I mostly buy in this category and have four groove boxes that are “couchable”, mostly which reflect my biases that I’ve learned through using a few devices. All of my recommendations will be colored based on this. Those biases are:
- I need a flexibile (and ideally fast) sequencer
- I’m a bad keys player (musical history as a stringed instrument player - guitar, bass, banjo)
- Even though I’m a bad keys player I need quantized live recording
I use sequencers really heavily for drum programming, but for chords and melody I often really struggle to compose without actually playing live to “find” an interesting hook or discover interesting chord voicings or voice leading.
Here are the devices I have, in the order I got them, with some general thoughts:
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Elektron Model:Cycles. Couchability score: 6 (external battery req’d)
The sequencer is obviously really full featured, and was a great first groovebox for me since the sound design is very simplified. Playing things live (monophonically only, of course) with the linear sequencer buttons was fine by me, because I’m an awful keys player, so thinking of the sequencer buttons as one long guitar string was much easier
One of my biggest frustrations long-term with the device was not being able to do chords without using the “chord” machine, so I kinda had to compose chord progressions from theory rather than from feel, which I really don’t like.
Couch-specific notes:
Pros: the form factor is relatively small, there’s very little menu-diving, and sketching ideas is very fast.
Cons: No autosave, loading/switching projects isn’t particularly quick compared to others. No internal battery. Small, but not small enough to stuff in a coffee table drawer. -
Teenage Engineering OP-Z. Couchability score: 10
OP-Z is really amazing as a song idea sketchpad. It checks a lot of boxes for me (strong sequencer, supports live quantized recording, easy transposition so I can just play everything in C and transpose to better keys/modes ). Biggest frustrations with OP-Z long term were lack of sound design options, limited sample space. The sequence length is also tightly coupled to the zoom/resolution of the sequencer as well, so despite the sequencer being very good, it’s hard to program/clean up long sequences.
Couch-specific notes:
Pros: Autosave, super quick bootup/shutdown, very fast project change, very fast time to first sequence. Tiny, pocketable, and storable basically anywhere. Internal battery, wireless bluetooth to phones, etc. Very wire-free experience if you want to keep that to a minimum but also integrate with soft synths on IOS/android.
Cons: As mentioned basically everywhere, it’s almost too small. I’m not a gifted piano player, so I don’t feel particularly “hindered” from my glorious full-size key playing, but it feels cramped obviously. Otherwise it’s basically the perfect couch device IMHO. -
Synthstrom Deluge. Couchability Score: 8
This is my favorite, most used, and most productive groovebox atm. I have made far more content on Deluge than anything else, because it has a playing surface (grid-based, “fourths up, fifths down” layout like a guitar) that makes sense to me, a very very flexible sequencer, an awesome song mode, and enough sound design potential to keep a smoothbrain like me occupied for years to come. Many people complain about the sound design feeling limited or falling flat, but overall I feel like it has more sound design capability than I have skill to leverage at the moment. Maybe that’ll change as I develop into a stronger sound designer
. As I mentioned in my “biases”, I prefer to sequence drums but live playback any melodic, lead, or chord work and then clean it up in the sequencer later. Deuge is perfect and fast for this. The on-the-fly zooming in and out on the piano roll is fantastic, intuitive, and very very fast. I also use a DAW a fair bit when not couch-ing, and I actually hate using the piano roll on a PC, but love it on Deluge. I’m gushing a bit here obviously, but Deluge is in many ways just the perfect device for me. The support for large sample libraries and sample mangling compared to something like OP-Z is a huge difference.
Couch-specific notes:
Pros: Big enough to not feel cramped for long sessions, but small enough to use on a lap. Relatively quick boot up and project load/new project time. Time to first usable sequence is crazy fast! Even faster than OP-Z, and often faster than I am in a DAW. I can usually get a foundational loop with chords, drums, and a lead in 5 min if I already know what direction I’m heading a don’t dig into sound design right away. Internal battery, so little to no cables required.
Cons: Not a great size for storing, sorta bulky. Otherwise, no real cons IMHO. -
Dirtywave M8 Tracker. Couchability Score: 10:
This is the newest thing I have and I’m still in a bit of a hesitant honeymoon with it. I feel like if it had a focus on live recording into sequences then it would be my endgame device and I’d just sell everything else. The sound design potential is really astonishing. However, you have to basically program in everything you want. Even if you use an external keyboard, the software really isn’t designed around live playback, and it’s also monophonic. You can do chords either as samples or through the FM synth in a way that is very similar to Model:Cycles’ chord machine, where you have each operator as a carrier and then set the ratios to the separate pitches of the chord, essentially making it “polyphonic”. I’m still trying to figure out if I can ever really get along with a monophonic device that puts such a huge emphasis on programming melodies. Not “playing” or discovering melodies from live input has really soured me on the experience a bit, but there’s enough to like otherwise that I’m still giving it a college try.
Couch-specific Notes:
Pros: Very small, battery powered, and probably the most powerful device you can get at that pocketable size. Super powerful sequencer and sound design potential.
Cons: Tracker workflow might not be for everyone
Sorry for the super long screed, but hopefully some of that is helpful and not me just musing on my personal preferences as a musician 
If you have any specific Qs about any of those 4 devices, lmk!