I took my delay box out of the circuit after installing the tweaked o/s.
current rig, which ought to make life difficult for the sort of tight sync we all want:
octopus is slaved, & merged through motu usb express into sequentix P3, then goes into a variety of midi modules. master clock is another sequentix sequencer, not a P3. not even sure I should mention that here…. 
this is also merged with the octopus into the P3.
if I programme some drum sounds on the octopus & some on the new sequentix device, the timing is so close as to be causing that phasing sound on longer decays.
so… good.
if however I now introduce the P3 into the mix, the notes from both the octopus & the new sequencer are a bit early. so…. yes.
more experiments required.
d.