General
What do artists like Aphex Twin, Nine Inch Nails, OMD, Moby, and Autechre have in common? On the face of it, not that much, but at one time or another, every one of these electronic music legends have laid their hands on the Roland TR-606 drum machine. In terms of design, the 606 is not that far removed from the TR-808 and looks a little bit like the TB-303, but has a unique vibe that's entirely its own. Since a fully functioning vintage '80s 606 is now hard to come by, the hard-working sonic historians of Behringer have kindly rebuilt and repackaged the icon that was the TR-606 in the tight, friendly, and thankfully affordable form of the Behringer RD-6.
The Behringer RD-6
The core of the RD-6 is essentially made up of an x0x-style sequencer with a focus on percussive accents, fed by a synthesizer loaded with eight classic analogue drum sounds: kick, snare, low tom, high tom, cymbal, clap, open hi-hat and closed hi-hat. In terms of functionality, the RD-6 harks back to the controls of the 303 and TD-3, right down to the TD-3 distortion module, so you're assured of comprehensive beat-building tools, and a sync in/out has been provided alongside individual outputs for the kick, snare, toms, cymbals, claps, and hi-hats, so you can do stuff like drench the hi-hat in reverb while retaining a crisp and dry kick.
The RD-6 in the Modern Studio
Since the original TD-606 was designed to provide backing for rehearsing guitarists before it became the synth-pop icon we know today, the RD-6 is a lightly tweaked yet faithful rendition. Fitted with a MIDI in, MIDI out/thru and USB MIDI, this drum machine has been fully prepped for smooth integration with the standard modern studio while remaining compatible with older vintage gear.
