Thank you very much for your reviews, Marc. So far, these have been the most thorough examinations of the Korg Volca series on RU-vid. It also helped me a lot to finally decide on the Volca Keys, since its functionality covers most of what the Volca Bass can do, with the additional delay and paraphonic oscillator mode. If they would have added one more oscillator, they could have called it the Korg MonoPoly Mini.
There is a "Sounds of the Volca Series" video coming, where I make music with all three of them. I don't normally do outside controllers or any MIDI stuff... but I am tempted because playing these with a full-size keyboard is really amazing.
They're still balanced, which I think is pretty cool how Korg did it. Bass has the step sequencer, more in-depth oscillator control (waveform, tuning, grouping), true polyphonic (multitimbral?) sequencing (i.e. not just one polyphonic sequence, but up to three even with different lengths each), no steppy filter (also slightly more acid-y filter). So yeah, you could list more features on the keys, which is great, but the bass still has some really key ones that might be deal-breakers for some.
I for one would love to see some good examples of using the Keys with midi. As I understand all knobs but resonance (peak) are available through CCs. This to me is it's coolest feature.
I reckon feature-wise, this slams the bass! Paraphonic playing, ability to half/quarter tempo and play long chord progressions in flux mode, built-in delay, almost complete automation, different osc modes inc ring mod... come on, feature-wise it blows it out of the water. Only drawback is as Nick Batt said, more noise. Not knocking the bass at all, it's still awesome, just narrower in use; with its own plusses. Still need all three though :)
Do i have to have prior piano skills to use this? You seemed to play a chord with three fingers and made a chord...I want one but i don't play the piano.
Recommendations on a cheap, entry level synth? Would this be the one? I am actually looking for something with minimal controls just to get started because I have no experience in this realm, so very basic is good for the time being. The Volca Series or MicroBrute seem to be the best options I have seen given my price range. I love love the vintage sounds I hear from the MicroKorg, but frankly it seems like that is A LOT to start with (even the MicroBrute seems like a bit much given how little I know about synths). Like I said, simple is good. Any recommendations are appreciated. P.S. Are vintage-y sounds possible from the Volca Series? I guess I specifically mean vintage synth pop and pad-type sounds. Thanks. These videos are fantastic and have been a huge informational help. EDIT: I did see the Monotribe and all the Monotrons too. The Monotrons seemed cool but not very versatile, but like I said without any experience it's hard to really tell.
+Benjamin White Wow, thank you so so much for this information. I have been leaning towards getting the volca keys because it fits well within my budget, it is minimalistic in its controls so I feel it may be a good starting point, and the polyphonic mode and sequencing at least adds the capability for a good amount of fun and experimentation. I think it is almost perfect given my beginner status with synths. I can always upgrade later, but for now I am getting quite excited about the Keys and hopefully a vBeats down the line. Again, thank you so much for the information. As I get more acquainted with synthesizers I will certainly be revisiting these comments of yours. Cheers!
That's my question, too. I'm not happy at all with the volca keys. I have the volca bass, and i think it should a better choice to have another volca bass than the volca keys..... moreover, i can not record what i play on the korg volca keys...
Ah, I wasn't familiar with the terminology "paraphonic" versus "polyphonic". Yes, they are paraphonic. What I meant to say is that the bass has the capability of assigning a different monophonic sequence to each of the oscillators, as opposed to just one polyphonic sequence.
You need a 1/8" cable and a 1/4" adapter to get it from the headphone jack on the volcano keys to the line in jack on your interface, unless you can find a 1/8-1/4" cable, which I haven't run across yet..
I need that analogue sound like I need lentils. I mean I love a rib eye but lentils are pure love of life. And the dog likes analogue but finds digital synths disturbing.
I'm struggling to produce the same sounds at the 2 minute mark. Mine sounds very tinny. I cant see exactly how you've set all the smaller knobs, but I'm close enough to sound like a cheap imitation.
Great overview! I really like the sound of the quantized filter, reminds me of MIDI velocity being mapped to cutoff. I wonder what happens if you are playing back a cutoff sequence and you tweak the pot... would it add to it like an offset (that would be really cool for accent effects), or, I'm guessing more likely, it simply overrides the sequenced filtering while you're tweaking. These units are beautiful.
You can kinda do a step by step sequence, I've done it to program in On The Run by Pink Floyd. Just use active step to select the next note and record it. Not the most intuitive but if you need to program a specific sequence it does the job.
True, if you use the Keys and Bass in a live set-up, this makes for a difference. The funny thing is that after 3 days of playing with my Volca Keys now, I most oftenly use it to create thick bass lines, which is perfectly possible once you get to know it better. What I am trying to say is: don't let the naming of the synths mislead you into using them for one single purpose only. Both Keys and Bass have a huge area of overlap, which is why I think that Korg could easily have combined them.
I know this comment was posted 10 yrs ago now but this is a spot on description of the Volca Keys & Bass. Almost every time I sit down for a session either to play or record, I nearly always gravitate to using the Keys for bass lines or some sort of low end pads, and the Bass always ends up in its higher range getting used for melodies or mid range pads…some low end gets in there sometimes just because I love the sound of it, but the high end meshes so much better with other sounds in my opinion.
I had the same problem, you have to turn it off and while holding FUNC and MEMORY turn it on (it will blink). And then just press the REC button and everything will be erased.
I wonder> once you play a loop, can you play a melody on top of it that is not part of the loop. I mean like save a prayer duran duran , can you let the loop play on the background and play your own melody on top of that
Well some is having problem with Keys? I have this problem: My Volca Keys doesn't trigger any sequence, nothing at all. It only plays the notes that i touch on the ribbon. Tempo Knob is stuck on red no blinks. If i plug the Bass CV out to Keys CV in, it triggers the sequences i recorded and everything. If i plug MIDI In the only thing it does is send notes Global Operations is OK Key 6 and 7 have Led Lit. Ideas?
Hi, I tried to record, a sequence on the Volca Keys as you instructed, but when I press the record key together with the play key, the strobe lights on the keyboard do not turn on and do not move as in your video, and Volca does not record any notes or sequence. Can you help me on question? Thanks. turn on the light
Hi! Thanks but sorry... i have a problem. At 1min53, you show how to record with the metronom. But with me, it doesn't work: at the time i try to record, after, when i play it, i don't have the beginning of my melody. I have the korg volca bass, it goes well, but with korg keys, it does'nt work at all. Could you help me, please? Cause i 'm not happy at all with this keyboard.... if i can't play what i want....
great demos, really helpful so far but i just cant make the motion sequence work. i do exactly what you do in the video but it just doesnt remember what i do with the knob. it changes things in real time but it doesn even have the red light going on and simply doesnt remember nothing. any thought on what i do wrong?
Hey whenever I press record and play on my volca keys, some random melody starts playing and there seems to be no way I can make it stop. Do you know what might be happening?
I'd appreciate it if you did as well. Not because I plan on using the Volca with some crazy fancy MIDI setup or anything, but for the sake of having a full keyboard and seeing its full oscillator range.
But you couldn't, say, independently mute and unmute individual mono sequences. If you layered 3 synth lines, they're always all going at once on the keys. You also couldn't keep one melody playing while loading a different melody from memory to accompany it.
Today's thrift shop score. Yamaha SHS-10, an UPTown drum machine and a mic with an old school MTV logo on it. Now I can listen to Wham's "Last Christmas" all I want with a Fresh Prince approved beat.. and sing along. Marc I'm drowning in FM.... point the way to affordable analog.
Yeah I probably got a bit over-excited about how damn flexible the keys is!! Bass will be awesome too and looking forward to the para sequencing which is pretty flexible too. You could have a bass, arp and lead in one, the arp being triplets... Probably the first think I'll try!
It's not that much of a limitation. If you set the keys to Poly mode, you can very well enter 3 different sequences per memory slot. You only have to take care not to overlap 3 different notes per step.
Currently thumbing through my crisp new signed copy of Chainsaw Confidential by Gunnar Hansen. The joys of living in Maine. Between this and the reissue of the horror themed cereals I'm having a swanky Halloween season. Also to note.... I'm going through the pains of pretending I'm a carpenter so I can have all of my weird gear out and functional. We call it.. the never ending garage project.
