Nothing gets me in the mood for making music like reading some physics papers

Just the fact that this cable runs off the midi power, and doesn't require a separate power adapter is magical.

Got the Retrokits RK-002 for my Kaossilator Pro+ thanks to you and this video. It really allows for much more precision while using the Kaossilator Pro+. Many thanks for bringing this magical MIDI cable to our attention! You rock!🤘🤙

Very cool!! thanks for giving it a whirl - and congrats on the MusicTech award! 😉

Christmas was just a month ago and now it's here again!

I use the RK-002 as my instant-IDM machine. I play a combination of triggered acoustic drums and electric drums and the cable goes from my drum module (Nord Drum 2) to my sampler-sequencer (Digitakt or MPC500). I use the RK-002 to add velocity dependent sample layers to my drums, to send midi CCs on certain drum hits. And as a way to find “magic sequences” in the drum hits that will then send program changes and sequence changes. This way I can build a framework for playing a jam on my drums only, switching to the drops and halftime basslines by playing certain fills, switching snares, and muting stuff when I play certain types of beats. It’s quite rigid really, but better than a simple loop for 30 minutes

This is an awesome episode of better gear. I am ordering one of these today.

nothing much to say about the vid itself, just wanted to say that yourd vids always crack me up, you're probably one of the funniest people i follow on youtube. keep it up! -new subscriber from northern italy

Better gear for a better year Love your stuff m8 keep it coming Tasty jam at the end.

This really tempts me to look into the RK-002. I also really liked that little jam and the end.

This is really cool! I hadn't heard of it before, thanks for the video!

Love my 002. I use it on the digitakt as you did, for inspiration and fun. Nice job legend! Definitely makes my bad gear, great gear. :)

I really admire you for your channel and you music. Well done ✅

I've been writing a RK002 script this year for Novation Circuit that adds Chord Mode, Random Patch Flip, Patch parameter randomizer, Splitting octaves into separate midi channels, and session chaining. RK002 is so versatile. I use the Tempo (45 - 55) and the bottom note to set which mode each synth is in.

Saw the video (great as always), googled the manufacturer's website and saved it instantly for future purchases :) Great review

Would have loved to see a more in depth exploration of the polyphony capabilities with the Digitakt! Love your content.

I got a RK-002 when I first got into the Volca Sample. I put it away (maybe lost it?) when I pajen's firmware fixed the things I didn't like about the Sample. I didn't even consider using it to fix the weirdness of the MIDI on the Korg Kaossilator Pro. Now that I'm going through my old unused gear to sell most of it, I guess I'll have to move the Kaossilator Pro out of the "Sell" box and try it. Thanks for making this video! Informative as always.

Great concept and reasonably priced. The polka was strong in this video.

Would love to see a Better Gear episode on the Retokits RK-008 midi recorder. That thing is a beast. Give any synth or groovebox an insanely powerful song mode with automation and program changes? Yes please!

I gotta get one of these. Thanks for the great video.

I’m shocked you don’t have 500k subscribers. I’m new to your channel. Subscribed 👊

Nifty cable! Glad it made the Digitakt usable 😉

You just made me order one. While it might take eternities to arrive in Kuala Lumpur I just dug out my Kaossilator Pro from the cupboard where it peacefully lived in exile since long . Looking forward how it will work together with the octatrack.

Great video! Thank you ❤

Nice jam at the end!

I used a custom firware to connect my boutique Tr-08 to my Digitakt. Had to modify the code (i'm no coder but I bodged something) but could have used the original firmware. I use the song mode of the roland 808 to trigger drum samples on the Digitakt. It's a great cable, thanks for your video !

Geile Folge , vorallem für uns Gear-nerds😁 man kann das Rk002 auch benutzen , um mehrere volca keys für mehr polyphony zu chainen! So kann man sich billig nen Monster-synth basteln. Es lebt - Franken-Volca

What!? Im new to midi world but I do see this is better than the external ctrl the kop uses with usb. Totally checking out that non-cable !! Thanks again good man. Greetings from Perú

Danke für die better Gear Serie.. Is viel better.. Cool 😎

@audiopilz thanks to you, I bought a microFreak today!!! Looking forward to learning and making some music!!

Right then. I definitely have to get one of these too when I get my Digitakt.

Retrokits makes incredible utilities. I own an RK-006, which it now permanently mounted into my dawless jam rig as well as countless TRS-X adapters. Everyone should support them!!

subscribed! thanks for your interesting videos!

i love my rk-002. i f ed around with a bit and tried some weird shit out but settled on just leaving it going into my korg sampler and using the clock divider patch from the website. it is great. my korg electribe emx-1 runs at tempo and korg sampler is at half that tempo. i have my korg volca fm after all that synced off my midiclock+ and quarter time relative to the main tempo. good chit mang.

Ever considered doing "just good gear" episodes? That Korg NTS...NTF?-1 is the best piece of gear I bought in 2020. I love some of the free and paid oscillators so much. The effects are insane for a $99 box WITH line in...what was Korg thinking??

Alright now were talking 💪💯 digging these hacks thank you

I was going to build this from an arduino! Thanks you saved me some time!

Wow Digitakt, I have some serious gear envy!

Great piece of gear- having been influenced by your previous bad gear if I’m almost ready to waste money on a Korg kaoscillator pro- this cable would be the must have accessory I would also get..

good Florian! I´ve done the same with a Midisolutions Proccesor plus on the Kaossilator

You have inspired me to try the Euclidian feature in my Squid.

Just got this for the koas+ to run with my korg minilogue bass and is awesome together!

Saw the video, got the cable for the Digitakt: not mentioned here , but using the sample flip for finger drumming is awesome

2 in less than 7 days! Damn! We are at the end of days..❤️

Didn't realise it was that easy to swap firmwares after you mentioned the RK002 in the Kaossillator Pro video.

I have one of these and it's amazing what it can do with such a tiny chip in the plug. The velocity for Volca FM was worth it for me, it turns it into a completely different instrument. It was really cheap of Korg to never include that functionality.

Ich liebe diesn Channel

Gotten one for having velocity on the volca FM - but now there is that 3rd party OS for the FM and the RK002 can be repurposed. Greek philosopher sequencer sounds like a good idea. :) Oh - I think one can also play several mono synths polyphonically - like three monologues or so.

FYI. Current version of Microsoft Edge is built on Chromium, and also supports Web MIDI without any plugin. (on macOS and Windows)

I used to do stuff like this with Logic's environment layer, I made my Electribe ES1 respond to midi notes by scaling the pitch knob, and did the matrix 1000 filter control thing. I suppose there are a lot of computer environments where you could do this kind of thing, like PureData or Max.. but damn this looks way easier.

Kinda amazing something like this is even possible

So if HP Lovecraft was a producer, he would probably claim his music was non-euclidean.

A better gear omg this day just got better

And I noticed you changed your format!!!! I gotta get a digitakt now

the pajen firmware on the volca sample is awesome. he did one for the volca fm too.

Well you’ve sold it for me. I can’t wait to give it a run with the Syntakt and see what I can wring out of it.

I used the rk002 for sequencing my kaossilator pro for a while with a zaquencer. Better gear+better gear = greater gears

i didn't understand anything you explain and yet i feel more aware of possibilities

I want that lead so i can add the kaosillator to my live set midi chain. Buying that lead will be like buying a new synth!🤩

Oh that end demo! How to create a really bad TB303 simulation using a Kaoscillator, and RC2 smart midi cable, and a lot of effort!! Even Euclid calculated that it would be a total disaster and waste of time. (It was neat to see the KO automated however.) Probably not a configuration I'll be adding to my rig soon. It might be nice to have some easily automated Matrix-1000 filters however...

those beats sound perfect for neo-disco

I used my RK-002 recently to let me change MIDI channels on my reface CS via program change messages. Otherwise, you have to power cycle the synth and hold down a certain key. Yikes, Yamaha! Any of the reface series would make for a good episode of Bad Gear. I love these cheap and cheerful keyboards, but they have a number of annoying flaws (midi dongle, weird phrase looper, inscrutable configuration system, mini keys, etc.)

Nice one Cyril

Hey cool... Thank you... Got my Special Cable for my Kaossilator... Now i can play my Kaossilator like Mozart haha... How about a video about Yamaha QY 20... Or Casio Sk-1? Cheers from 🇨🇦

I use it to play my Model: Cycles (as a sort of multi-timbral FM-synth) from my Digitakt, 1-4 are set so they cycle through them, so I can get 4-note polyphony, and then 5 is for bass sounds, and 6 is for an arp. It's insane how much this cable opened up what I could do with the Cycles! Now I'm going to try some Euclidean rhythms, great tip!

Time to finally dust off this kaossilator. Thank you so much for this game changer!

Oh wow I thought this cable was purpose built for volca sample only. Did I miss the memo? I was going to get one until Pajen came out. If I can use it with other stuffs too imma get one. "volca FM velocity fix"? Holy crap!

Now I know. And knowledge is half the battle!

wow! thank you for this idea, how to use the chaossilator as a normal synth!!!

Shoutout to Gearfacts for figuring the Kaossilator out with the RK002 paving the way

nice "frühling" sample from Paul Kalkbrenner in the intro :)

I bought one of these for my Volca bass and sample and it’s an amazing piece of gear. I’m now in the market for a sampler with similar functions as the Digitakt and I think you finally sold me on it. However, this looks more complicated than the routing I had to do for my Volcas! On another note...I had a really terrible zoom drum machine that I used for years, the Zoom Rhythm Trak RT 323 in see-thru blue. The programming was clunky, the sounds generic, endless menu diving...I think it qualifies as bad gear.

Wrote a small duy program to use rk002 as a midi cable for Behringer Fcb1010 foot controller with and Boss looper RC505. It allows to turn on and off the recordings of RC50 without buying an alternative firmware UNO chip for FCB1010. Momentizer of a foot controller switches.

I wonder would it be possible to make one of these for the Reface CS? I love mine to bits but I wonder if it's possible to use loopback to give it velocity sensitivity(the keyboard outputs velocity, so you'd just need to map it to volume, maybe cutoff)

Reminds me to figure out something to do with mine. I ended up putting the unofficial firmware on my Sample and FM.

I almost bought the kaossolator recently. But I got the mini instead. IDK maybe later.. it looks like it's going to hurt my brain yet might be worth it with all that midi info you dished out.

Wondering if this is a good workaround to use the volca drum with a midi sequencer (ex an MPC 1000)? As of right now I don't think there is a way to assign each of the 6 parts to a midi controller, you can only trigger one sound at a time. If anyone has insight on this, would be much appreciated

Nice! Can you show us how that other thing RK gave you makes gear better? I need more midi tricks!

So many people who sold their kaossolator Pro are probably kicking themselves right now

Ive always wished I could do more with a few of the KaosPro patches. This channel is so good for these sort of things! but has also given me pause... why do I own/ have I owned a version of most things that make it on this chanellll....

I watched this a while back thinking: What do I need this for... Well... how about a pseudo-polyphonic Evolver... Yeah! OK, I went insane trying to load the firmware, as I had recently gone back to using my old Edirol VStudio100 that didn't get recognised by the DUY... neither did any other instrument that had USB and MIDI (VG99, SY1000, Keystep37, Octatrack, Primova MIDX-20 and even tried my loopers, RC202 and Voicelive3...), but then I remembered I have two Blokas MIDI-Hubs under my desktops, and again, Blokas saves the day! Loaded firmware, works great though the Evolver isn't really made for this sort paraphonic kind of thing unless you sequence it like that. Still, great fun and great video, again!

cool !!

I’m kinda confused about what the hell is going on here, but I think it’s neat you’ve gotten your tiny dancefloor working again

Hell yeah

Have been wanting that cable for my Volca Sample for years. Maybe soon?

It would be awesome if this device was able to control some of the obscure functions of Microsampler that cannot yet should be controllable. I would definitely get it then.

thanks

I would love to use this to figure out a way to play the Akai s612/AX60 Sampler In combo through midi. It cycles through 6 channels

I'm trying to trigger my Kaossilator with an Arturia Keystep, and it seems the RK002 will be necessary to do this. If I'm understanding this correctly, I need an audio interface to power the RK002. I'm trying to go for a dawless set up but I'm still figuring out the technicalities and want to make sure I'm on the right track before purchasing something.

Crazy Guy! ♥️

Am I understanding it correctly that the Digitakt's Euclidian parameters introduce an element of scalable randomness into the patterns? And this scalability of randomness in on a per sound basis? (Not Global) Does the elektron digitone offer this as well? Thank you for the video

Haha you stirred up that hive of rabid Electron fans! Now i have to read "The Euclidian algorithm generates traditional musical rhythms" by G. Toussaint, thanks to alerting me to it. The extended version is particularly good. And to smart MIDI cables!

I'm using mine for my volca Sample. Now I get pitched samples via MIDI, and only need 1 MIDI channel instead of 10!!. It means it's a more viable piece of kit in a DAWless setup with my Deluge.

Any suggestions for midi interfaces that are compatible for programming RK002? Gonna buy my first one an wanna make sure I’ll be able to program the cable. With my luck I’ll choose one that one program the cable! :/

Does the RK002 allow poliphony sounds vía MiDi from keyboard to Kaossilator?

Is it possible to record the sequence created by the euclidean sequencer into digitakt so you could then free up the midi ports for other duties afterwards, or is the only option to keep the sequencer running? Thanks for this video btw, I am likely getting one of these now just for that sequencer

I’m still confused about playing td3 cassette tapes on technics1200 with a credit card bar code .. can you fill me in a out the way it works / also the the Raleigh grifter .,gear sync

Sorry to be the "ask a question in the comments" guy, but does anyone know if you can use the rk002 to make the novation circuit rhythm polyphonic? I know there are ways to make your own firmware, but I have no idea where to even start with that. Any info would be greatly appreciated! Love bad gear and better gear by the way! Keep it up! 👋

Got an orange midi cable before pajen release. After that I realized that I suck at production, not Volca has non-intuitive interface.

I got to ask. How did you setup that silver oxygen midi keyboard to play midi into external gear without using it with a daw. I tried several times with a volca bass and it never worked. Do you need to set the midi channel first to acquire midi from other devices?