I use long loopable samples prepped on my computer lately, basically the maximum length allowable to be below 2MB (resample and convert to mono helps), and I fill all 4 banks up with loops of that size. In that configuration, the sequencer seems to choke if I record every sample to trigger at the beginning of the pattern simultaneously 
so I instead have looping turned on (in the loop settings of each sample) and set to repetitions:99. And then I, as you say trigger things by hitting the pad at the correct time. Cue bus can be used to preview what you are doing, but just getting used to it and keeping track of volume levels allows this sort of mixing on the master to be comfortable enough for me.
Anyway that was word salad. That’s my approach to a loop based performance. I use filters and volume to structure a performance out of this, and pitch to make things slow down/catch up or just retrigger looping samples as necessary as rounding errors will and do cause some loops to drift out of sync.