So I've really done a deep dive into the RK-006 in both standalone and USB/Daw hosted modes. This and the RK-008 have been my workhorses for the last year or so. I'm totally obsessed with the ease of use and how it's brought my setup together.

My only issues have been with sync to external drum machines and sequencers, and I'm pretty positive this has to do with my gear and not the Retrokits stuff, but I figured I'd ask the community what their setup is like and if they've had issues like mine.

I sending DIN Sync to a Roland TR-606, and also to a Drumulator, but the Drumulator Run/Stop doesn't want to work with the pulse sent from the RK-006, and I was told that the pulse width of the Run/Stop signal is probably too narrow to trigger the Drumulator (if anyone has a simple solution of how I can fix this, pulse stretcher module?).

The Drumulator is pretty damn rock solid, I don't have a unit with midi, so I can't compare, but using clock provides me with sounds right on the money, for the most part.

The TR-606 is flaky. Sometimes it's really great, and sometimes it's off by about 12ms. Since it's inconsistent, and varies when I restart it, I haven't had much luck with offsetting the clock. Any 606 owners have the same results? It's more obvious when it is playing against another drum sequence (for instance, a drum sequence played from the RK-008 and sent to a module, or the Drumulator). I've always heard that DIN Sync was super reliable, but I have definitely struggled with this.

The MPCs are super unreliable. I've tried with both a Live II and an MPC60, and they both perform about the exact same when clocked externally. Almost always, they are off by up to 30ms, and offsetting isn't particularly helpful because it adds a "hiccup" to the start, which can be fine if you have a 4 bar blank leader sequence, but then it really makes it hard to test if everything is grooving. What I ended up doing, was sequencing the drum sounds externally with the RK-008. It works but it eats up tracks fast. I've also figured it would be best to use them as the "Master", but I really do enjoy having the RK-008 as the master, I like pressing record and play on that since it's where all my midi is getting recorded, it's a much better system then holding down record on the RK-008, and pressing play on an MPC.

Is this just something I should expect when trying to sync up so many sequencers, especially vintage ones?

And another question for the Retrokits team, if I connect the RK-006 and have it hosted by the computer, with the DAW as the master clock, is this going to effect how everything syncs up at all? For instance, if I have everything syncing up really well in Standalone (maybe have some offsets in the preset I'm using) and then switch to the DAW, should I be using a different custom preset with everything set so that the DAW is clocking everything best? I record into Ableton with monitor set to Off on everything, so that when I check the audio on the grid, there should be no added latency, other than the latency that my interface naturally has. I usually try and make adjustments if something is off (I've actually found the Drumulator to get triggered early, and I'll offset it about 2ms or so).

Sorry for the rambling, but I've been doing this for a year, and while I'm super happy with the ease of use, I am still having trouble getting everything perfectly in sync. This may just be the nature of the gear I'm using. It usually takes a couple of starts and stops and then everything will be dancing together nicely, but it's tricky.

Any help or tips are appreciated!