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Volca FM


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they're fuckin great btw. not lofi like i was expecting, very clear fm sound like late 80s yamaha. can't imagine people will be let down at all. bellissimo

If it had been say 6 or 8 voice multi-timbral you could turn it into a cool as fuck drum machine....

 

16 patches..... Choose them wisely before going on that holiday!

 

I don't feel 'let down' in any way but do feel like it's deliberately 'light'.

 

I predict a bigger, higher spec fm device from Korg will be launched soon.

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they're fuckin great btw. not lofi like i was expecting, very clear fm sound like late 80s yamaha. can't imagine people will be let down at all. bellissimo

If it had been say 6 or 8 voice multi-timbral you could turn it into a cool as fuck drum machine....

 

16 patches..... Choose them wisely before going on that holiday!

 

I don't feel 'let down' in any way but do feel like it's deliberately 'light'.

 

I predict a bigger, higher spec fm device from Korg will be launched soon.

 

 

Never tried the other synths from the Volca series, but I don't feel let down by the patch limitation because well, I expected a "light" machine. I think the small number of presets isn't a bad thing as a first encounter with FM synthesis for beginners - I never took the time to fully understand the FM thing, and the Volca is very helpful for this.

 

And the best thing is, I'm having a blast like I haven't had for a while with a piece of audio equipment. Makes me wanna get another Volca (maybe bass ?)

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Bass I thought looked really good on spec (its the korg 700 filter, right?  id like it just for that alone if so) but the filter cutoff cant be modulated by cc ??????  

 

 

its the thing I wanted it for  :cerious:

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Bass I thought looked really good on spec (its the korg 700 filter, right?  id like it just for that alone if so) but the filter cutoff cant be modulated by cc ??????  

 

 

its the thing I wanted it for  :cerious:

 

Each Volca has a knack of not having the most wanted feature. You can control the LFO rate and intensity on the Bass to do some wacky filter stuff though.

 

http://media.aadl.org/files/catalog_guides/1444141_chart.pdf

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Bass I thought looked really good on spec (its the korg 700 filter, right? id like it just for that alone if so) but the filter cutoff cant be modulated by cc ??????

 

 

its the thing I wanted it for :cerious:

It's newly designed apparently but you can't route external sounds thru it anyway

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Thats another massive oversight.

 

I would be happy with just the synth if you could at least control the filter somehow externally (cv or midi would be fine)  Just cause ive heard those filters are badass & the volcas are pretty cheap right

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  • 2 weeks later...

Volca FM came in and it's great. Menu diving for editing patches is done relatively well for the size of it. It's pretty much a DX7 with 3 note polyphony and no aftertouch. However, you can send CC to the velocity parameter. 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Is this decent without hooking it up to anything else for editing patches?

 

I want a relatively cheap synth for learning FM synthesis with knobs on my couch not at my desk.  Is this it?  

 

Not for learning. If you want to edit patches you'll need the little placard or a manual to know what all of the parameters are for the Volca. The Yamaha DX series had the algorithms and abbreviated parameter information directly on the keyboard itself.

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But I mean if you have the placard and the volca FM can you change the parameters on all the operators, and change algorithms, portably?

 

I essentially don't care about actually making music with it or any features except playing around with the parameters on the operators to get a decent feel for fm

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But I mean if you have the placard and the volca FM can you change the parameters on all the operators, and change algorithms, portably?

 

I essentially don't care about actually making music with it or any features except playing around with the parameters on the operators to get a decent feel for fm

Yep should be fine. 

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  • 1 month later...

I've been really enjoying the Volca FM. I made a really good snappy snare on it to accompany the volca beats with it and being able to automate algorithm changing, the arp (both type and speed) and the LFO parameters all at once leads to some really cool dynamically changing rhythm and melody. Very impressed.

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I'm highly tempted to get one of these, but then again DX7s keep coming up at my local secondhand instrument store.. I've always wanted a DX7 just as a keyboard to play

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Yeah if you want more than 3 voice polyphony and velocity sensitve keys (this is a big one. velocity is just a lever on the volca fm :( ) then go for a dx7. Volca FM is essentialy a Volca keys with an FM engine inserted into it but with an arpeggiator and a 16x16 step sequencer.

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Girlfriend bought me one as a surprise gift this week. Only given it a brief twiddle so far but immediately lots of fun. I know fuck all about the technical side of FM and I doubt I'll ever really get my head around it, but I'm going to take a dive in properly soon so I can really get a feel for how it all fits together. Excitement ahead.

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Dexed is pretty great for learning the DX7 architecture visually. It's still pretty obscure when compared to subtractive synthesis but having one control per function all laid out on a screen is very helpful. Plus it can apparently export DX7 sysex patches..

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ha, fair enough. I found it pretty brutal at first but eventually got used to it somewhat. A lot of it is still down to trial and error for me at the moment, heh.

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