Hi. I have had both the yamaha and the roland.
These machines have two parts: the sequencer and the sound module, that uses samples, not a real synth.
From my experience the yamaha is the better sequencer by far: easy to use, easy to edit and user-friendly controls (once you master them). Its also very comfortable to use live and the layout makes it very easy to alter, combine, etc.. patterns live. The sound module is poor though. Some nice sounds here and there, but overall its bad. Very limited tweaking and the effects are quite poor. You can do nice stuff, but its very very limited.
The roland is the other way around: better synth part, although limited, but worse sequencer part (very messy and not so intuitive live). Typical roland sounds, especially drumkits.
I'm looking to get an mpc1000 second hand, so I cant comment yet.
If you want to buy an all-in-one module and dont have any other synths or computer, and never had, try a second hand 505 or a RM1x. I'd go for the rm1x, should cost around 200?. Both 909 and rs7000 share the same sound modules as their respective little brothers, and the other differences, while big, arent really necessary. If you really like it, resell it and get the bigger one.
BTW, at 900? the mpc1000 is the cheapest of the 3, but I think its thought to be more of a percusion sampler, and with no sound module, so maybe you would need more gear.
If you are not going to do live, maybe you should look into getting a computer.
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