RetroKits RK-006. Midi Hub, USB Host, Interface, Gate Hub

The Lounge Other Gear
#1

Not much has been said about this little device. I heard about it deep in another thread. It is shipping now. It has some features that differ from the Blokas that has yet to ship, so I thought it should have its own thread. Mods, feel free to throw this elsewhere if needed.

Mine arrived two days ago, and it’s really a life saver. Granted, the only hardware midi utility I had before this is a 1-4 splitter.

I’m running all MIDI in and out with some filters on a few outputs, and I’m hosting a controller over USB. I haven’t used it as an interface, just in my hardware setup.

My use case:
USB hosting: Faderfox UC4 midi in/out (using USB, because there are only 2 MIDI ins)
Midi ins: Octatrack, Morningstarfx MC6 (pedal)

Midi outs:
Octatrack (filtering out midi 9-16, as I was getting some cross talk and loops in the midi channels)
Moog Minitaur
MIDI to TRS Midi box for tabletop midi pedals
Morningstar MC6 > Eventide H9s
Boomerang III (receiving clock)

I can now, all at once, send OT LFOs to my H9s, arm record trigs on the OT with my foot (as well as send a variety of CCs for whatever), control some quick parameters on my H9s with the faderfox or mc6, other things I’m not thinking about just now.

It’s really eye opening to see the benefit of not just a splitter, but merging, routing, filtering. It’s the most robust thing I’ve done with midi, and I feel like I’m in very early understanding.

Lasly, these things are pretty cost effective, and they have a package that comes with 4 1.5m TRS to DIN midi cables, so you don’t have to order a ton of TRS Midi A dongles.

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Midi routing question
#2

Looks good indeed. If only it could load code wrote for the rk-002. So many possibilities with the rk-002. Not complaining about the rk-006, just dreaming…

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#3

It works really well, my kenton midi hub is getting lonely…

#4

OK, this looks excellent, however, while looking at their site I just discovered the RK-002 cable and this is exactly what I have been looking for … I think! I have been wanting to filter clock messages from Octatrack to Mother32 while still sending clock to other devices. I just need to ensure this works with my midi thru hub.

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#5

SonicState just ran a video about it, as part of Superbooth:


Now I want one, but they’re sold out at the moment.
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#6

You can power RK002’s on the RK006 and With the split-mode on the RK006 you can even loop it back and use the RK002 as a very complex midi fx insert chain.

Of course we thought about putting more processing stuff into the RK006 but as it is already at the moment it is just jam-packed and we don’t want to scare off people who just want to use it as a ‘plain hub’. Most requests we got the last 4 years in terms of midi processing it just clock / clock transport filtering and that is already built in (plus the device filtering on USB host mode). Also we made some extras as ‘midi channel to port’ and device chaining because on a device which so much outputs that just made sense.

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#8

The RK006 already has this feature built in too (together with per-port multiclock) you can look around in its setting page here: https://www.retrokits.com/rk006/settings/

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#9

We can handle it!

I’ve got mine in place and moving smooth. Really simple, easy, effective!

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#10

ah yeah, not complaining at all. very happy with the rk002! I’ve saw them out of stock on the shop and seriously considering hoarding extras from juno!

#11

Awesome, I was just coming here to find info or post about this one, great to see this recent thread! I’m not too experienced with more advanced midi stuff, someone care to share what midi filtering would be useful for for example?

Looks like a great product for the price, if it’s not too complicated. I’m actually looking for a merger at the moment, but they’re quite pricey for the single purpose. Recently I was needing a midi host, and I’m also figuring out how to easily sync (or even midi sequence) my midi devises (DT for example) with semi modular (Dfam). This looks like it will do all these tricks, and offer more utility in the future.

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#12

In my rig, I have a faderfox UC4 controller that is (among other things) controlling different CCs of the Octatrack’s 8 audio tracks. In order for values not to jump, the UC4, also receives midi from the OT, so it knows where the values are if they change. Bi-directional communication. The OT is also controlling some midi devices. One of them receives notes low enough that if sent back to the OT, will trigger some unwanted track and transport stuff. To overcome this, I use the 006 to filter Channels 9-16 from being sent back to the OT and getting that unwanted cross talk that affects transport.

Another example: if you have a robust rig, and are using all 16 midi channels, you can use two devices on the same channel, but different ports, so maybe one is using its own sequencer, but needs a shared clock, filter out the shared channel so you don’t accidentally sequence it externally.

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#13

Perfect, great examples, thanks @mr_bernard

So basically you can select which midi channels get passed along per port by filtering?

I’ll probably only fully figure the specific applications out when a problem comes along in the future, that forces you to figure it out haha, but clear enough to understand that this should provide lots of troubleshooting / setup possibilities. Thanks again

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#14

Exactly. However, the way RetroKits has the editor setup, you don’t have “per port” filters. You have a filtering section where you can create five different filters with various options, and apply them to ports. I like this, because it’s easy to create one clock filter, for example, and send it to several ports, rather than configure several ports.

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#15

Ah I see. And I don’t even have a midi interface yet, so this would also tick that box. Looks like a nice piece of kit

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#16

I didn’t have a USB host, or a merge! Just had a splitter. It’s absurdly low/well priced for what it does, and I love the size.

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#17

Haha …

Well, I guess I can find another use for the RK-002 :slight_smile:

#18

Don’t let the stock listing on the website scare you off. I ordered when it said ‘backordered’ and it shipped 3 days later…and now it is 90 miles away and getting closer! (along with an 002…midi mayhem coming soon)

If you are unsure, ask… Garrit has been amazingly accommodating and quick to respond. I can’t say enough about his great service so far.

4 Likes
#20

Yes, their service is amazing. My package came very quickly (within days from the Netherlands to the States), and it was damaged by FedEx (most contents missing). They got me a replacement in my hands within less than a week. The RK-006 is amazing.

3 Likes
#21

I just discovered this device, read the manual and webpage in their entireties, but am still just not quite sure if this device can do a few things and have a couple questions:

First, and I’m not hopeful, but I’m attempting to find an alternate/cheaper solution to an ER-M Multiclock in the sense that multiple 5pin and USB midi devices can be reasonably synced to something like logic. I believe this to not be that kind of solution. Can anyone vouch for how tightly this can sync hardware to Logic or Ableton, assuming a fast Mac and quality low latency/solid audio interface?

Alternatively, even without perfect DAW sync, simply being able to sync hardware together perfectly by splitting clock to all devices without the latency introduced by chaining OR even the initial latency between the master clock device and slaves through a splitter - by having all playback devices on the receiving side of the 006 and using either internal 006 clock out (Is tempo precisely assignable via preset rather than tap? With my samplers I want the clock BPM to be exact; anybody know if inputting an exact tempo to make the 006 the master clock is possible, either via preset or some sort of midi input trickery?) or inputting clock from another less important device for the master sync. I came up with this because a current issue I’m having is the DT slaved to the OT introduces just enough latency (with shorter brand new 3’ midi cable) that layering kicks makes a slight flam sound. My thinking is having all devices on the receiving end of a Midi splitter would solve this as they’d all theoretically receive the same clock at the same time assuming the same cable lengths. There are other splitters, but this seems to have lots of other useful functionality, and the plentiful outputs works well for my all gear on the receiving side theory since you lose a master device and gain a slave.

Also, can each port’s clock be nudged to align devices that differ in reacting to incoming sync? I could not find this info but seems like it would be fairly simple and very useful…

Sorry for the wall of text, but thank you for your help.

#22

I just got one of these and it’s amazing. I set it up as a test today and ended up getting the OP-1 via USB, 606 via SYNC24, and TB03+SH01A via MIDI synced to/controlled by the Pyramid, without any issues at all. I did have to make a custom DINSYNC -> 3.5mm cable because I forgot to order one from them but even that ended up being easy. I think this is, along with the Pyramid, is going to help me get into using more of my gear together, simply because it can handle so much plugged into it at once, with different sync schemes.

I’m mostly amazed that I’ve managed to get my OP-1 to play nicely with other gear, finally! I know I could have easily done it using any other USB MIDI host device, but it seemed way easier to justify spending the money on this.

Yeah, but I believe there are only two presets on the device. So unless all your music is the same tempo, it’s probably not very useful to have it as your clock source if not using tap tempo.

Yes:

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