Retrokits RK008 - midi recorder/sequencer

It works fine but definitely more limited than I’d like.

Can any one report on how solid the midi clock
Sync is? Is there any drift at all?

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From faceboook

It’s official, RK008 update with track polylengths and BLE support - on top of the already impressive list of features. If you want to see it in action, check our W450 stand next week at @superbooth_berlin

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Why would one choose this over say a Squarp Pyramid or Toraiz Squid for not much more? (or about the same used) Genuine question, as it does not look to offer anything that the Pyramid/Squid does aside from being smaller/fiddlier and a lot less features, correct me if I’m wrong.

Well just size, maybe ?
If you play regular gigs and have, say, 5 machines to carry around, having a very small one for sequencer duties can be handy?
Your back will thank you.

For me at least, size has recently become a strong parameter in selecting machines. I just had a kid and my pleasure room suddenly changed into a baby room, so being able to easily carry my setup around is helpful (BlastBeats + Razzmatazz + BlueBox at the moment).

And If ever I have a gig, a small suitcase is more than enough. The M8 being on its way (to replace my BlastBeats when on the go), I should be able to fit everything in the pockets of my coat in the future.

So, yeah, a very small battery-powered sequencer with rather powerful features can make sense in this nomadic era.

I love my 008. But I don’t make music. I just like the size of the unit. Now per part tempo is cool. I would rather have a Hapax for a studio and the Pyramid was a lot more powerful.

expense aside … size, workflow and simplicity.

but hard to ignore the expense!

Maybe it makes more sense if you have a need for a midi recorder rather than a midi sequencer ? And most people here are already firmly in the land of midi sequencers.

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I have not thought that I’m in the minority, but now you’ve got me thinking

That’s the key feature of interest for me too.

Plug whatever MIDI keyboard, drum pad or whatever into it, and it records what you play in real time, with your own hands. That is what the Retrokits website means by “unquantized recording”.

I guess the Pyramid and Squid also have a real time recording mode. Whether you should consider either of them over the RK-008 depends on if you want their features over the 008’s. Some people really don’t want or need the features of either enough to justify spending the extra money.

Smaller size is a justifiable factor in the buying decision too.

One thing I like about recording MIDI to SunVox is you can record without specifying a pattern length. It will set the pattern length for you when you stop recording. This saves time I would have had to spend calculating how long I need the pattern to be, which is one of my annoyances with dealing with other sequences.

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Oh it’s great. I have a Roland drum pad midi to one input and a Hydrasynth into another and outs back to both. Works great.

Yup, that’s the only reason I got it.

Discussion and a bit of demo of version 2.0 firmware

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I like the immediacy of devices like this, but I’m baffled as to why they’d limit the memory to 64K in the age of MPE MIDI data. Especially at that price point.

It’s actually 64K memory per Song, with 16 Song slots.

I didn’t design the thing so I dunno why these specs are what they are.