I think the Volcas are the perfect intro to synth tools. I started with these and pocket operators and the versatility of these little devices is incredible. I'm maybe only half a step above a beginner now, but I still haven't grown out of them yet and don't foresee it because they're fun and portable.
Yeah, I think they will always hold some functionality for me as well. The fact that they are so small and so immediate means they're going to be great in any dawless setup!
Didn't know about the Modwave raffle - a synth I want! - but ordered this morning the Volca Sample 2, which I'm looking forward to playing and learning. Last week got the Volca Modular, which I'm liking a lot. These little boxes are really great for learning, and when you see pros play, you're just amazed at what they can really do!
Yeah, with the raffle going on it seems to be a great time to pick up a new volca haha. I'm actually quite tempted by the vocal sample, the price to performance ratio seems pretty good! Thanks for watching :)
@@FreeBeat You're welcome, and I like your channel! My Sample arrives tomorrow, looking forward! (Skilled players be like dropping full tracks first try, I be like how do I step program again?)
Nice video. Thanks! That part where you randomized everything on the Drum and started the sequencer and said it sounded pretty wild made me think, “yeah, it sounds pretty wild, sort of like jazz, so really bad.” LOL 😜
Whish I lived there to catch the offer..probably I'd get the third volca drum my favourite budget synth ever.. So many possibilities and at that price.. just wow I'm so excited living this second synth's wave after the 70's one! Subscribed
These are the exact 2 Volcas that I’m really wanting to pick up. I already have an FM, the OK GO Volca Sample, a Volca Modular, and the Mix…so I have been on hold on purchasing another…and I have other great monosynths (Roland SE-02 and Korg Monologue) and several drum machines, but I’ve wanted simple analog in Volca form factor (also why I’ve thought of picking up a used Beats or Bass down the line, Guitar Center usually has used Volcas for around $100) and your sampling the Volca Drum really sold me with that randomization feature!! The Modwave raffle is now the icing on the cake…but like the pocket operators, these Volcas are like Pokémon..gotta bankrupt yourself to catch ‘em all!!
Volca Drum, out of all my Volcas, I use the most with its versatility and sound design options. The FM I feel you need two of for layering abilities. The Keys and Bass are both fun but not at all essential and they are rather harsh noise floor wise. I don't own the modular so I can't and won't speak on it. The Nubass is nice but the simple fact that Korg hasn't bothered to firmware update the major bugs it has (sustain issue for me) I would pass. The Volca Mix... save your money for a real PA mixer like a Tascam Model 12. Volca Kick I feel is an essential piece of gear. Powerful piece for the price. But out of all the Volcas it's the Drum and Kick for me. You will find certain features on the others that you'll wonder why it's not on the rest such as the ability to shift your pattern that's a feature only on the Nubass. But I say if you can get them used for cheap and in condition they are all worth having... even the Beats (I use for old school early 80's darkwave type stuff).
Yeah, with the modwave raffle going on I'd say now is the time to pick up the drum! It takes some time to get used to though, there's just so many different features to wrap your head around haha.
Niiiice... I never even noticed the randomize function, I was so busy trying to wrap my head around trying to program the layers. Gonna check this out right now!
It's awesome! It's such an immediately powerful feature, you can know absolutely nothing about sound design but still get some wild stuff with it. Thanks for watching!
I have the Volca Drum and love it. I don't need the Volca Keys, as I have a Pro 3. Also, for something more portable, I have a Twisted Electrons' TherapSID and a 6581 and 8580 set aside waiting for it.
I have the Volca Keys, Bass and, Beats. I'm pretty much maxed out on the Beats in terms of exploring the features and sounds (still a good bit of kit, especially the motion recording and stutter), but the Keys and Bass have got so much more to offer. Although the Keys is considered a 'basic' synth you can use it to create some AMAZING sounds as with the Bass which is also a great bit of kit.
I don’t have the Keys but a Bass, it’s a edequate Moog sound emulator (at least part of it) with different osc pitch control, and the continous filter cuttoff/reasonance is good too. vDrum is a very sophisticated FM percussion synth, it’s pretty flexible. What a shame that the Drum does not support note pitch per part with MIDI input, otherwise it would be a real beast for sure, and that’s the reason why I sold it in exchange for the vKick. I have the FM but 3 voice is too limited for creating some lush pad, I might dig into some bass and lead sound tho.
@@FreeBeat no problemo. You’re doing a great job, and I have learned some cool stuff from you because we share some cool synths and I think you do a thorough explanation. Thanks Free Beat
Love my Volca Keys - just lots of dirty, analog sawtooth goodness and although the filter is a bit steppy it absolutely screams. Combine that with the filthy delay and you're in space rock heaven. I had no idea the Drum was so versatile, though. That might be next on my list.
Definitely agree about the keys! And yeah, if you do a little poking around here on UA-cam you'll find a whole bunch of different videos on the drum. The stuff it can crank out is insane!
I've the Sample and the FM both with the unofficial firmware. This winter I plan to add the MIDI Out mod to the FM so that I can use it as a programmer for my TX7 (warmer sound and more polyphony).
@@FreeBeat I'm a qualified technician so my worry is just invalidating any warranty. There's a no-soldering mod so the hardest bit is drilling the case. Maybe I'll do a video.
These are very nice, I have the crunchy filter vocla bass and the analogue drum units. The problem (for me) is, there is something in them that makes you not using them to make music 😆. I auto sampled the bass on the MPC one and it works very nice though!
I don't really care for the sequencers that much, but I will record them directly into my MPC or ableton quite often. The keys is great for auto sampling!
Love jammin’ my volca keys, bass, beats, and samples thru my volca mix. It’s my uber portable microband. I’ve rocked a few beach and campground parties with this setup. Was that a little subdivisions at the beginning?
Best part about the Volca Drum sequencer is that you can change the probability of any note AND the active steps for each part to create insane polyrhythms*. *Edit: especially when each part is on different numbers of active steps and choking each other, randomly.
You talked about sampling into the volca sample...it can be done, buttt....let's say it's quite a process!! For that purpose, you're better off with the po33 Volca sample is fun tho, it was my first sample machine, and the pagen firmware made it even more fun, with probability and the ability to control it with an external device, like the beatstep pro
Yeah, the custom firmware is what has me excited about picking up a sample or an FM! I didn't realize there were probability settings, that's a huge plus.
Nice video. I haven’t used the volca drum, but I really like the keys. Even though it doesn’t have tons of parameters I think it does its job well. Not every sound has to be groundbreaking, so I think it’s best to consider it in the context of an arrangement. Some other synth may be the center of attention, while the keys provides another subtle layer, maybe filling in the background or adding a plucky counter rhythm.
I’m gonna have to give the Drum another go. It was an early purchase, so it MAY be that I couldn’t get my head around it, but as a couple of the knobs did nothing at all, I figured it was likely a dud- and got a refund. But it does play very nicely in the right hands, assuming it’s not a duff…
I thought that a couple buttons weren't doing anything as well, turns out they were affecting parameters that were basically canceled out by other parameters haha. It's a complex beast for sure!
I can't help but still feel that Korg dropped the ball on the keys by putting in a noisy delay instead of a stereo chorus. The chorus pretty much is the thing that makes the Poly 800.
The delay is what I like the most but I do agree the Keys & Bass have a nasty noise floor. I use an Attack Decay pedal that creates a harmonic wash and swell with the noise floor that is quite interesting. Limitations can be tools.
I agree, I really like the Monotron delay, which to me seems to be pretty much the same as the one in Keys. It's not so much the noise itself, though, but the design choice to put in the delay instead of a chorus. A noisy chorus if necessary ^_^
If a gnarly, muddy delay is what you're looking for, it rocks, but I had hoped for a crisper one. But it's a minor quibble. It's still a steal at its price for a 3VCO analog synth, effects or no effects.
S/O from France ;) I love the Volca Drum and the Volca FM, terrific duo !
Thank you!
I think the Volcas are the perfect intro to synth tools. I started with these and pocket operators and the versatility of these little devices is incredible. I'm maybe only half a step above a beginner now, but I still haven't grown out of them yet and don't foresee it because they're fun and portable.
Yeah, I think they will always hold some functionality for me as well. The fact that they are so small and so immediate means they're going to be great in any dawless setup!
Didn't know about the Modwave raffle - a synth I want! - but ordered this morning the Volca Sample 2, which I'm looking forward to playing and learning. Last week got the Volca Modular, which I'm liking a lot. These little boxes are really great for learning, and when you see pros play, you're just amazed at what they can really do!
Yeah, with the raffle going on it seems to be a great time to pick up a new volca haha. I'm actually quite tempted by the vocal sample, the price to performance ratio seems pretty good! Thanks for watching :)
@@FreeBeat You're welcome, and I like your channel! My Sample arrives tomorrow, looking forward! (Skilled players be like dropping full tracks first try, I be like how do I step program again?)
Nice video. Thanks! That part where you randomized everything on the Drum and started the sequencer and said it sounded pretty wild made me think, “yeah, it sounds pretty wild, sort of like jazz, so really bad.” LOL 😜
Hahaha thanks for watching!
5:13 almost got an intro-to-Vienna flashback there with that detune - just needed a little reverb and that's a nice little Ultravox moment. 👍
Thanks!
Whish I lived there to catch the offer..probably I'd get the third volca drum my favourite budget synth ever..
So many possibilities and at that price.. just wow
I'm so excited living this second synth's wave after the 70's one!
Subscribed
Thanks so much! I agree, the volca drum is amazing!
9:50 Immediate flashback to classic Doctor Who episodes!
Thanks for watching!
I love the way you talk us through in a clear way, with a bunch of great tips. Good work
These are the exact 2 Volcas that I’m really wanting to pick up. I already have an FM, the OK GO Volca Sample, a Volca Modular, and the Mix…so I have been on hold on purchasing another…and I have other great monosynths (Roland SE-02 and Korg Monologue) and several drum machines, but I’ve wanted simple analog in Volca form factor (also why I’ve thought of picking up a used Beats or Bass down the line, Guitar Center usually has used Volcas for around $100) and your sampling the Volca Drum really sold me with that randomization feature!! The Modwave raffle is now the icing on the cake…but like the pocket operators, these Volcas are like Pokémon..gotta bankrupt yourself to catch ‘em all!!
Volca Drum, out of all my Volcas, I use the most with its versatility and sound design options. The FM I feel you need two of for layering abilities. The Keys and Bass are both fun but not at all essential and they are rather harsh noise floor wise. I don't own the modular so I can't and won't speak on it. The Nubass is nice but the simple fact that Korg hasn't bothered to firmware update the major bugs it has (sustain issue for me) I would pass. The Volca Mix... save your money for a real PA mixer like a Tascam Model 12. Volca Kick I feel is an essential piece of gear. Powerful piece for the price. But out of all the Volcas it's the Drum and Kick for me. You will find certain features on the others that you'll wonder why it's not on the rest such as the ability to shift your pattern that's a feature only on the Nubass. But I say if you can get them used for cheap and in condition they are all worth having... even the Beats (I use for old school early 80's darkwave type stuff).
Yeah, with the modwave raffle going on I'd say now is the time to pick up the drum! It takes some time to get used to though, there's just so many different features to wrap your head around haha.
Huh, I was just about to look into volca's and whaddya know you upload this, neat!
Glad I could get you started haha. Which Volcas have you been looking at so far?
Niiiice... I never even noticed the randomize function, I was so busy trying to wrap my head around trying to program the layers. Gonna check this out right now!
It's awesome! It's such an immediately powerful feature, you can know absolutely nothing about sound design but still get some wild stuff with it. Thanks for watching!
I have the Volca Drum and love it. I don't need the Volca Keys, as I have a Pro 3. Also, for something more portable, I have a Twisted Electrons' TherapSID and a 6581 and 8580 set aside waiting for it.
I have the Volca Keys, Bass and, Beats. I'm pretty much maxed out on the Beats in terms of exploring the features and sounds (still a good bit of kit, especially the motion recording and stutter), but the Keys and Bass have got so much more to offer. Although the Keys is considered a 'basic' synth you can use it to create some AMAZING sounds as with the Bass which is also a great bit of kit.
Yeah, I feel like every time I use the keys I discover some new little corner of it sound design wise that I haven't heard before!
I’ve decided that the Korg Volcas are a great way to treat my gear acquisition syndrome without going into debt. LOL
They are excellent!
I don’t have the Keys but a Bass, it’s a edequate Moog sound emulator (at least part of it) with different osc pitch control, and the continous filter cuttoff/reasonance is good too. vDrum is a very sophisticated FM percussion synth, it’s pretty flexible. What a shame that the Drum does not support note pitch per part with MIDI input, otherwise it would be a real beast for sure, and that’s the reason why I sold it in exchange for the vKick. I have the FM but 3 voice is too limited for creating some lush pad, I might dig into some bass and lead sound tho.
Assigning pitch per key is my number one Volca drum wish for sure. That would be absolutely incredible!
@M Edward Borasky cool, how did you polychain them?
Always great information!
Thanks so much!
Excellent replacement for a used expensive Korg ER-1 and actually maybe better. I picked one up the month they came out in USA.
It's just such a classic sound at a terrific price, hard to pass on!
Agreed on the V Drum! I’ve put together some really interesting and punchy kits on my MPC with V Drum samples. I make great basses from it too!
Yeah, I think it's a sampler's best friend!
Maybe we will get a Drum and Key jam?
I only have one power supply so I need to pick up some more AA batteries first hahaha
I love getting lost in the volca drum. The probability function is helpful. Just gotta make sure to check for firmware updates if one hasn't.
Probability and slices are awesome. I wish more devices had probability.
Yeah, I completely forgot to mention probability in this video haha. Such a cool feature to find in such an affordable drum machine!
@@FreeBeat no problemo. You’re doing a great job, and I have learned some cool stuff from you because we share some cool synths and I think you do a thorough explanation.
Thanks Free Beat
Love my Volca Keys - just lots of dirty, analog sawtooth goodness and although the filter is a bit steppy it absolutely screams. Combine that with the filthy delay and you're in space rock heaven. I had no idea the Drum was so versatile, though. That might be next on my list.
Definitely agree about the keys! And yeah, if you do a little poking around here on UA-cam you'll find a whole bunch of different videos on the drum. The stuff it can crank out is insane!
That's cool. The volca bass seems to be nice too.
Yeah, I definitely think I'm going to pick one up in the future.
I've the Sample and the FM both with the unofficial firmware. This winter I plan to add the MIDI Out mod to the FM so that I can use it as a programmer for my TX7 (warmer sound and more polyphony).
The MIDI out mods on the Volcas are really intimidating to me, I wish you luck!
@@FreeBeat I'm a qualified technician so my worry is just invalidating any warranty. There's a no-soldering mod so the hardest bit is drilling the case. Maybe I'll do a video.
Awesome channel good stuff
Thanks so much!
These are very nice, I have the crunchy filter vocla bass and the analogue drum units. The problem (for me) is, there is something in them that makes you not using them to make music 😆. I auto sampled the bass on the MPC one and it works very nice though!
I don't really care for the sequencers that much, but I will record them directly into my MPC or ableton quite often. The keys is great for auto sampling!
Love jammin’ my volca keys, bass, beats, and samples thru my volca mix. It’s my uber portable microband. I’ve rocked a few beach and campground parties with this setup. Was that a little subdivisions at the beginning?
Awesome! And yeah, I'm so glad someone caught the Subdivisions quote!
I looked at Korgs website and they are not showing the Volca drums anymore. They're not showing the Volca FM either. Are they not making them anymore?
That's really interesting, I'm not sure!
Best part about the Volca Drum sequencer is that you can change the probability of any note AND the active steps for each part to create insane polyrhythms*.
*Edit: especially when each part is on different numbers of active steps and choking each other, randomly.
Yeah, it can be super inspirational if you're looking for complex drum parts!
Cool : Rush - Subdivions lead !
Glad you caught that reference!
I own a Korg wave state was just taking a look at the mod wave wondering if it was necessary to have them both. 🤔
I'm honestly not sure, I haven't looked too far into either of them. I have a feeling if I do I will want them both haha. Thanks for watching!
Great 😍
Thanks for watching!
You talked about sampling into the volca sample...it can be done, buttt....let's say it's quite a process!!
For that purpose, you're better off with the po33
Volca sample is fun tho, it was my first sample machine, and the pagen firmware made it even more fun, with probability and the ability to control it with an external device, like the beatstep pro
Yeah, the custom firmware is what has me excited about picking up a sample or an FM! I didn't realize there were probability settings, that's a huge plus.
Nice video. I haven’t used the volca drum, but I really like the keys.
Even though it doesn’t have tons of parameters I think it does its job well.
Not every sound has to be groundbreaking, so I think it’s best to consider it in the context of an arrangement. Some other synth may be the center of attention, while the keys provides another subtle layer, maybe filling in the background or adding a plucky counter rhythm.
Yeah, it is just a solid no frills analog synth. Nothing fancy or over the top about it, but it sure gets the job done!
I’m gonna have to give the Drum another go. It was an early purchase, so it MAY be that I couldn’t get my head around it, but as a couple of the knobs did nothing at all, I figured it was likely a dud- and got a refund. But it does play very nicely in the right hands, assuming it’s not a duff…
I thought that a couple buttons weren't doing anything as well, turns out they were affecting parameters that were basically canceled out by other parameters haha. It's a complex beast for sure!
I highly recommend the V FM. More versatile than the keys
Yeah, I went with the keys first because I really wanted to start learning about analog synthesis. I hope to get my hands on an FM soon!
I can't help but still feel that Korg dropped the ball on the keys by putting in a noisy delay instead of a stereo chorus. The chorus pretty much is the thing that makes the Poly 800.
The delay is what I like the most but I do agree the Keys & Bass have a nasty noise floor. I use an Attack Decay pedal that creates a harmonic wash and swell with the noise floor that is quite interesting. Limitations can be tools.
I agree, I really like the Monotron delay, which to me seems to be pretty much the same as the one in Keys. It's not so much the noise itself, though, but the design choice to put in the delay instead of a chorus. A noisy chorus if necessary ^_^
Yeah, I don't really have any complaints with the delay, but a solid chorus would have been awesome too!
If a gnarly, muddy delay is what you're looking for, it rocks, but I had hoped for a crisper one. But it's a minor quibble. It's still a steal at its price for a 3VCO analog synth, effects or no effects.
@@zooblestyx I would only want them to use a chorus effect if it's better than the one on the FM because the one on that box is rather pointless.
I love the way you talk us through in a clear way, with a bunch of great tips. Good work
Thank you so much!