Korg Volca Low volume issue

12/15/2013 PLEASE NOTE THE VOLCA IS NOT LOW VOLUME. USE MIC CABLES NOT TRS.

Hi All,
I have had my Volca beats for about 3 weeks now. I have been only using it with headphones. It sounds fine.
Just took it to my roland vs2480 to mix it into a sequence and it is outputting a low volume.
I can buck the volume on it to its highest and it still outputs low.
When I turn up the channel volume on my mixer it starts to hiss.

I am about to return this sucker!

Has anyone else noticed this problem?
I just did a quick check on the web for low volume Korg volca and I see a few others noticed it too. This is the most disappointing thing I have had happen to me with gear in years.

I hope I can find the receipt. It is outta here in a couple of hours.

Cheers,
Ian

My volca bass has a low volume issues too. And if you do turn it up there is a noise. I'm working on ways around it. I hope it's just that unit,cause I have two.

If people have to buy an amp to increase the volca's volume, then I should have been told this before buying.
I watched so many review videos and no one noted this.

It's a toy! You get what you pay for.

I did find my receipt by the way. The TR machines were not low output.

Be warned everyone.

Cheers

Ian

You're using a TRS stereo to dual mono cable, right? Not just a mono cable?

Hi Sci,
I was using 1/8 inch trs (out from korg headphone) to 1/4 inch trs (input on vs2480)

I think I should have just spent the money on a TR909 or a Tempest.

I am not keen on having to buy a headphone amp. regardless of how cheap they are.

Its just sad.

Cheers
Ian

PS I am seeing a few reviews where the low volume is mentioned briefly.
PPS Seems so unprofessional now. I mean the old Dr Rhythm units are louder than this.

Sorry to hear about the volume issue, Monotribes are the same way. It's unreal how much gain on the mixer I have to use, and I still end up doing more volume stuff as the Tribe hits the Ableton channel.

Tried plugging it into a mic input, rather than a line input?

Maybe it will sit better in the gain range of the mic input, without having to crank the gain to full on a line input?

Ian Canefire wrote:Hi Sci,
I was using 1/8 inch trs (out from korg headphone) to 1/4 inch trs (input on vs2480)

I assume the vs2480 inputs are TRS balanced mono. but the volca's doing TRS stereo unbalanced, so you can use it with headphones. if you don't deal with that properly, it can give unexpected results.
I don't know anything about the vs2480, so my thoughts might be irrelevant.

sciguy wrote:

Ian Canefire wrote:Hi Sci,
I was using 1/8 inch trs (out from korg headphone) to 1/4 inch trs (input on vs2480)

I assume the vs2480 inputs are TRS balanced mono. but the volca's doing TRS stereo unbalanced, so you can use it with headphones. if you don't deal with that properly, it can give unexpected results.
I don't know anything about the vs2480, so my thoughts might be irrelevant.

Yes, that sounds like a possibility, the Volca stereo headphone output would have a left headphone output on the TRS tip, and right headphone output on the TRS ring.

When these are plugged into a TRS balanced input on the VS2480, the left channel is connected to the balanced +/hot side of the TRS input, and the right channel is connected to the -/cold side of the TRS input.

This should cause anything panned centre on the Volca (if it has panning, if not, then everything) to have both a normal polarity signal going into the + side of the balanced input, and an identical normal polarity signal going into the - side of the balanced input, and they will probably cancel each other out, since one signal is going into the + input and the other signal into the - input, due the the unbalancing of what is expected to be a balanced input signal once inside the VS2480.

Try a TRS to 2 x TS cable instead, and only use one of the TS plugs into the VS2480 (or both sides into 2 x VS2480 tracks if the Volca does pan any sounds into the stereo output), or maybe try a normal TS-TS instrument cable instead of the TRS-TRS cable you are using at the moment.

Simon and Sciguy,

It works
Thank you very much Simon and SciGuy.

Simon your explanation was very helpful. TS to TS makes it sound just fine. I will not be returning the unit. I am so used to using balanced equipment, plus I have such limited electrical engineering knowledge that I showed my presumptuous nature.

All is well.

I will add a note to the earlier post.

cheers,
Ian

Sweet. Yeah, these things can definitely be frustrating before you figure them out.

It is slightly annoying to have to use a different cable with the volcas than with any other equipment, but it's less of an annoyance than an excessively low output volume.


What's happening is that the balanced input is expecting two inverted versions of the same signal. It subtracts them in the input circuitry, meaning anything in common between the two inputs is removed, like noise picked up along the cable. That's the main reason for balanced audio.
I would guess that's why you were getting low volume out of the volca; the two signals, the left and right audio channels, should be pretty much equal, so the difference between them, which is what the input was trying to hear, was tiny.

sciguy wrote:What's happening is that the balanced input is expecting two inverted versions of the same signal. It subtracts them in the input circuitry, meaning anything in common between the two inputs is removed, like noise picked up along the cable. That's the main reason for balanced audio.

Yes.

It is a normal polarity (+/hot) audio signal and an identical audio signal but with inverted polarity (-/cold) that are sent out of the balanced output of a device.

The cable will generally pickup any electrical interference equally on both the +/hot and -/cold wires running through the cable.

The input circuitry of the receiving device flips the polarity of the inverted polarity (-/cold) audio signal, back to normal polarity, and adds it to the normal polarity (+/hot) audio signal, thereby doubling the strength of the wanted audio signal.

In flipping the polarity of the received inverted polarity audio signal, it is also flipping the polarity of any noise picked up in the -/cold wire, against any identical noise picked up in the +/hot wire.

When the noise and the flipped-polarity noise part of the signal is added together, along with the wanted audio signal, in the unbalancing process, the noise cancels itself out, thereby removing any noise picked up through the cable, in the unbalancing circuitry of the receiving device.

That is what it was doing with your Volca output signal, treating it like unwanted noise. Since it was the same normal polarity audio signal on both the +/hot and -/cold wires, coming out of the left/right channels of the TRS headphone output, the receiving device unbalancing circuitry, in flipping the polarity of the -/cold input and adding it to the +/hot input, caused the Volca output signal to cancel itself out.

Sorry for reviving the thread but I've got a Volca Beats I'd like to sample from and experience the same issue.

Just so I buy the right cable, Unbalanced TS Male 1/8" to TS Male 1/4" is the one to go for, right?

Cheers!

MIRA wrote:Sorry for reviving the thread but I've got a Volca Beats I'd like to sample from and experience the same issue.

Just so I buy the right cable, Unbalanced TS Male 1/8" to TS Male 1/4" is the one to go for, right?

Cheers!

Try these. I bought these for my Volcas. They should arrive soon.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/281121578816?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649

distortedtekno wrote:

MIRA wrote:Sorry for reviving the thread but I've got a Volca Beats I'd like to sample from and experience the same issue.

Just so I buy the right cable, Unbalanced TS Male 1/8" to TS Male 1/4" is the one to go for, right?

Cheers!

Try these. I bought these for my Volcas. They should arrive soon.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/281121578816?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649

Got these mate, but this ain't TS to TS, is it?