Korg Volca

I have hopes we will see a roland 808/909 soon enough, they will have to adapt or die.


korg are taking all the right steps , soon the others will fall into place.

by the time roland have done the above I would have probably got my sp1200, a few neat things from korg and begin to see Yamaha releasing some goodies also.

I am loving these little boxes - the price point is amazing. These will be a lovely addition to my setup. Nice one Korg!

Interesting that they didn't put multiple outputs on them. They had to have discussed that in their brainstorming meetings. The Roland TR machines had individual outputs. Would it have costed that much more for multiple outputs on the Drum machine at least?

If multiple outputs made each unit cost $100 people would still buy it at that price point.

Am I missing something or does it look like there is no way to mute the individual sounds? So I guess you have to make a drum pattern and just record it all and can't do multiple individual passes for recording into another medium.

Need to see more.

I would imagine that these would eat batteries voraciously. Will be interesting to see. I like the idea of battery power.

Wonder if one can simply buy an old TR727 and take the multiple outs from it and solder them into the Volca. Thinking I will have to buy two bass units and one keys. The second bass unit will simply be for dismantling with my engineer friends.
$150 Euro I can see these costing US$200 each. Lets hope Guitar center keeps the cost lower.
cheers,
Ian

all that weird roland v shit.. is the tr's and tb's of the future, they weren't cool either then.. better invest now!

Ian Canefire wrote:Am I missing something or does it look like there is no way to mute the individual sounds?

The second video I posted shows how to mute sounds. The batteries last 10 hours.

and korg is dropping the new ms20 at under a grand (from what I hear it will be close to 500 bucks? not sure how accurate that is)...

I think these will do well.. even if I hate those ribbon strip type buttons.. not as bad as a stylophone but still.. the midi input saves these machines for sure.

mr_debauch wrote:I think these will do well.. even if I hate those ribbon strip type buttons.. not as bad as a stylophone but still.. the midi input saves these machines for sure.

The touch strip was unplayable on the Monotribe, so thankfully they have made it bigger on these.

A few more vids with tinny sound.

they're practically like pocket versions of the electribes...

so where's the one that samples!!??

c'mon korg... you know we'd dish out $150 for a mini hardware sampler [even if it only sampled 20 seconds] that could sample at a low bitrate [with various bitrate options], built-in filter, basic sequencer, and could also be triggered via midi... sheeeeit.

crossings wrote:they're practically like pocket versions of the electribes...

so where's the one that samples!!??

c'mon korg... you know we'd dish out $150 for a mini hardware sampler [even if it only sampled 20 seconds] that could sample at a low bitrate [with various bitrate options], built-in filter, basic sequencer, and could also be triggered via midi... sheeeeit.

pocket sp1200 would be totally doable i think

crossings wrote:they're practically like pocket versions of the electribes...

yeah, I think even the old ones like the ea-1 electribe has more features.. more stuff to tweak... but it's also not an analogue synth.. however all knobs are controllable through midi. These are apparently analogue, but the knobs are not controllable through midi except the stutter delay type one on the drum unit (so far that is the only thing they mentioned.. and is the only thing on the drum unit that can be automated)


cool.. I would probably still go for an ea-1 over one of these synths... but at the same time these would probably be very dope along side an ea-1.

I imagine the keys on these will be soo much more playable than the monotribe/monotron.

Completely different technology. The monotrons/tribes use a resistive ribbon sensor. These use capacitive sensors.
For example, crappy old palm pilots used resistive touchscreens. iPhones use capacitive. Much more sensitive and accurate. And they allow multitouch, which is cool.

Though I assume like it's constrained to each individual key, no chance for slides like on the monotron/tribe.


Also, I'd probably be fine with the lack of multiple outs, because if they've designed the PCBs like the monotron/tribe, there'll be pads on the PCB labeled for each individual output, so it's accessible if you simply solder in your own connector. I think I remember seeing that the monotribe had that for its drums.
Either way, I assume it would be a simple mod.



But yeah, these things seem really awesome. I mean, we don't have much to go by with the only a few demo vids that are out, but they appear to sound cool, and they definitely look good.


I wish they had put audio ins on them though. Audio in on the drums unit would be fantastic; you could route in, say, the bassline's out, which would make it absolutely perfect for portable jamming.

sciguy wrote:
I wish they had put audio ins on them though. Audio in on the drums unit would be fantastic; you could route in, say, the bassline's out, which would make it absolutely perfect for portable jamming.

I would have it the other way round, drum out into bass in, access to those analogue filters for some filtering.

These are SICK, I can't wait to get all 3.
I use my Monotribe often and
The batteries last forever and the small ribbon doesn't
Even bug me ,I use a stylus pen and can get most of
What I need.
Korg makes some really neat stuff , the wave drum mini
Is Ridiculous as well, that clip on sensor is the coolest
Thing I've seen in a minute, yeah it's kinda toyish
But Fun as Hell tho' and for me the Fun to play factor
Is a big deal.

And at least Korg is still down with Hardware , even if
The hardware is for tiny garden Gnomes

Glewfactory wrote:yeah it's kinda toyish
But Fun as Hell tho'

for sure... we all know these aren't the gold plated mini moog.. they are just for fun with a tad of "potential in an actual song" IMO... gotta keep it in perspective... Im actually glad nobody came in here with the "volca bass vs ni massive" type of attitude. That's gotta be a first around here.. haha