Recording Matrix

I assigned my MIDI keyboard to the columns in the Matrix, and tried to record my performance. The trouble is in order to record you have to press play(counter-intuitive), and there doesn't seem to be a count in for the play metronome. I basically moved the loop points a couple of bars to the right and recorded it that way, so I could get a couple of bars count in like I would have if I was recording normally. Unless I'm missing something, surely it would be a good idea to either use the record button to you know, record if the record arm is on in the Matrix or implement a count in for the play metronome.
 
The second issue is that my timing was off, so I had to manually move all the audio around manually which was a pain and more trouble than it was worth. Is there a way of recording a MIDI clip and using that to control the Matrix so I can quantize it before recording the audio so it's all in time? If there isn't, is there a way of using a MIDI loopback to record a MIDI clip, use the output the send it to the loopback channel and then assign the incoming loopback MIDI to the Matrix?