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korg monotribe vs volca keys
Posted: Wed Jun 17, 2020 11:21 pm
by John Matrix
Anyone on here have experience with both? I have the monotribe but I've always been tempted by the larger keys on the volca. I know the volca doesn't have a white noise feature or drums, but what other differences are there? Having both seems excessive to me.... trying to figure out if I should stick with what I got or switch. I never use the drums anyway.
Re: korg monotribe vs volca keys
Posted: Thu Jun 18, 2020 8:48 am
by Confuzzled
I don't own either, though I'm looking into both as well but...
I just purchased the sq1 sequencer and have been using it with other gear and found that the korg app synckontrol can plug into any of those devices and you can dial in your tempo without having to guess since they do not have a read out for tempo unless you use the midi clock from your recording program.
Re: korg monotribe vs volca keys
Posted: Thu Jun 18, 2020 9:03 am
by MechaGodzilla
i had a monotribe and now have the volca bass. the monotribe could do certain sounds much more effectively, that one oscillator is really nice. but it's very limited and i like the sound of the volca's multiple oscs. not sure how the volca keys relate to the bass.
Re: korg monotribe vs volca keys
Posted: Thu Jun 18, 2020 9:45 am
by gila_crisis
MechaGodzilla wrote:i had a monotribe and now have the volca bass. the monotribe could do certain sounds much more effectively, that one oscillator is really nice. but it's very limited and i like the sound of the volca's multiple oscs. not sure how the volca keys relate to the bass.
I only tried a monotribe back then in a shop (it was about when they went out of production and were cheap as you know what!), from what I remember loved the filter.
I used to have both keys and bass volcas.
Keys was cool because you can record sequention motion on almost all parameters/knobs, and yes the oscillator goes as low as the bass (same octave ranges). you can play polyphony on few modes, detuned ring mode sound super rad and ufos-wise, and you can program quite long sequences.
But the Bass has a better more agressive filter (also the filter freq on the keys always gave me the feeling it moved by steps, when done by hand), and the ability to split the 3 VCO is supar rad, plus the bass has square or saw VCOs (keys being only saw). Only it lacks completely the sequence motion.
In the end I've keep the ... Volca Kick! It is totally a diffrent beast and can do some tricks I like better.
Actually that's what I love about the volca series: each volca has its own strengs and weaknesses, there's barely any overlapping between what each model can do or not (exept for the sequencer which is always the same). And for what you pay you get a very good synth!
Re: korg monotribe vs volca keys
Posted: Thu Jun 18, 2020 9:53 am
by fcknoise
If you find a used Volca Keys maybe you can try them next to eachother, or with eachother. I am thinking they might play nice together, but if both are excessive you might as well sell the one you dont like
Re: korg monotribe vs volca keys
Posted: Thu Jun 18, 2020 10:12 am
by D.o.S.
gila_crisis wrote:I only tried a monotribe back then in a shop (it was about when they went out of production and were cheap as you know what!), from what I remember loved the filter.
Yeah it's an MS-10 filter.

Re: korg monotribe vs volca keys
Posted: Thu Jun 18, 2020 12:35 pm
by MechaGodzilla
yeah that monotribe filter is sweeeeeeet
Re: korg monotribe vs volca keys
Posted: Sat Jun 20, 2020 12:12 pm
by John Matrix
Oh snap, don't know why but I did not realize the filters were different. I'm gonna stay with the MT. Still eying a volca but I think I'll get something more drastically different so I can justify owning both.