They say the camera adds 10 pounds (to your hands)🤔. My hands are big, but I'd say L or XL, not XXL? They are also still quite precise, never clunky (see some of the Kastle videos with a boatload of micropatching)🧐. Anyway, thanks for checking out the video🙏🏼!
There are yt channels with hundreds of thousands of subscribers with people explaining use of volcas saying nothing or randomly pressing buttons. It's a blessing I found your channel.
Wow! I feel like I just entered Volca University and you are the best professor in town! I can't wait to watch the rest of the videos in this series. I love this format - I watched it from start to finish and learnt a lot. It made me get out my Drum and tinker around straight away. I also just saw your post on instagram making a song using step jump - so creative! The Drum is my first piece of synth gear (apart from a Monotron Delay I got a couple of days beforehand), and it's such a powerful little machine with so much potential - potential that people like you are unlocking. Thank you for creating and sharing these amazing videos with us for free - I'm so grateful to get to learn from you like this 🙏💚
Many, many thanks! Glad you are learning from it😀. Agreed that the Drum is super powerful! ps I replied to you on Instagram, but botched where I put the comment (it's at the top, mentions the Organelle). pps I don't think I've ever sent the Drum through the Monotron Delay? Is probably cool because the waveguide effect can be shortened down to get a metallic pluck, but then with a slower delay from the Monotron🤔
Ok, I see. So dmto create your three sounds, you used existing sounds and adjusted the parameters to make them kind of boring, then showed us what the parameter modulation does/how it works. It was a simple thing I was missing! Very. I appreciate your responses! I'm (obviously) new at this...looking forward to the next vid.
Easily the best volca drum video series i've seen. I bought one when they were initially released but have given it scant attention because I don't find the UI very intuitive. This give me a great sense of why to persevere and how to do so. Thanks!
I've just received one of these as a present and find your tutorials very helpful indeed. Your tutorials are detailed, yet clear and easy to understand. Good stuff.
Amazing channel! Thank you for the in depth explanation, it's super useful for a rookie like myself. The teaching is really comprehensive and relaxing, and the overall edit is spotless and pleasant. Glad to have found you, I will enjoy the the next lessons now!
Wonderful teaching. Many thanks for providing this. Just picked one of these up and your discussion really opens it up. Perfect pacing, clear, structured.
I have to chime back in here & second the comment about the ideal balance you strike between your pacing & thoroughness in every single one of your vids that I've watched thus far, which has been quite a lot of your vids by now... sometimes even for gadgets that I don't even possess.... yet. ;-) again... thanks a whole bunch of bunches for all your time & efforts, doctor nim!!
Hey, you are very welcome! Hah, I watch a lot of videos about gear I don't have, pretty much as a rule! I truly appreciate the kind feedback - it makes the time and effort spent worth it😀!
@@undulations hahaha!! I actually didn't even have the volca drum when I watched the first of your vids on it. I just picked one up for $65!! (the benefits of living in los angeles.) yaaaay!! I love this thing!! you can get some really interesting, unique sounds of this little gadget. & that's what we're after... unique & interesting sounds. anyway... yeah, man... I get a whole lot out of your vids. just learning about synthesis & other aspects of creative approaches to music-making... &, of course, about gear in general. invaluable stuff. thanks so much!!
When I want to learn about some syntisis, or a gaget that I am looking to buy, Dr. Nim Is my source. This man Is a Institution! Even If I am not looking for some new gear, I´ll just listen to him as he Is so relaxed and soothing. I get absorbed by his knowledge and I am very grateful that he shares It with all of us. I must add that I do own a Volca drums, along with other Volcas. Thank you Dr. Nim. If The Expanse was real, I would want you on my crew!
Well, that's got to be the highest imaginable praise, thank you🙏🏼! I watched season 1 fairly recently, and I need to keep going! You're very welcome! It means a lot that you took the time to give me this feedback; greatly appreciated!
Hi ! I have just been watching and listening for almost an hour, without being tempted to stop, because your video is the most interesting and complete i have come across about the Volca Drum. It really helps to understand how it works from the ground up and how it can be used. Thanks so much for sharing !
Very glad to hear that it's been helpful! There are some more videos in this series (sequencer, resonator, hooking to other gear, etc.) that might also be of interest. Thanks for checking it out🙏🏼!
@@undulations you are very welcome… I’m going to have my third session on mine tonight. I’m a novice at all his device… for now… but I’m going to run it through my source audio Ventris reverb pedal tonight and get some dark and industrial stuff out of it… wish me luck 👍🙏🏻💪 I’ll watch your other videos this week in this series
Excellent description of features, and helpful context/examples for using them. Like the pacing too. Not so slow, that I get bored/distracted, not so fast, that I can't follow along, with my own V.D. Subscribed, and looking forward to watching more in the series. Just purchased mine yesterday, and already in love with it. Perfect companion for my Neutrons, MicroFreaks, and O-Coast. I'm Looking forward to, jamming at the park, with two MicroFreaks and this :-) Thanks very much for creating and sharing this video. Best wishes for your continued success.
doctor nim strikes again!! this was excellent!! thanks so much. I JUST scored the volca drum for very cheap on craigslist on this very night. so, I'm excited!! yaaaay!! I'm as happy as can be to have such sound guidance--yep, I punned. I did. & I'm not sorry. but I am grateful. & I'm really looking forward to learning more with your vids, & even more so to digging my heels into this magickal gadget....
scott sturgis Yeah, I feel like the Beats has no real way to veer very far from its intended use as accompaniment, but the Drum is so different in that regard. Thanks for watching👍🏻!
Im watching these videos to learn and they're awesome! Love your pace and honestly its super relaxing to watch while I finish up the work week. Thanks for all your detailed exploration! Much appreciated!
You're welcome! Thanks for checking it out. Yes, I feel like those four can do a ton. Volca Bass is such a favorite (I feel like getting it out asap!). Keys was really the first true synth that I ever got, such an amazing sound. Drum with so much variety, amazing sequencer. And Sample 2 - I feel like it adds original touches to anything, very humanizing with vocals, found sounds, etc. (hoping to do a Sample 2 video before year's end!). Anyway, sounds like a great setup, enjoy it all!
Tried out the new Argon 8 yesterday at local shop GAK. Really nice. Quite metallic sounding. Nice pad sounds and full size keys. Do love my Minilogue but they are similar yet different.
Love the sound editing on the volca Drum. I have uno synth and uno drum volca drum with midi thru and po33 for samples. The Volca drum is great for Drum and bass using the pitch and the wave guide. Learning more tips from your yet again amazing reviews. You seem to be able to get every ounce out of all your kit. Still Sample my fave in Volca.
Mini Synth Collective I keep the Sample out and close by - because I always want to do more with it. I should do a video (or 2 or 3) about it. I made a set of Pure Data patches for the Critter & Guitari Organelle - intended to control various Volcas. I did a video about the Keys patch, but I really liked the Sample patch (allowed for playing samples chromatically-ish). I also want to get into doing granular synthesis on the Sample. I need to think about sounds to load on it for a video sometime in the coming months🤔.
hey great video , explained very well and I got a great sound too! when I went to save program and turned on and off it only saved the basic sounds and not the frills
Thank you🙏🏼! Well, make sure to do Save Kit for the sounds and Save Program for the sequences, and if you ever change to a different kit number then you have to save the Program to keep track of that👍🏻
This is precious! Really. I came back after a year or so. Now I get much more!! I think your "intro" is best when someone already has grasped the basics and is ready to go deeper. If someone really inexperienced lands here it might be best to see - in order to avoid getting intimidated - that video first ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-FKnDPD9CKNU.html. But still... this is the real thing! Thank you so much!
En 30:20 al moverse la perilla pitch, en la pantalla aparece la nota (ej.: pit d3 o pit A2),pero cuando lo hago en mi volca no aparece la nota, sino solo pit y un número (por ej. pit 30). ¿Alguien sabe porqué?
One thing I've found is if I adjust the volumes of layer 1 and layer 2 independently, when I then adjust both layers at the same time for a final balance, it automatically reverts the volumes back to being equal. It's annoying! Am I doing something wrong?
I probably missed something. In this best tutorial ever, Undulations loads kit 11, which he says he build ahead of time for the purposes of this video. How does one save an original sound to a slot (x6) to create a kit? Or even an unoriginal sound....Would I have to use a DAW or can it be done directly on the vDrum?
@@laurenkenney9813 well, i can't recall if the kit and program saving/loading is shown in this video or the next one? but all sounds get made directly on the Drum. so, you can, for example, load program 16, maybe the sequencing patterns are blank, or maybe not? then you can do the load kit operation, just to see what the current kit is (the flashing led), the hit func to get out of that. so, say it's kit 16. then the 6 pads are the 6 sounds for that kit. you can modify those with the synthesis parameters, make 6 entirely new sounds. it you like the kit you've made then you can save it. now, if you save it to kit 16 then that's fine. BUT, if you don't want to write over kit 16, save it to, say, kit 15? this is fine, and program 16 will be using kit 15, just as you would like. BUT, that is a change to program 16, so if you just turn the Drum off or go to a different program, when you come back to program 16 it will still load kit 16, back to the original. so, what you need to make sure of doing, is to save the program if you change the kit number. that said, if you like the new kit but don't want modified sequences you can reload program 16, load kit 15, and then save program 16. i know this is sort of a mouthful. but, the 6 drum sounds are made live on the Drum, those sounds can be stored as a kit, the sequences are made live, and those are stored as program. then the last detail is to make sure that a program loads the correct kit. a lot of times you'll have multiple programs, say 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, all using the same kit - say they all use kit 15 - then with pattern chaining you can make a longer sequence and if you want to change a drum sound you only have to do it in one spot. there are also ways to copy sounds. i hope this helps!
This is such a thorough response. I can't believe you answered so fast! Yay internet! Yay Undulations! I think either I'm not understanding something or I'm missing something very simple. When, in the video, you pop into your kit with the three basic sounds on 1, 2, and 3, with 4-6 at level 0. You made those sounds...then how did you save 1 to 1, the next to 2, and the last to 3? I see how you save the group as a kit....I'm just not smart enough to save the individual parts.
@@laurenkenney9813 well, there really isn't any saving of the individual parts. when you save a kit it saves each of the part sounds as it is. i think the only way to, for example, make a new kit out of soumds from other kits is by copying and pasting. make sense? feel free to ask more questions and i will do my best👍🏻
At 30:20 when the pitch knob moves, the note appears on the screen (pit d3 or pit A2), but when I do it on my volca the note does not appear, but only pit and a number ( pit 30). Does anyone know why?
maxlo hey, you may need to update your Volca (i show a little about that, but howto is on the korg website). once updated, select your part (1-6), hit edit, then turn the select/param knob all the way clockwise to get to the pitch setting, then turn the level/value knob all the way clockwise to turn pitch quantization on. this will give the note name/octaves. It is a per-part setting, so one track can be quantized, the rest not, etc. I hope this helps!
Hi. I really like your videos and your very didactic approach. All of this is very interesting for me : I should receive a volca drum soon. Please pardon my curiosity do you work in education? Thank you very much for posting your videos.
Hey, that's exciting about the Volca Drum! Thank you for the feedback about the videos. I did teach some in grad school, but I'm not currently in education. I guess pretty much a lifetime of learning (through school, work, and on my own) informs the approach. Thanks again for watching🙏!
Really awesome tutorial! Looking forward to checking out the others and dissecting this device further. Question...how did you get your 3 sounds at the beginning of modeling all the same? I’m having a hard time getting back to where I was when modulating and I don’t have a reference point as this is my first drum machine/synth. I’m trying to figure out how to get the right sounds (toms, high hats, snares,etc) with solid information instead of only tinkering around til I get the right sounds. Any extra resources are much appreciated.
Thank you🙏🏼 It can certainly be tricky trying to completely reproduce/define a sound on the Drum, particularly because of the 2 layers. Working on each layer individually has seemed like the most reliable way to me. Note that there is a "." on the display when you change a parameter to its saved value. Using the copy function is the most reliable way to get the same sounds on multiple tracks/parts. As for making classic percussion sounds? That came up in the comments for this video (or it could have been another in the series?) - one person was kind enough to leave quite a bit of info about their process for making percussion sounds. The other thing I can recommend is using a sound editor like Audacity to look at various drum samples, compare that to what is coming out of the Drum. I hope this helps some. Thanks for watching!
As always, you have such a generous, experimental and thoughtful that is highly appreciated. Looking forward to watching the whole series! Incidentally, do you still use the Volca Kick, or have you thought about making a video on it? I know it is in some ways a much more simple device, but I love the sound so much and feel like it deserves some more YT content.
Well, the first two videos I did on this channel were about the Kick :) And, they were pretty much the first videos I ever made (except for like a 7 minute entry to an electronics contest a few years ago). BUT i think there are still some pretty good parts in those videos. I also tend to use the Kick for Jamuary on Instagram. So a couple of the videos over there (dr_nim2014) are about the Kick. I still have it and still really like it. I was thinking about using a Volca in the current video I'm working on, just as a brief sound demo - how about the Kick😀. as for a more extensive video? maybe when i get the Korg NTS-2 i can use the Kick for that video too🤔.
Fabulous intro thanks. Just lost me at the swift inclusion of the choke group as I couldn’t get my head around what it was actually doing with everything that was going on, but otherwise brilliant. Cheers. Lee
Hey, thanks very much for checking out the video🙏🏼! Yes, I wish I had spent more time on choke groups. I think there might be some other discussion in the next video of this series (I at least remember using chokes to make the "clock" sequence at the beginning of video 2.) I may have put more about it in the video description? Anyway, if it doesn't become clear then let me know, I can discuss it more in a follow-up comment👍🏻.
Thanks a lot for your awesome tutorials. They are really helpfull. There is only one things that I want to ask you. How did you make the Init sound that you use in this first tutorial. Maybe a very newbie question but hope you can give me some pointers how to get the init sound that you use here. Many thanks in advance.
Roy Derks van de Ven Hey, thank you! I poked around on my Drum, and it was still there. The sound was the exact same on both layers (so probably best to dial it in for Layer 1 and then again for Layer 2 and then switch back to the “both layers” setting, 1/2 or whatever it’s called). The synthesis settings were: SRC (sine wave), MOD (exponent), and EG (linear) - so, all down the left side, basically the very first mode. Then Level 255, Mod Amount 0, Mod Rate 127 (does not really matter when amount is 0), Pitch 29 (i.e. not quantized to note values), Attack 0, Release 136, Waveguide Send 0. And then all of the add-ons like Bit Reduction and Fold are set to 0 (those are always the same for both layers anyway, i.e. per track/part settings). You may want to think more about having quantization on or off on samething like this. You can copy to the other 5 parts if you’d like. Lastly, don’t forget to save your Kit if you’re happy with it. Good luck and thanks for watching!
どら焼き組BOSS Thank you so much :) I am happy to hear that! ps make sure to check out my update in the video description - pretty sure I got the part about “priority” in the choke group wrong/backwards. Lower parts have priority over higher parts👍🏻.
Thank you very much! I'm not sure about clap sound design (I will look for one in a book, see if it translates to the Drum in some way...), but there is actually a relevant comment on one of my Volca Drum videos - somebody left a lengthy/detailed comment about making a snare (and I think a kick?). Take a look for that (if you can't find it, just lmk I will look too). Also, trying to sort of reverse-engineer the sounds that came with it is always useful (remember that the "." dot tells you what the saved setting is). I hope this helps a little.
bentropy lol, I try. I guess the irony is that the joke led to me doing a 6 hour shot in the second episode (not 6 hours straight, but sort of a timelapse).
I feel like the kick potential on the Volca Drum is great. You can make it with two layers: a snap/pop and a boom decay. So that's good. The kits are all just a set of 6 "parts" or tracks - and you have total control over the sounds. The unit comes with some built-in sounds and sequences, but it's very much about customization. Thanks for watching!
I'm sure you can get a lot closer than the demos here: 2 layers and a lot of parameters to work with. I figure look around IG or YT to see if it's possible to get there. Also, some of the comments on this series contain other folks' advice for fundamental drum sounds.
I just discovered your channel and it's great! I seem to have most of the gear (without really using it to full potential) you are discussing so this is a great help. There is one thing pending for me which is the Digitakt. I bought it a year ago, tried to make it work and gave up. (this is embarrassing) Would you consider doing a review..?
Alwin Van der Linde Thank you! Absolutely. I have a Digitakt but have focused more on the Elektron Model:Samples (it had just come out at the time). I have been thinking about some Digitakt videos, probably within a few months. Thanks for your interest!
@@undulations That's great!! Thanks a lot. My problem with it that I don't understand the work flow with storage etc. So I look forward to your review!
Alwin Van der Linde Well, with that in mind, make sure to take a look at the video description where I discuss the storage a little more. I feel like the video might have come across as saying there is only one way to do things, but the main issue comes if you do something like: save your program, save your kit to a new slot, and then power down. Kind of seems okay to do, but it isn’t (it leaves the program targeting the old kit slot). The kit number is part of the program - realize that and it works smoothly. Do let me know if anything specific comes up👍🏻.
@@undulations Thanks for your prompt responses! I referred to the Digitakt as for storage and work flow. The Volca is under control (thanks to your tutorials!) I may give the Digitakt another try but I prefer to wait for your videos. I have a gear overload so I won't be bored :)
Thanks a lot for checking out the video🙏🏼! As for the tank, long story but 10 gallons was all I could really handle (my daughter bought the tank and goldfish); it's been running like that for over 4 years and I'm reluctant to change much.
Are you 'avin a laugh? Is he 'avin a laugh? Well, it comes from the early 1900’s jazz method of “choke cymbal” - basically hit and then mute a cymbal to control note and gap lengths. Then the term has been expanded on drum machines to where one instrument (track) can take priority over another instrument (track) and mute it, highlight it’s own sound in the mix. It’s particularly useful on complex/randomized mixes because it gives an overall feel to the mix when you can’t specifically just program certain drum hits to stay out of the way of others. I hope this helps! Thanks for checking it out!
@@undulations I understand what you say in terms of muting a cymbal, that makes sense... not sure how it works as applied on the volca, but then I've yet to use one. Have one being mailed today so I'm checking out tutorials. Look forward to digging a bit deeper and making the most of your series. I'm glad quality content like this exists. Thanks.
Relatable. Imagine how _I_ feel. BUT, there is a solution for the rest of you: feel free to use the timeline in the description (provided for every video). On a pc you can just click the timestamps to skip. It's more hassle on a phone, but you can scrub to the specific times. All the talk you can bear - or no talk at all - it's up to you!
Undulations I figure anyone who complains about the amount of talking is window shopping....actually your sound demo sections are the most interesting I’ve heard, and did more to persuade me to purchase the unit than any shorter or less detailed videos. I’ll admit that on my first watch as a non owner I skimmed through some of the talking, but now I have one I’m on my fourth detailed rewatch and I’m finding this series invaluable in harnessing the potential of the unit. I suppose you could cast your net wider by publishing the exposition/tutorial sections and sound demoes as separate shorter videos when you cover tech in future, but to reiterate these videos are fantastic and earned a subscription from me, look forward to seeing and hearing whatever comes next!
@@Tetrakan exactly. my respect for this dude extends to acquiring a digitakt as he described it as his desert island device. i also got a volca modular based off nim's videos and resample it into the takt. that plus a ten year old thinkpad is my entire setup, nothing more is needed imo, the volca gives an analogue voice but even that is subjectively auxilliary and dependent on what you are going for.
