Korg - volca Beats - Analogue Rhythm Drum Machine Synthesizer

Korg Volcas are addictive, and this is the third one I've bought after modular and nu:bass - of the options for providing drums/beats, the Volca Drum is the most original and powerful, though the sample offers a lot of flexibility as well. It adheres to the standard Volca form factor and battery requirements, with the usual audio, sync and MIDI input. The pattern sequencer is also familiar, with 16 patterns of 16 steps for up to 256 steps in a song. There's no means of backing up the kits or storage, but you can get a third-party editor and VST which helps with that. What it does: Six-parts of synthesized drums consisting of two 'layers' each, each layer having its down sound character modified through the wave source, envelopes and other parameters accessed via the edit button. There's enough control to change sounds on the fly, and it's a VERY powerful drum synthesizer for the money, rivalling the likes of the Nord Drum 3P for sound and texture creation. Editing the six drum sounds is remarkably easy, though getting truly accurate or characterful original sounds can be tricky, it just needs a subtle touch. Bolstering the sound of the drums is a single resonator that affects all of them, which can be tuned and changed from tube to string, for bassy or reedy tones. This is really the only limitation of the sound generation, you can't have one part in a tube, and the other via string. It's intuitive to play basic beats, with 10 preset kits of straight electro/pop sounds with some wierd and wonderful squawks and breaks for good measure, but it rewards in-depth thoughtful programming. How does it sound? Remarkable. High-quality and clear, the bass can shake and the high pitches can ring with no aliasing or crudeness that you might expect of cheap PCM samples, this is true drum synthesis with rich harmonics and a lot of flexibility. It's at home in synthwave, garage, dubstep, grime or whatever, really, capable of being very solid or just plain bizarre. How vital is it to a Volca setup? This should be your second or third one alongside bassline and melody, but you could buy this for use alongside other synths and find it stands alone as an excellent drum machine. It's one of Korg's best yet and incredibly good value; I'm still finding more depth months into owning it. It's more enjoyable to program than the Nord 3P as well... Anything it benefits from? Effects of course - the Volca Mix has send/return, but I'd probably use this with a Kaoss KP3+ or kaoss pad for glitch, delay and grain effects if I weren't using the minikp2 for that via the mixer. It really suits that style of dynamic, effected playing and becomes a simple drum and bass machine if you take the time to program it. It also works well with the Volca Modular as an additive percussion synth for additional character. Think complex, shimmering and harsh metallic hits like early industrial music, backed by more 2000s-style heavy, long-decayed kicks from the Volca Drum. Any downsides? Not really, apart from the lack of sound bank/pattern backup. It stores them fine, but doesn't have much storage on board and there's no MIDI out or audio backup option. It would be nice if it would play an audio file of the memory contents for later restoration, in the same way that firmware updates are applied. You want it, basically. The Korg Volca Drum is one of the best Volcas yet; it's powerful, flexible and original - the sounds are versatile, and it could add something to any studio, not just a starter project or basic Volca layout. You could sample patterns from this until your fingers wear out.

Yes, a good- sounding (& good-looking) drum machine. Fairly easy to use, once you understand it's workflow. Great sounds. Versatile. Very good price, too.

Brilliant fun, fast and intuitive and now so cheap for what it does. It gives similar products (like the Sonic Potions LXR02) a real run for its money. I see no reason to spend more. However just like these similar products it has it's own unique sound and flavour and this may ultimately be it's downfall. There are great sounds ready to be created but in the end they all sound like a Volca Drum. For some reason there is just a limited colour pallet at hand. I found programming via the front panel a pain after about 30 mins and it was much easier via the editor program which really opened it up (there are two available). It made progamming a breeze and you could store all your sounds and kits instantly to computer. I preferred using the editor for the full experience and this finally made me decide not to keep the Volca Drum because I felt that I might as well go for a vst if I'm tied to the computer again. I enjoyed it for the few hours I had it (there were a few bugs but I didn't update the firmware) it was very immediate but unfortunetly so was the boredom that set in. Highly recommended if you want to tweak on the go and create edgier sounds. The sounds really PUNCH! It really is amazing for the price. Just not a keeper for me.

Great value FM synth which is basically a dx7 in small box. They have improved polyphony from the previous one and sounds just like an FM should. The volca comes with 64 presets however no init or blank patches. You will need to overwrite the factory presets. You can restore these with factory reset. I have been able to transfer the presets to wav then sysex files and saved them on my pc. It was a faff. Transfering the other way was much easier, i have been able to transfer some dx7 patches from dexed to volca very easily. A bit disappointed the unit doesnt have a rechargeable battery like the airas, takes 6 AAs which dont last too long. Builld quality is fine, light and solid but is made primarily from plastic, I recommend the UDG case. For just over £100 its a bargain.

The Volca Sample has always been one of the most useful Volcas since it can be used to play literally any sound you download to it. The downloading process however was the entire problem. The original Sample required the user to sync with a phone or computer sending 'pulses' down as audio cable (of all things) and this could take around 20 minutes (for a full set of sample) before you even found out if the transfer was successful....and sometimes it wasn't. What's more the memory was limited to an unbelievable degree and you'd often find yourself only able to fill half of the available slots. Now, the positive: This new Sample 2 finally fixes these two problems. Data transfer is done lightening quick via USB by computer via new software and by phone app. It's a breeze. What's more, the memory allows to store much more being 8mb storage instead of the previous 4mb. Still in this day and age, that's a low, but I think Korg try to limit intentionally so that you are forced to be creative within a limited capacity, though your guess is as good as mine. To boot, there's now 200 samples slots too rather than the previous 100. The best way to describe the Sample for those unfamiliar is; it's a Sample Player (not a sampler) since it doesn't allow you to record (i.e to 'sample'). It's a very good, compact Sample Player. It allows you to sequence 16 steps (upgradable apparently to 64 if you download the Pajen Firmware). You can control which sample to assign to each key, the speed, length, start point, envelope, pan, attack, decay and hi cut as well as the reverb. Solo and mute are also available - handy for live playing. The Sample 2 has a brand new set of factory samples including kick drums, snares and toms and other useful sounds, so you can create something decent (and very original if you tinker) right off the bat. See video. Many people are usually stuck between purchasing the Volca sample 2 or Drum. Each is really chalk and cheese. The sample can be used to play ANY sounds (including drums), but the Volca Drum is an actual analogue synthesizer and it too covers a whole range of sounds besides drums - including very abstract, bizarre sounds. So, if you want specific sounds to play (with manipulation) opt for the Sample 2 or if you want to explore Syths and experiment with actual sound design, opt for the Drum.

If you like analogue electronic music and you can't afford a "big" synth, then this is for you. I bought this one to complete my set of three Volcas, which also include the Volca Keys and Beats. These are extremely smartly designed instruments which will appeal to a wide audience. I like my 1980 electronic music and it only took minutes to get some superb pads, arpeggios and other wonderful sounds from these synths. Always been a real Korg fan, but never though I would be able to own three new Korgs for less than £350! What stands out for me on the Volca Bass is the ease by which you can make some great basslines in a matter of minutes. The 3 VCO setup is extremely clever. If you use the built in sequencer you can either create monophonic sequences using all three VCOs in unison (and detune them separately up to one octave up or down), or you can use two in unison and one as a separate voice or indeed programme 3 tone polyphonic sequences using each VCO for a separate part. By using the mute function you can then quickly switch parts on or off creating a lot of effect with just the one sequence in your performance. I also really like the way how you can set the destination of both the envelope generator and LFOs to control volume, filter cutoff and in case of the LFO also the pitch (of all three VCOs). The LED readout is extremely handy when you need to tune your VCOs, set the tempo or octave. Only thing you need to keep in mind, you do need to know a bit about synthesizers before you can really get the best out of these Volca's but it should not take a beginner long to understand how everything works. The instructions are limited, but there is plenty of information and videos on the internet to get you going.

Great, improved polyphony

Volcas are great fun - chances are you have more than one, or none - there doesn't seem to be a stage where you just have one of them. The Volca Mix is cute. It fits the form factor and offers power distribution for all three connected devices; the power supply and three flying leads are included but they're a bit short. You also get three TRS jack leads. If you consider the value of the PSU and leads as about 15% of the pack, you're paying about 3x the cost of a basic passive mixer. What benefits are there? 1: clock generator and sync ports. That big display is for the tempo and you can send it to all your Volcas and other devices down the usual chain. If you switch on, then press play on all the synths, pressing play will start them all in sync. 2: Nice faders - yes, the faders are small, but they're still far more controllable than little pots. 3: Send/return loop. This is really neat - but it could be better and it's why I give it four stars. The sends are post-fader so if you fade or mute an instrument you fade the effected part too, and there are times when I would like to keep an effected sound and lose the dry mix. These things are small enough to just use effects inline, but it still seems like a curious design choice. 4: Stereo dynamics. Probably not of much use for recording, but great when messing around. The speakers in the unit are good enough for musical sketches, but the RCA jacks mean easy hook up to hifi, boom boxes and tape recorders. This setup plus an old Tascam four track? Lofi heaven. 5: Adjustable filter. Want to cut out the boom from competing instruments, or filter off some hiss? Here you go. Easy and simple to use. Less-good features: No battery power - unless you rig up something external this is not as portable as the instrument it works with. No panning controls. The stereo dynamics is all you have, and that's a weird mix of compression and EQ separating/boosting higher frequencies. RCA jacks rather than balanced jacks. Yeah, I know, but if you want to use this in your studio you'll be annoyed by these jacks. They do seem pretty free of noise though. Does it work with instruments other than Volcas? Yes. I particularly like it with the Modal Skulpt and CraftSYNTH 2.0, where the sync can be used as well. Is the Volca mix worth it? Yes. It is more expensive than basic mixing tools you might associate with cheaper instruments, but it's very effective and works to bring a set of Volcas together in a very creatively-compatible way. The power distribution side is very neat, and the speaker sound isn't awful - plus it helps spare a few channels on your desk. I don't regret buying it at all, even though it could have been another Volva. It's brought a Mini KP2 into use that I've had no real application for for a decade, too - again, adding to the fun. I'd give it five stars if it had pre-fade sends for the effects - or better yet, inserts on 3.5mm jacks - but that's asking a lot for the price. If you have three Korg Volcas you want to take on the move, I highly recommend it - but if you can live without the clock source, some of the cheaper compact desktop mixers offer more for the same sort of price.