RetroKits RK-008 sequencer | Alesis MMT-8 recreated 

Thanks Espen, glad you took a try on it!

The RK008 looks pretty cool, but with the growing interest in DAWless set-ups I'm actually surprised Alesis hasn't reissued the MMT-8. After all, it was such an easy/intuitive, fun and incredibly popular bit of kit. If they reissued it tomorrow with added CV and removable storage/SD I'd buy one in a heartbeat! As for the dodgy buttons, I just fixed up my old HR-16 a few weeks ago. I replaced the slide pots, battery and touched up the contacts with graphite paint and now it works as good as new!

I made a working MMT-8 from two broken ones last year. Great to see there is a new option!

Though the MMT-8 and the HR-16 had their limitations, that was my first MIDI sequencer/drum machine combo, in which I spent many nights creating and having so much fun with those machines. Lots of great memories using them. Back when Alesis was in its heyday. 😊

I bought the RK008 a few months back to replace the MMT8s I've had since the 90s. It is brilliant. Not as instantly intuitive, but has a lot to offer. It has been incorporated into my workflow almost seamlessly, and I use it daily to create. So far I am thoroughly impressed and very grateful to Grit for keeping me updated with firmware improvements. I'd love an even bigger memory, but back up of MIDIs is easy, so it's a minor gripe.

Really interesting that they'd see a big enough market for this to design and manufacture it. I think that's a very positive sign, that enough people are using sequencers with MIDI outside DAWs! Very nice. Great shirt too, buddy! ☀👍🏻

The $K-008 is on my wish list. I too have an MMT8. I refurbished mine with a new bright blue LED display and cleaned all of the contacts for the buttons and repainted the contacts with conductive paint. It runs like new again. I also did the contacts this way with my Korg ER-1. I highly recommend refurbishing the MMT-8.

Thanks Espen! I want one even more now.

MMT 8 was my first sequencer. Sweet Memories.

You took me back to the 80s and 90s with that MMT8 ..I loved mine !,😊

Nice song. Thanks for the demo

Cool lil piece, but I gotta say, your shirt is even cooler. Great colors on you Espen, stay stylish.

So refreshing to find someone who doesn’t just do quantised beats in a demo...made me realise I’d benn missing that from so many sequencers

Good news for us original mmt-8 users.

I just bought one, can’t wait to try it. The mmt8 is one of the most inspiring sequencers

Espen, I love how dialed into 80’s music you are! One can almost guess which year in the 80’s one of your original tracks was inspired by! So impressive!

Very tempted to make a song in the workflow shown in the video. I like this midi calculator.

That thing is one of the CUTES things I've ever seen, it's downright Adorable. It's like a calculator but an extremely capable midi sequencer in ultra-portable shape. NICE.

Great video Espen and some nice 80s sounds. The RK-008 has a Kraftwerk 'pocket calculator' vibe (which was inspired by those Casio Music calculators of 1979/80 period). I remember seeing videos of Superbooth 2021 demoing the RK-008 and wondered if it had survived the chip shortage, well now I know. Cheers.

Absolute awesomeness.😁 Also my 1st sequencer. Excellent video!

Amazing

What a beautiful set of sounds you use. Especially the bass 😊

I still have the HR-16. It was the first Midi device I purchased. It help me learn a lot about creating drum parts. Always wanted the MMT 8 but went with a Mac and EZVision instead.

Nice longer look at this Machine . Been eying it and theRK006 for a while . Note : It can apparently take data dumps from the MMT8 too

Love the Rk008, although a pocket clone, it actually has a lot of extra tricks up its sleeve! I even uploaded a mid file to it, and it could play all the separate parts out to my synths

An Alpha Juno, an MMT8, all my youth... The Orbital's Hartnolls brothers used a bunch of them for their live gigs in those times. Despite its temperamental push buttons(graphite contacts problem) I loved this machine, it was for me a big step forward from my Yamaha QX21. But when I switched to Atari+Notator, well, the future was in the home studio! 😀

That's really cool. I have been thinking about busking with synths and drum machines. I use the sequencers on my KeyStep Pro all the time. So a compact battery powered sequencer is just the thing for a busking setup. I just need to figure out a battery solution for my RD-6 drum machine and TD-3 bass synth.

Outstanding review! I love the Alesis MMT-8 and was wondering about the RetroLots RK-008. So far my MMT-8 is still very useable but the possibility of added info on the screen on the RK-008 has potential. Even though I mainly use a DAW for MIDI tracking I do still use the MMT-8 just because it is so familiar and has the advantage of discrete editing without the dreaded mouse-induced repetitive stress syndrome. FWIW there are quite a few artists/producers still using the MMT-8. Steve Roach is one I know of for sure. It amazes me how great equipment can span the years regardless of tech advancements.

Wow, that is really cool! Still using my MMT-8 and HR-16.. Love the MMT, just a little limited in the memory department but the interface is great and glad they made this.

it was a cool video.I had daws and now I'm on samplers.I hope one day I could at least try making a song with a sequencer

Had to have one of these and I'm not disappointed at all. Despite the size I still find it easier to work with than my MC-50.

Tip for rejuvenating the mmt buttons , use a standard hole punch on some tin foil, the resulting foil discs are perfectly sized to be stuck on the contact pad on the underside of the buttons. I did it on a hr16 20 years ago , still as good as when I did it.

I asked for this video and now it is a reality. Thank you Mr. Kraft. Your video's are an inspiration. I get the feeling that you're not an MPC user. Still....I'd love to hear your take on the JJOS for the MPC 1000. It out-performed the MPC LIVE/X/One upon those units initial release. OR...if you want to tell the community about †he obscure manufacturers "MAM" (Music And More). They made some amazing kit and feel like I've seen it in your rack.

Is that a genuine 80s Casio Marlin you're sporting on your wrist there, Espen? Nice watch and nice video!

Thanks for the really nice and informative video. I have been painstakingly assembling my songs on a Yamaha QX21 first, and now on a QX5, thanks in great part to your inspiration (and yes, I understand I can afford the luxury of working that way because music is not what I make a living on). I was considering the RK008 but a Retrokits representative told me that the linear workflow on the QX series is quite different from the MMT8, and therefore the RK-008. However with track bouncing, etc. it actually looks similar. Nevertheless your video mentions a limit to the size of an individual pattern, which might be a point of departure (i.e. you can't just record until.memory runs out as im the QX sequencers). You also mention that you cannot edit individusl events, if I umderstood correctly. That would definitely be a major difference. And I suppose it is not possible to change the beats per bar mid-track? The Yamaha QX series are incredibly flexible sequencers, I hope someone would remake them with an SD card slot and more RAM...

Seeing the original next to the mini is like seeing a cash register nest to a pocket calculator. As the owner of a qun mk2, all that power in such a small footprint can make learning challenging. Also, great k3 patch. Was my first synth and wish I hadn't given it away

I really love this, and have been thinking for a long time about making an MMT-8 replica in software. This is such a clean design job and I love the form factor, but like a lot of other commenters I'm a little put off by the present cost. I get that this was a heck of a lot of work for probably one or two designers, but given that it's almost certainly written on commodity microprocessors and other hardware, we are also mostly paying for software. If RetroKits can find a way to offer this in, well, a kit form like their RK-003 and a few other similar items in their current catalog, and sell it for closer to 200-250 euros, I'd be in. I'm deducing from the comments here that many other folks have a hard limit of around 200 euros for something like this in fully built form, which I don't find totally fair either given the vast differences in scale of expected sales vs. something like the Volcas etc., but it is a market observation. I do also want to provide kudos to RetroKits for at least not trying to charge on the level of the Dirtywave M8 for this (another project where you're paying, and I would say very dearly indeed, mostly for the software).

Super cool but also super expensive. If the price goes down a bit it might be a solid purchase!

The OG is still available for about 1/4 of the price.

Thanks Espen, Seems a great piece of gear, glad theyve made it. ...........I understand there are development costs but personally Im struggling to understand why the premium price?..

After a few years, my MMT-8 and HR-16 looked like I had run over them in a car. I used them until they broke. I can't even imagine how someone manages to make something like this look so new today. Is that VFX? 😁

Hi there, thanks for a great demo. I only have one question - in realtime recording can you switch tracks without stopping? Say record baseline on track 1 from external synth 1 then without stopping switch to track 2 and record pads from external synth 2? Many thanks!!

I also started on an MMT-8 and miss it! That thing was so easy to use. Button maintenance became an issue in the end though. The RK looks good, but a bit small and fiddly maybe?

Interesting! Like the Accord Sequarallel (which is even smaller haha) but this doesn't do as much ;)

Hello Espen, can I save files from Alesis MMT-8 (and from M1 and D-50) into MIDI-OX? Thank you very much.

Really nice looking device (and I love the MMT8 original too, got three of them!), but the price for the RK-008 is insane, €360, or €406 for the version with wooden sides, yep that's €40 for two tiny slivers of wood ! Anyhow, looks amazing, but out of my price range.

I was really interested in this when they first announced the concept, but since purchasing an mmt8 from eBay last year I’m not sure I will bite, unless the add editing of notes and timings. I loved my old mmt8 back in the late 90s, early 2000s, and love my new one, but if they add editing I will certainly consider it some more. Does it have the old bummer dude memory full when you run out of space?

Surely there is no need to save separate patterns with certain tracks erased in order to mute individual tracks in song mode? Doesn't the RK-008 allow track mutes in song mode like the MMT-8 does?

Love this! Does it have Step Record mode at all? I know it has real time record but haven’t heard if it has Step Record

Hi! Is there a option to mute channels individually by pressing the buttons for live performance, like mmt8? thanks

I think the price is a bit steep (€ 435,- in the Netherlands for the basic version), especially considering it does not offer note editing. If I was in the market for a hardware sequencer, I’d rather buy a Roland MC-50 (mk I or mk II). They’re going for between € 100,- and € 150,- and sometimes even cheaper.

Looks interesting, however back in the 80s everyone that I knew used the Atari ST and no hardware sequencer any more. Maybe it was rather the late 80s.

😮😮😮

You are so talented. We have to clone you

I'm missing the simplicity of my C-Lab Notator Atari ST setup, this looks very close.

I am not sure I understand how things can layer like this when there are patch changes on the synths. The pads seem to be just from the Prophet, but the lead and bass are coming from the same synth. How does this work? Do you have to use a patch with keyboard splits? Something else?

I love it, but can't justify the price unless you really need to save space. The MMT-8 isn't really rare or expensive. Does it have the metronome jack? A simple mod makes that a very flexible trigger output on the original.

Does it beat the Squarp Pyramid?

I was just thinking making music without a DAW and instead with a sequencer.

£349, nice but a bit pricey for an MMT8. Would like to hear them side by side with a 4/4 kick and hat pattern.

Does it give you the "Bummer, dude! Memory is Full" message when you run out of memory?

Nice piece of gear...but the price it totally crazy....

Is it one of your released tracks?

I really think they missed the point here - why calculator sized? Why just mimic the functionality of the MMT-8? Seems they just made a micro-MMT-8 with additional memory. Don't they know that most of us synth-nerds have fat-finger syndrome? (well, I do) I wish someone would take the underlying concept of the MMT-8 and build on it in the same form factor more or less. Like, have 16 track buttons which double as a step-sequencer also, just for starters. Anyway thanks for the review :)

Looks like a pocket calculator from the 80s, lol!

WARNING: I lovingly used the MMT-8 in the early 90's but then... not once but twice... I lost a year's worth of data. I turned it on and everything was gone. So I lost 2 years of work. Make sure you back up your stuff with the MMT-8.

Aat least with this you can pretend you're doing your maths homework...

Not a real mmt if the piezo click isn't making everyone else in the house want to 💀 you haha!

I just threw an MMT-8 in the trash a week ago

Can we get a proper tutorial?

Looks great , but standard 5 pin midi DIN in the rear wouldve been better imo

t would be great to see a company like Behringer release a clone of the original, sans the "one tap amnesia" default. I like the tactile feel of the OG version. To bring it up to date, there could be the addition of a SIM/USB, a simple GUI on the desktop for project Song/Pattern loading and archiving (thru USB), as well as a more prominent display, even double the height would be fine, if not still fantastic. (Please put a stamp on this a send it right away to Santa!)

Cool but that thing is $500 and an mmt8 is way cheaper

$500 is way too high for what it is. At $250 it will be pretty much a no brainer.

Overpriced

This gadget costs two times more than my computer with a DAW and amps, speakers and all other stuff. Why on earth do they produce that "multitrack midi recorder" (?!) in 2023 ? On the otherhand, it should cost 4 bucks like any other pocket calculator, and not 400.