Thanks for the input guys 
The issue is not the MOTU… It is Maschine…
When set as slave, it cannot send clock at the same time.
I am going to go down the road of MIDI Merge and Thru.
Just wanted to say I contacted MOTU support and NI support 3 weeks ago. I have had a very responsive and supportive guy at MOTU.
From NI: nothing.
The option of moving to Ableton has crossed my mind but I cannot justify:
- The time I am going to spend learning from scratch.
- The money.
In both cases I cannot justify it as I am slowly moving towards a DAWless setup. I still use a daw to run my synths through plugins etc… But I also realize I spend WAY too much time staring at my monitors.
Update:
Maschine cannot be slaved to external clock and send clock at the same time. (NI support ticket)
Sooooooo…
I had to rethink my setup. Was not going to invest in any extra MIDI boxes and wiring so I tested, and tested again the MIDI routing.
Finally things are working
Maschine as master, **DT sending/receiving clock, *KeyStep on USB sync.
KeyStep out to DT in
DT out to MIDI thru box in
Thru box out 1 to Volca Kick
Thru box out 2 to Volca Bass
Thru box out 3 to Volca Keys
Thru box out 4 to Volca FM
Thru box out 5 to MOTU UltraLite Mk3
*KeyStep set to receive sync from USB (this way KeyStep can start on clock ARP or SEQ)
DT MIDI out port set to MIDI
**DT MIDI in port set to MIDI+USB (so sequencer/Arp within Maschine can send out to the 4 Volcas through DT. In this case, DT needs to have all corresponding MIDI tracks activated along with correct channel assignment…).
MIDI clock looks solid.
Have not done proper testing yet.