Volca Drum

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.

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.

I have several Volcas, and this one is one of the best; the range of sounds available is excellent, and most are usable! I do wish Korg would make them easier to use with other equipment - you can trigger notes over Midi for instance but you have to stop the sequencer manually each time you start the master device or the Volca will do it's own thing! Overall however, they are a reasonably priced, fun and easy way to expand your sound making, and I would highly recommend to beginners who fancy having a go at making electronic music. This machine can generate some excellent grooves/ rhythm tracks and is very tweakable (all Volcas are!). It has made such good sounds I have samples to put into my main drum machine to get around the problem above; you lose the live playability but is much easier in the studio. This may not be the best 1st drum machine (it could be, it depends what you want to do!), but is a worthwhile addition to any set up to add some variations/ fills etc. and help with ideas. Paired with the Volca Bass it could do your rhythm section.; then Volca Keys for chords, Volca FM for melody, chords or more bass, you may get hooked.....

If you need a portable (battery powered), low cost percussion synth, then the Volca Drum is easily one of the best options available. It is easy enough to use, but because of the extensive array of parameters and options, it is perhaps not so easy for absolute beginners, unless you are happy to stick with the preset kits, as the sequencer is easy enough to master. Although this is always a personal thing, I find the sound very good (stereo), and the sheer range of percussion and melodic sounds you can generate is mind blowing. As (nearly) always with kit from Korg, extremely cleverly designed workflow. Only gripe is the midi implementation, which is, like the Volca Sample, non standard and so it is difficult to sequence from an alternate midi source. For example, it does not work with my Arturia Keystep Pro, which is a real shame. Hope this gets rectified in a future version of the firmware.

Not a standout for composition, but fun for practice or jamming. It has a few limitations which stand out to me. The compact interface is always usable, but often awkward. Creating sounds is easy but adjusting them is tedious. Liberal use must be made of a hash in the LCD which marks the saved position of a setting, which is not trivial when using micro-potentiometers assigned to a resolution of 255 in a nested interface. This also obligates you to operate the controls deftly and save a kit after each adjustment to prevent your settings from drifting widely and mysteriously. You get 16 triggers/steps per pattern and 16 pattern slots, which feels claustrophobic. Patterns can be chained to create more complex progressions but with only 16 sets of 16 triggers and no data I/O, memory management is an issue. For instance, creating a 4-bar drum line with 16th-note resolution and a consistent fill on the 4th bar would generally use a quarter of the memory and require you to select the 4 bars sequentially each time you turn on the unit. Then, that memory is consumed until you delete the progression forever. Kits and patterns are marked only by their slot number. The gold-side "Send" physical modeling controls are impressive but are adjustable only per full kit, which in practice limits them to either trippy delays/reverbs and performance effects or to use on only one or a few drums. Time signature can be fudged, but only within extreme limits. This unit is mostly practical for us because it allows us to avoid computers in a few situations during jamming or practice. Far superior performance in every respect can be had from free or trivially cheap software on any phone, tablet, or PC; judged as a component of a modular setup and especially in the context of Volca as a system, I find it useful and likeable, but unwieldy. The sound generator is excellent only in its simplicity, and the sequencer is inflexible. Integrating this unit's stark limitations into a multi-hundred-dollar instrument could be fun but does not seem efficient or practical. However, we are very happy with it. We are not using it as a musical instrument, but as a configurable metronome / backing track. It feels more personal, predictable and charismatic than an automatic drummer, and less sterile than a metronome. The sound generator is a minimalist masterpiece, with only enough moving parts to create a wide array of convincing or pleasing drum sounds and effects. Probability and slicing controls push this Korg over the finish line between toy and tool, but no further.

Alles bestens

Reçu dans les temps.... Petite BAR qui permet de faire des sons bien barrés !

Es mi primer Volca y la verdad muy contento, tiene múltiples efectos, poco a poco voy sacando música.