Thanks for the checklist. I got the drum machines to work. My problem was I needed to set the correct channel for the correct drum track. So, volca beats works on midi channel ten, set to the correct output for the correct track. Because I was using a keyboard earlier, I had the track on channel 1.
When I said “trigger the drum machines” the volca would start sync tempo, but not play notes, because of the lack of correct channel. Thanks!