Roland TR-06 in-depth review & comparison with Behringer RD-6 

The Behringer sounds like an 606. It was "famous" (or rather infamous) for its very metallic hi hats. The Roland sounds like a mix of an 808 and a 606.

I really like how they(a lot of the companies)are making smaller less expensive units that still have the same types of features and sounds. It let's me know that I can have stepping stones up to their other units and can have some of the basics down and not be overwhelmed. Thanks for this!

Video of the month for me. This is the video I was hoping to see and it came out literally the day I found out about the TR-06. Thanks so much for sharing. I have subscribed.

These are definitely for different people... If you just want someone that will work in a digital workflow or in a compact set-up, the Roland is king. If you are like me (and have a bunch of pedals that you want to chuck individual elements through) or want the cheapest 606, Behringer does that!

That was a great comparison! Honest and enjoyable to watch! Thank you 😊

Another very good video ! Thanks Bo. Very interesting as usual this rythm machine seems very interesting.

First I’d like to say, @bobeats your vids are one of the best. I appreciate the audio quality in your vids. Some gear reviewers have their voice louder than the product they’re reviewing, which makes no sense. Thank you❗️#greatproduction

Great review & comparison, thank you so much, Bo!!!

Great review. Really enjoyed the comparison. Was looking for a review of both devices. Played around with the TB03 recently.

That was a really useful video and an honest comparsion, top job!

This is just what we all needed. Great vid!

Yes! Once again a great vid. I am looking for something on current affordable analog drum machines and there you are. 😀

The Exact Video I was looking for! Thank you @Bobeats!

I must admit, I have been considering purchasing the Behringer (when it became available) for a long time, but now that I have seen the Roland version, I think it beats it hands down. Nothing against Behringer gear, I have some of it myself and it is excellent, but the difference in build quality, sound and sheer versatility is definitely more marked between these two models.

I don't love 606's so won't get either, but in my mind the clear winner is the Roland - so much more sound shaping possible.

The Roland sounds better. I like the crazy colors behringer put on these clones.

Awesome review Bo 😊🙏🏻

Nice video! I enjoyed it. In the blind test I preferred the Roland when listening via iphone speakers, and preferred the Behringer when listening via headphones.

Thanks for the insight Bo!

Love the individual analog outs.

Great review. Both sound great. To me the Roland sounds crispier in the high end and the Behringer is a little dirtier. However, one key feature that I'm looking for is individual outs, because that opens up a whole new world of soundscaping with just the eq of a mixer. Since it's also cheaper, I've decided to get the Behringer.

Nice presentation Bo, as usual! :) I prefer the behringer one!

Great review. Having owned a couple of TB303's a TR606, Juno106, MC202 and TR909 years ago which have now been replaced with the Boutique version I'd say I prefer the modern reincarnations. The USB connectivity and added effects make for great live jamming on the fly - also I have on occasions assigned separate outs within Ableton for the TR08 if you can be arsed. Personally too much choice can sometimes inhibit creativity. Plenty of phantasy armchair experts on here as usual.

Behringer for the snare , roland for the hats

Outstanding comparison!

I have the RD-6 , which is great.... but I will get the TR-06 for the sound shaping and sequencing/probability etc. I guessed the blind test as as the TR-06 sounds more immediately pleasing as in somewhat compressed. Great comparison!

Miss the low end on Behringer but gotta say... That german techno sound... priceless... Roland has fatigue on the high end, to me at least... Go Behringer!

I own an original TR-606 and I'm a big analogue fan, but the Roland TR-06 would definitely be my choice because of tweakabilty, FX and the audio via USB facility. I liked the sound of it. Like you said, it would fit in a mix well without too much processing. Yes, it's twice the price of the RD-6, but the fun factor with the TR-06 lokks greater. Cheers for the video! :)

Great video !

I like Roland's ACB technology. It sounds as good as an analog. Even the TB-3 and TB-03 are legit TB-303 clones, close enough to the original. I am sure, that most of the listeners were not able to hear or were at least unsure which one is analog. Yes, the TR-06 has more going on in the upper frequencies and comes across cleaner and would have been my bet to be digital. This said, having more "air" makes it more suitable for modern sounding productions or live sets. Overall, the TB-03 is the more progressive device. Though, the TB-03 is quite expensive, when considering that digital electronics are cheap to produce, and the small knobs and tiny connectors would bother me. But overall, it would be my choice between the two, if money would not be an issue. The RD-6 is great at the price point, especially when considering that it has more electronic components. It recreates the original pretty good, and is definitively the choice of a purist on a budget. The larger size makes it look better on stage (some may want to cover the Behringer logo *lol*), and if you prefer popping colors, Behringer has you covered, too. There are other cool drum machines out there to take into consideration. You may find a Roland TR-8 equipped with the 7x7 expansion pack, which contains a 606 kit, for a good price on the used market. That's pretty much a 606, 707, 727, 808 and 909 all in one unit. ACB makes it possible!

Great comparison at the end. I have no particular connections to the 606 sound, but keep seeing the RD-6 for under $250 Canadian. Nothing else but Volcas or Pocket Operators seems to get that cheap in the drum machine world. Quality is better than quantity, but quantity has a quality all its own... when it's quantity of CAD$ still in my pocket.

Well done, very fair comparison.

I already pre-ordered an RD-6 and I have a real 606 but I still kind of want that TR-06, the sound editing and effects look really cool.

this was a great idea and a good video; I thank the part of the video where you express your own words as part of the comparison instead of making the comparison with no philosophy. The philosophy behind the video makes all the difference.

I've been collecting Roland gear since the 90s and although I love my TR08 and TR09 I've not really used them in my own productions since I focus mostly on Drum & Bass, Dubstep and Future Bass. What's interesting about the TR06, based on the sounds in your review is that it seems to be the first drum machine that can deliver ready made Drum & Bass and Dubstep snares which is very exciting. I have an old TR606 which is completely fried so I'll definitely be picking up one of these. As a collector I'm also interested in the Behringer machines as well.

They both sound great tbh, having a new deluxe and budget versions of a 606 for purchase, can't complain.

awesome comparison with the roland v behringer mang!

Everybody loves an 808. But I always had a soft spot for the old 606.

B LOL...i knew it! Great review, very objective comparison with the Behringer. Thank you!

Thanks for this Bo! I have to say, not much a fan of the sound of either. Roland sounds bloated, Behringer gets closer in regards to bd and toms, but the hihats are meh. And the hihats/cymbals are so important on the 606.

From what I’ve heard of behringer . I don’t think they aren’t worth bothering with. Would rather wait until the Roland is available on the used market. From my little experience with hardware it’s worth trying to get a quality manufacturer. They are worlds better. Great review as always.

Well done!

I thought the Behringer sounded better, especially for the snare and hi hats, but neither nailed the original 606 hi hat sound.

I have an original 606 and maybe the Behringer seems to me the closest to it. Because it's analog, obviously. And regarding the build quality the Behringer seems also quite faithfull to the original which is a light plastic box with sometimes flimsy push button too :-) To be honest I work mainly in the box now and I've sampled my good old 606 a long time ago in order to have its sounds at my finger tips. Now its rests quietly on a shelf in my back in my studio.

holy shit bo!!! you make me want to buy it now!!

In blind test i prefered B ,, especially with the distortion ,, but over all i thought it had a better sound .

nice job.... I correctly guessed A was the Behringer and preferred it to the Roland (but I'd probably get the Roland for the better build quality/buttons, and those trigger outs to send to my Moog semi-modular Grandmother opens up all sorts of cool possibilities). Thanks for doing this.

Lovely t-shirt Bobby!

Side by side I found myself liking all the Roland sounds better. In isolation, or mixed in my set up I wonder if I’d notice

I prefer the sound of the Behringer, but the features of the Roland really are very useful, love the randomisation and probability stuff. Not sure they are £200 more valuable though especially in budget setup land. The Roland would probably be better as a live instrument simple because of the features shown here. All academic for me really though as I can't justify a new drum machine.

Good comparism video Bo, nice price for the Behringer, and although much dearer the Roland comes out on top for me.

Love the boutique range, another one to add to my collection I have all of them and several in doubles like the Jp08, jx03

I like Behringer products. They offer great value and bring awesome synths to those that can't afford to dabble in synthesis at Moog prices. I thought you gave both products a fair shake. I liked the Korg sound better. But the Behringer was still good and worth purchasing.

I have a couple of boutiques, including the TR-08 and TR-09 and when thinking about the TR-06 I though that maybe was a good idea to buy the Behringer RD-6 because it's cheaper and I wouldn't use the 606 sounds that much in comparison with the 808 or 909, but after watching your video I bought the TR-06 and even when you can buy 2 RD-6 for the price of one TR-06, the Roland machine is so far from the RD-6 on absolutely everything. I mean, if you want a 606 clone maybe the RD-6 is the best option, but is 2021 and the TR-06 is not a clone, but a power-up 606, with tons of effects, usb audio, trigger out, you can apply all the effects to any instrument connected on the mix in, plus you have sounds of the 909 included as well! This machine is a lot of fun. Sturdy plastic and aluminum body, ACB technology, compact size perfect for having a lot of synth on a small space, tons of effects, battery operated, USB audio and multiple outputs, shuffle/flam, 909 sounds, a lot of trigger out options, send effects settings separated on every single instrument and the mix-in.... I wish the TR-08 and TR-09 had so many extra things! After unboxing it I spent like 5 hours just playing with the TR-06 connected with the TB-03. I didn't have a lot of interest on this boutique until watching your video, so thanks a lot! :D

Love these boutique drum machines.

Hey Bobeats, love the channel and loved the shootout, I myself preferred the A. Suddenly I remenbered that before these reissues there’s a brand called cyclone analogic, that has their own reissue version of the 606, and I think that the 303 also. Anyway, would be great if you have some info about the cyclone one, would appreciate your input on that one✌️✌️✌️baiiiiiiu

I sold my 606 and 303 in 1994 but kept my sh101. I still regret it a bit, but not when I play the bass I bought from the proceeds.

Hi BoBeats and Friends :-) Do the knobs (top row) have a center point (physical grid 12 o'clock)? Thank you for the answer :-)

I like the Behringer warm, raw sound.

is that Alex Ball in the comparison? first comment here. love your work. love from Brazil!

My choice before watching the reveal: I liked the sound of "B" better for the kind of music I make. It sounds smoother.

i use TD3 & RD6 as my basic set up. additinally ourboards & pedals in total 3 times more costs. NO mixer used. Just connect them all to an audio interface for apple computer. main reason why i go this way is that everything i control can be viewable & touchable. but my set up is really heavy, not handy at all. TR06 is great to have for playing music at somewhere outside home. in the mean time no plan to play at outside though. thanks for your video showing us how powerfull this machine is. chears !!

I am not a 606 fan, but the 06 here is a very good portable drum machine considering the pan and effects and is a great alternative to Electribes (and MFBs) for people more into X0X grid approach. Now I need to try it in a shop...

Behringer for the sound, and Roland for the sequencer 😊

Was hoping you could do a comparison to cyclone analitics tt 06. I cant seem to find one

I preferred one or the other depending of the riffs, I'd say. Once I knew which one was which I realized I didn't like the Behringer distortion very much. Overall I think I would prefer to work with the Roland because it has more sound possibilities. Except if I want to show off with my "analog is better" attitude and stuff. ;) Thanks a lot for your reviews, I feel they're the most honest. Cheers Bo!

Is there a way to delete all of the patterns? I don't want any of the pre-loaded patterns or songs. Please help.

A sounded more oldskool to me, that is the kind of sound I look for in my tech, B sounded cleaner and a bit more refined...

I’ll be grabbing a TR-06 for sure. All those sound possibilities-sounds like an 808 had a digital baby with a 909 snare.

The comparison is greatly appreciated. Guess it's gonna be both then.. 😂

THANK YOU for the comparison. Very good!!! 👍👍 I mean the TR-06 sounds a lot better ...

can the audio in be used to process external audio through the TR 06 FX?

TR-07 Boutique next in line... 🙇

Only watched this video just now, and I have to say, this is really a well done comparison. Bravo, Bo ! (and I guess both Roland and Behringer are upset 😁 )

You takes your money and you makes your choice. I had put the RD-6 on my want list to go with my TD-3. Problem is I already own an original 606 and the TD-3 snare sounds close to the original weedy one on the 606 but you can at least beef it up on the TD-3 with the SD line out. The RD-6 snare already sound much nicer than the TD-3 but the hats on the TD-3 sound closer to the 606 from your video which I prefer. Neither really stands out for me so I guess I'll spend the money elsewhere. Now the TR-6S is more up my street and is also slightly cheaper than the TR-06. Great video Bo as always.

Thank you for this excellent video! This little gem makes me want to pull out my credit card, but I already bought the VST through Roland Cloud that also features the 'ACB' technology. What are the purely sonic differences between the hardware TR-06 and the VST version? Wouldn't it be redundant if I were to purchase the TR-06 in this case?

I prefered A at first because it reminded me the most of my old TR-606, which I should never have sold! But I listened to them again, and actually I liked the cleaner, and rawer, more dynamic sound of B. ... Ok and after the big reveal it turns out that the Beringer reminded me the most of my old tr-606. I'm surprised! I guess I will be happy with the Behringer. Thanks for the comparison.

Nice review Bo. I owned a 606 back when they first came out. I was really disappointed with the unit back them. I gigged with it in a 3 piece guitar band with my octave kitten and pro 1. The kick was a bit limp and the snare sort of reminded me of a mouse sneezing. I used to live program at gigs but it was still a little bit ...... you know. This unit looks much better as you can manipulate the sounds. Personally I want to fiddle with the drum sounds as they are the most boring. I loved the Pulsar 23 you reviewed if only cheaper

My TR06 is coming in a week. The Behringer sounds fantastic! Great time to get into electronic music

i followed instructions and paused before watching the rest (or reading other comments at that). i preferred neither to the extent that they sound like 2 different 606 units, or the same 606 running at slight differences in voltage? overall i think both pretty much knocked it out of the park with the differences in priorities and cost. the behri interests me a little bit more because of the potential for modifications (i dont only want to use just 606 sounds through FX, i want to use them pushed a little outside of the normal margins, and have individual trigger inputs) and price of course. but both seem great for different artists' needs. thanks for the video!

Does anyone know if you can connect the TR-06 to the MX1 for usb audio and midi?

I liked B the most on the last sound comparison. Okay, I just checked and see it was Roland. I'm happy with that. For me it sounds better - and it should really. Made up my mind which one to buy.

For me it was night and day, everybody elses comments really surprise me. I could tell which was which immediately from the kicks. Behringer sounds far far far better to me, it's night and day imo! You buy it because its an analog drum machine. Best clone ive ever heard

what is a good distortion box I could use with my 606 bass out ? a boss device perhaps ? please advise.

I had a real 606 for a while. Behringer's reminds me of it the most.

How does the TT-606 Drum Drone Cyclone analogic amd the Acidlab Drumatix Analog Drum Machine compare? We need a shoot out between all the 606's.

Great post 🤘

Can it save tracks? Like if I wanted to have drum tracks prerecorded for live use.

Just "accidentally" bought an RD-6 half an hour ago, and hands down preferred its bass and snare in the blind test, so very relieved here :-)

In my opinion the Roland TR-06 is something completely different than the analog Roland TR-606. It's like wanting to compare a digital Drumkit to a classic drumset. So it's apples and oranges with regard to the TR-06 with it's bells and whistles and the RD-6/TR-606.

Everybody gangsta until Bo cut the hair

Are the alternative drum sounds selectable per step and or pattern?

I like the sound of A better in this comparison.

We're really getting in to the realms of overkill IMHO. TWO 606 remakes, when there's been a history of decent sounding remakes, when the TR8/TR8s can have/has 606 sounds, when there's some incredible and cheap samplers about and when the original is actually still competitively priced (not to mention the Rytm MK1 selling 2nd hand for £500). Are we getting to the point where companies are making things for the hell of it, and customers are consuming for the sake of it?

Using the song mode (chain) how many songs can you store?

Hey Bo. This might be an old video but I'm contemplating getting a real 606 to sample into my vintage MPC. These new ones sound good but they aren't on the money. After hearing the real thing I would pay the extra to get one instead of the clones, but for price both of these are great

is this the exact ACB engine of the tr606 from the original tr-8 smashed into a 606-esque box? or is it an improvement on the first (tr-8) version? (in the same way that the tr-08 and tr-09 seem to have better ACB recreations than those used in the original tr8).

If I was Roland or behringer I’d release these in a similar time window great PR For both bit like blur v oasis in the 90s - I bet they link this stuff up. Like the korg 2600 and hey presto the behringer one comes a few months later of which I’ll buy. Hey I bet they come off the same production line in the same factory in China - just like car manufacturers it makes a lot of sense and gets us great gear that we can afford

I was surprised how much difference there were in some of the sounds. I definitely preferred B. Especially in the kick and snare sounds. The distortion in A sounded harsh like it was just jacked up too high. The distortion in B sounded musical and pleasant.

Tangentially related: is there any MFG that values Knob Per Function like Arturia right now? I feel like this was Moog's wheelhouse for years, but of modern Manufactureres, who beats Arturia?