". did it crash or lock up on you? the octopus has never done this to me, although several users have had a scare with o/s updates when the rubric was misunderstood. I went though this myself, but recovered the machine with a USB-as-serial port terminal session; the genoqs site had the whole process detailed with screen shots. fabulous.

by contrast, I have sent david every scrap of data I have about the fault with this big blue paperweight. upon reloading the "factory presets" just now, I watched my name go past in the display amongst the other beta testers. somewhat ironic.
it did work for a little while, but stopped after being carried gently from one side of the room to the other. on boot-up, the o/s loads properly, but then reports "f9 (fd)". 
after a short wait, it responds to button pushes with the message that the board bearing that button is "unplugged", which is obviously bonkers- how does it know I'm pushing "note adjust" if board 7 is unplugged?

um.... but this is colin's pub. we shouldn't be discussing the beer in david's pub while we're in here. :-)
if you can share any "geordie-school" experiences with me, maybe we should take it offlist.

duncan.