Behringer RD-6-AM Analog Drum Machine, High-Quality Sound

If you remember the original TR 606, you will rember that it actually was NOT that good of a drum machine for what they go for. Cheap plastic, non tweakable drum sounds and a price that was way too much for what you got. But, when prices crashed in the early 90's, Acid House musicians made these the hot machine to get. The new Behringer RD-6 actually improves on the original, with a distortion section and semi-individual outputs. The cheap plastic construction is still there, but would it be a 606 without it? The sound is nearly identical to the original after A/B'ing the two. I say "nearly", because for some reason they swiped the clap from a Boss rhythm machine and placed it on the exact same channel as the hi hat. This means that not only is the gain shared between the two, but so is the output. This leads to some minor irritation trying to get a live jam mix balanced, but if that is the worst sin this machine makes, I can live with that. The distortion section is nice and crunchy and the pattern creation is as simple as it gets. I had this out of the box and patched making music in no more than 5 minutes. The yellow colour is cute, too. A far more fun change from the easily bashed up silver of the original. Is it a clone? Yes. But, Roland overcharges for nostalgia anyways, and at the end of the day, Behringer actually improved on both the 303 and 606.

amazing product, if you are new to music and synths basically a great device

This is a nice little machine, but the build quality is extremely flimsy and I'm not sure it will last more than a year or two. Which is probably fine, given the low price. This is just my personal preference, but I would have been delighted if Behringer charged a little more on their current batch of clones and upped the build quality a notch or two. But Behringer has a well-deserved reputation for bargain basement gear, and I guess you get what you pay for...

……also, bad instructions and terrible tech support.

The RD-6 is exactly what it purports to be: a clone (improved in those areas where it is not exact) of one of the classic analog drum machines the Roland TR-606, a defining, usually in the company of its intended companion device, the Roland TB-303 bassline synthesizer, element of the Acid House sound. While there are a few nice added features that the original TB-303 didn't have, the machine is, at its heart, an early 80's drum machine. The analog drum sounds are nicely dialed in to begin with, which is good because there is nothing you can do to them without modifying the device except adjust their volume. If you want a tweakable analog drum machine, look at the TD-8. 4In particular, the hats on this machine are simply gorgeous. Brassy and complex. There are a few differences between this device and the original: 1) this adds a clap sound taken from the Boss DR-110, which is nice because it's a great clap, 2) It has USB midi (but not usb audio), and it has an added Distortion section based on the Boss DS-1. However, it's NOT a modern instrument in any sense. It's exactly what it's a clone of, actually, a cheap, plastic, drum machine which was paired with a cheap plastic bassline synth (which sounds nothing like a bass) and was basically a commercial failure. People complaining about the construction have probably never held a real one. This thing sounds great, and it's a lot of drum machine for the money.

Once I figure it all out I'll have tons of fun there's so many YouTube videos on how it works Behringer rocks for the price for sure the way to go

Awesome

If you’re looking for a great replication of the famous TR-606, this is the unit to have. It’s made even better when syncing it up with the TD-3. No, you can’t edit the drum sounds. It does what it does. But it sounds great. It has full USB and MIDI capabilities, so you can sync it with other synths, use it with a DAW, and you can play the drums manually through MIDI. It is limited, but it’s cheap. And that makes it worth it. If you want to do more, then save your pennies and spend the extra two to three hundred bucks for those features you n other units. But you can’t knock this, because the price is cheap. And for that you get a genuine analogue drum machine. Even if it’s just used as a toy to mess around with, it’s still worth picking one up.