Korg Volca SAMPLER

[purlieu]

After owning the Volcas for about a year now the beats, bass and keys are starting to sound very samey and limited. I'm probably going to be saving them for jamming with other people and playing for fun.

They are what they are, and in a lot of cases that's first synths. They were my first purchases after only ever working with software and they're great things, educational and fun, and pretty powerful for their size. At the same time, I know the more gear I get, the more of a back-seat role they'll take. I've actually managed to cut a bunch of tracks from the many hours of jams I made on them into a pretty decent collection that'll be getting a tape release this year, and they've been a really nice stepping stone for me, getting used to the feel of how it all works.

 

The Sample I've had for about a year but have barely used, largely because I moved into a much smaller place not long after getting it and my kit is all packed away - the time it takes to get everything set up on my bedroom floor, then praying my dog doesn't walk all over it, just makes it all too much of a pain in the arse to make the process fun, so I've been back in my DAW for a while, adding some MicroKorg stuff manually, but I've been collecting sounds to use as samples for a while now so once I manage to get some space again I'm going to be using this little box a lot.

[Entorwellian]

Anyone know how they compare to an old electribe sx ( http://www.vintagesynth.com/korg/esx1.php ), a mate tries to sell me his for around 100 euro's.

For 100 euros get the electribe. That particular one is pretty decent.

[BCM]

i had the beats, keys and bass...sold them all after about 6 months, fun little boxes but limited and not hugely useful in a large-ish setup... just found myself never really using them

[tokn]

 

Anyone know how they compare to an old electribe sx ( http://www.vintagesynth.com/korg/esx1.php ), a mate tries to sell me his for around 100 euro's.

For 100 euros get the electribe. That particular one is pretty decent.

 

 

that's amazingly cheap get it... would love to come across an electribe em-1.

[sergeantk]

i had the beats, keys and bass...sold them all after about 6 months, fun little boxes but limited and not hugely useful in a large-ish setup... just found myself never really using them

Unfortunately I'm thinking about selling mine as well. My Monotribe is still one of my favorite pieces of gear, but the volcas haven't held up as much. Damn shame.

[Entorwellian]

I think a big problem with the volca series is how they are marketed and a couple of engineering problems. I've not been using them how they are marketed (the volca bass is better at lead and pads while volca keys is better at bass(!?!?)) and most of the videos have people using the horrible onboard sequencers as opposed to a computer. It's incredibly counter-productive but sequencing them on the computer or an external sequencer makes them a lot more powerful and opens up a lot more possibilities with hands on stuff. The biggest problem for me with them is that only a handful of controls can be MIDI-mapped and there is only MIDI OUT. I think Korg had the right idea with a lot of the design but they should have made them far more computer capable than they currently are.

 

At the same time though I remember reading how Wendy Carlos thought the minimoog was a cheap toy, and subsequently people who bought the minimoog thought the roland tb/tr series were cheap toys, so I am going on the thought processes that you can't really use them for how they were intended and have to and have to do something else with them that plays on their strengths. I'm kind of finding out that they're really good at creating sound effects and "smokey" textures instead of the acid/techno stuff that people make with it normally.

[modey]

I'm kind of finding out that they're really good at creating sound effects and "smokey" textures instead of the acid/techno stuff that people make with it normally.

Yeah, for sure. The volca keys really excels when exploiting the weird degraded delay and gritty unison capabilities

[Braintree]

I think a big problem with the volca series is how they are marketed and a couple of engineering problems. I've not been using them how they are marketed (the volca bass is better at lead and pads while volca keys is better at bass(!?!?)) and most of the videos have people using the horrible onboard sequencers as opposed to a computer. It's incredibly counter-productive but sequencing them on the computer or an external sequencer makes them a lot more powerful and opens up a lot more possibilities with hands on stuff. The biggest problem for me with them is that only a handful of controls can be MIDI-mapped and there is only MIDI OUT. I think Korg had the right idea with a lot of the design but they should have made them far more computer capable than they currently are.

 

At the same time though I remember reading how Wendy Carlos thought the minimoog was a cheap toy, and subsequently people who bought the minimoog thought the roland tb/tr series were cheap toys, so I am going on the thought processes that you can't really use them for how they were intended and have to and have to do something else with them that plays on their strengths. I'm kind of finding out that they're really good at creating sound effects and "smokey" textures instead of the acid/techno stuff that people make with it normally.

 

 

It only takes MIDI IN, but honestly, they're still pretty powerful for what they are. I'm developing a live set with just the Volcas using Ableton. The only downside is that each sample in the Volca Sample has to be on a separate midi channel. What a hassle. Here are a couple tracks I've made just using the Volcas:

 

https://soundcloud.com/colin-dyer/volca-sketch-01

 

https://soundcloud.com/colin-dyer/volca-sketch-02

[modey]

Looks like this is a solution for the sample per channel problem:

 

https://www.retrokits.com/rk002/

 

Also looks like it allows chromatic sample playback, which is a big advantage, and would have tempted me to get the volca if I didn't already have an op-1..!

[Braintree]

Thanks! I may have to invest in some of those cables.

[Entorwellian]

 

I think a big problem with the volca series is how they are marketed and a couple of engineering problems. I've not been using them how they are marketed (the volca bass is better at lead and pads while volca keys is better at bass(!?!?)) and most of the videos have people using the horrible onboard sequencers as opposed to a computer. It's incredibly counter-productive but sequencing them on the computer or an external sequencer makes them a lot more powerful and opens up a lot more possibilities with hands on stuff. The biggest problem for me with them is that only a handful of controls can be MIDI-mapped and there is only MIDI OUT. I think Korg had the right idea with a lot of the design but they should have made them far more computer capable than they currently are.

 

At the same time though I remember reading how Wendy Carlos thought the minimoog was a cheap toy, and subsequently people who bought the minimoog thought the roland tb/tr series were cheap toys, so I am going on the thought processes that you can't really use them for how they were intended and have to and have to do something else with them that plays on their strengths. I'm kind of finding out that they're really good at creating sound effects and "smokey" textures instead of the acid/techno stuff that people make with it normally.

 

 

It only takes MIDI IN, but honestly, they're still pretty powerful for what they are. I'm developing a live set with just the Volcas using Ableton. The only downside is that each sample in the Volca Sample has to be on a separate midi channel. What a hassle. Here are a couple tracks I've made just using the Volcas:

 

 

Sorry yea MIDI IN. If it had MIDI OUT with all of the parameters too that would of been good.

[Guest]

Looks like this is a solution for the sample per channel problem:

 

https://www.retrokits.com/rk002/

 

Also looks like it allows chromatic sample playback, which is a big advantage, and would have tempted me to get the volca if I didn't already have an op-1..!

 

Thanks for this!

[Guest]

 

Looks like this is a solution for the sample per channel problem:

 

https://www.retrokits.com/rk002/

 

Also looks like it allows chromatic sample playback, which is a big advantage, and would have tempted me to get the volca if I didn't already have an op-1..!

Thanks for this!

 

 

Well, it seems like the RK002 cable will not work with the Monomachine since the MnM doesn't send power over the MIDI bus. That's really unfortunate, it would have considerably opened up the sequencing possibilities with the Volca Sample.

[modey]

oh damn. I think in that case, a powered midi thru box would be a solution..? It's an additional expense but could be worth it considering the features the cable adds.

[Guest]

oh damn. I think in that case, a powered midi thru box would be a solution..? It's an additional expense but could be worth it considering the features the cable adds.

After looking up my T8 and this list (http://www.midisolutions.com/faqs.htm#LED), it lists the Monomachine MKI and not the MKII (which is what I have), so it might work after all?

[modey]

Oh right! Yeah that makes sense now, because now that I think about it, I built a simple clock divider circuit to sync nanoloop to midi, which relied on the midi input for power, and worked fine with the monomachine (mk2).