Korga Volca Bass/Beats

[BoatRich]

Does anyone have these? They seem like a really cool analog option for kinda cheap. Is there anything they can do (besides being analog) that I can't do with animoog/an ipad/sample pad though?

[Dr. Sherman Sticks M.D.]

the neat thing w/ the bass is that u can use and sequence each OSC separtely or in different combinations. makes for some really cool basslines.

the bass is beyond phat, but it can also go higher and do leads and stuff.

the other thing w/ the volcas is theres some cool sequencer tricks built in (active step for one).

also its hardware, whichis something u can't do on an ipad.

for my experience, the keys is the one to get. still can do bass, but u have alot more of a sonic palette to mess around w/.

[BoatRich]

the neat thing w/ the bass is that u can use and sequence each OSC separtely or in different combinations. makes for some really cool basslines.

the bass is beyond phat, but it can also go higher and do leads and stuff.

the other thing w/ the volcas is theres some cool sequencer tricks built in (active step for one).

also its hardware, whichis something u can't do on an ipad.

for my experience, the keys is the one to get. still can do bass, but u have alot more of a sonic palette to mess around w/.

I'm pretty set on the drums for sure, I was deciding between the lead and the bass and that's good to know.

[backwardsvoyager]

man I love my volca beats but it's in this weird place where it's great value and super fun but leaves me wishing it had a more complex sequencer, more save slots etc. also IMO the analog and digital sounds mix weirdly sometimes and it's hard to get the snare to sound good.
such good value though. and the stutter delay is really useful.

[Dr. Sherman Sticks M.D.]

lol, yea the snare is the biggest joke i've ever heard. its more of a rimshot to my ears.

i think theres mods out there u can do tho to get more BLAAAP out of it

[BoatRich]

man I love my volca beats but it's in this weird place where it's great value and super fun but leaves me wishing it had a more complex sequencer, more save slots etc. also IMO the analog and digital sounds mix weirdly sometimes and it's hard to get the snare to sound good.
such good value though. and the stutter delay is really useful.

That's actually kinda what I want is something super limited but analog. I have a sampler, ipad, and other drum machines. This is to make tabletop lofi ambient/noise pop with my bass vi and a moog theremini/controller.

EDIT: Looking through their other stuff, how are the monotribe/trons? It seems like the volcas are more specialized/useful? Also, can the Volca lead do the same super fat/gritty bass sounds the bass can?

[Wes Mantooth]

My roommate has the Keys and Bass and leaves them in my room. I still use AniMoog every time

For sequencing and syncing between two Volcas it might be cool. I don't know much about how the Volca series works but I fucking hate their keyboards.

[Andrew21502]

I have the beats, which I like a lot. Its extremely user friendly and easy to use.
I used to have the bass, which i got rid of after a few months, and I really didn't like it.

[antennafarm]

i have the beats, but like has been already said, the sequencer is a bit limited. if you could chain sequences together, or have more than 12 (or however many) saved sequences, that'd be fantastic.

it is a lot of fun, though, and is great if you want minimal percussion... i pretty much use it as a metronome nowadays, though.

[oscillateur]

The Bass and the Keys are basically the same sound engine/elements with just a few small differences but their sequencers differ quite a bit. As said earlier, the cool thing with the Bass is that you can sequence each osc separately (it's sill paraphonic though, only one filter/VCA). The Keys, on the other hand, allows you to record parameter changes for almost all knobs for each pattern. This is very, very cool too.

The new Volca Sample is also worth considering, you have to load your samples in it before but it can do some very nice things...

[BoatRich]

So I caved and picked up the Volca Beats today. It should be here this weekend. I'll make sure to let you guys know my first hand opinion. I also picked up a minibrute though, so I think I'm going to wait on the keys and skip the bass. The sampler looks rad, but I don't really think I'd use it to its full potential.

[Astricii]

Here's a pair of tracks I did using the Volca Keys and Beats. I think they can be great for getting that The Normal kind of early electro punk sound.
Bass lines were Keys and drums were done with the Beats.
Other sounds: drones and fax machine noises were made with Reason, a Minimoog Voyager and Filtertron on my iPhone.
Kinda repetitive since I lost track of time while recording. was all done live into a four track then mixed down in reason.
the beats really shines if it's been mixed down. of course if you wan to do that you'll probably want to sequence it externally with a hardware sequencer or DAW then record each drum part into a track to compress, EQ etc.

[BoatRich]

really liked the first one, but around 2-4 minutes it got repetitive. everything before and after that it was interesting. shorten that down a minute there in the middle or add something to spice it up.
it was really enjoyable, liked the second one too. sweet sounds.

got myself an electribe ER-1 last week for something like just under 100$, so that might be something to look into if you're looking at the volca beats.

I have the Electribe app for iPad, actually, and it's really rad. I already bought a Volca Beats because I figured it would be cool to have a tiny analog drum machine. It definitely does exactly what I want for the synth/bass vi rig it's a part of. It's really intuitive and fun to play with, and the battery operated/internal speaker part is great. Also it sounds ridiculous through a V4 and an 810

[kbit]

got myself an electribe ER-1 last week for something like just under 100$, so that might be something to look into if you're looking at the volca beats.

ER1 aint a bad drum machine, and it has more functionality than the Volca, but personally I didnt find it anywhere near as fun. But the functionality is quite different.

[Astricii]

really liked the first one, but around 2-4 minutes it got repetitive. everything before and after that it was interesting. shorten that down a minute there in the middle or add something to spice it up.
it was really enjoyable, liked the second one too. sweet sounds.

got myself an electribe ER-1 last week for something like just under 100$, so that might be something to look into if you're looking at the volca beats.

I agree. gotta find a good spot to splice it up. problems of playing synths by hand into a four track recorder :P I'd originally intended for there to be some vox but that fizzled.