Korg Volca

If you're skeptical on any of these Volcas, I suggest you buy either the Keys or the Bass and run them into audio tracks on your MPC. You'll be in hog-heaven! Oh yeah, you can also control certain parameters via MIDI so you can get funky on them Q-sliders! W00T.

So I've realized one huge problem with the Volca Bass.


It's so much fun that I can't stop playing with it and I never get around to actually making music with other devices as well.

but seriously, I've half drained the batteries (well over 10hrs of use; this thing has a much longer battery life than they market it with, at least when you're not using the internal speaker, though I can't imagine that tiny thing drains much power) and I still haven't used it more than once in combination with other gear (except a fuzz distortion box... tasty)

sciguy wrote:So I've realized one huge problem with the Volca Bass.


It's so much fun that I can't stop playing with it and I never get around to actually making music with other devices as well.

but seriously, I've half drained the batteries (well over 10hrs of use; this thing has a much longer battery life than they market it with, at least when you're not using the internal speaker, though I can't imagine that tiny thing drains much power) and I still haven't used it more than once in combination with other gear (except a fuzz distortion box... tasty)

Yeah man, I gotta order 2 adaptors. They're the same model as the Monotribe power supply KA-350. I see them for $26.50. The batteries on the Volca Keys died last night and I'm on a second set with the Volca Beats. I can still get good deals on batteries at places like Costco or Sams Club from what I've seen. So I might do that and buy the the Volca Bass before I even think of buying all those power supplies.

dont you guys have rechargeable energizer battery kits where you guys are from?

26 bucks seems pricey for an adapter...

Yeah, I don't think you need the Korg adapters, as long as you get the correct specs, just use cheaper generic ones.

The batteries I find last a very reasonably long time, so I don't bother with a wallwart. (only on my first set of batteries, since Christmas. Also, they're actually slightly over half charged still)
But I did buy an adapter. got it for like $8, free shipping, offa Ebay. It's so cheap though that it makes a slight buzzing noise when there's no load on it (can happen with cheaply designed transformer circuits). So I'll prolly just solder in a large resistor across the output, just to put a little bit of a load on the adapter for when the volca's not turned on/plugged in.

Or just buy the three plug adapter here:

www.kvgear.com

I always save adapters after throwing things out. I happened to have one that fit with the correct amps, volts (whatnot). It was from an old portable dvd player.

I took the batteries out within a few days.

cheers,
Ian

PS I am sure someone in here is going to figure out some wonderful mod for the volca I am looking forward to reading about it.

Ian Canefire wrote:I always save adapters after throwing things out. I happened to have one that fit with the correct amps, volts (whatnot). It was from an old portable dvd player.

PS I am sure someone in here is going to figure out some wonderful mod for the volca I am looking forward to reading about it.

Oh, I definitely plan on modding mine, as soon as I hear back from Korg about an issue with it (pressing buttons on my bass can sometimes make other buttons randomly get triggered, e.g. trying to unmute an oscillator can cause all three oscillators to be muted, playback to be stopped, and step mode to be turned on)

First thing will be out with the speaker - it's basically useless, just taking up the very tight space inside the device. I might put a proper 1/4" jack, with a switch to be able to make it either proper mono output, or stereo, in case I still wanna use headphones.


Also, just another note, the amp rating on an AC adapter doesn't matter, as long as it's greater than the original adapter's. (even a little less would most likely work. It's just saying the max current you can draw from the box. If a device doesn't need it, it will draw less. And nobody would design a device to use 100% of the rating on its power adapter)

I just had my first "holy f*ck" experience with the Bass last night!

For some reason, I haven't really got into using it's sequencer before but it was quite a pleasure when teamed up with the MPC doing bore-on-the-floor drums just so I could clock & sequence away. The power truly is inside the sequencer there, so much fun.

They keys on the other hand... I prefer to just straight play 'em with a MIDI keyboard.

Still learning how to rope these lil' bastards down. Glad I picked up all three of 'em.

sciguy wrote:Also, just another note, the amp rating on an AC adapter doesn't matter, as long as it's greater than the original adapter's. (even a little less would most likely work. It's just saying the max current you can draw from the box. If a device doesn't need it, it will draw less. And nobody would design a device to use 100% of the rating on its power adapter)

Doesn't matter if regulated power supply, does matter if unregulated power supply.

SimonInAustralia wrote:

sciguy wrote:Also, just another note, the amp rating on an AC adapter doesn't matter, as long as it's greater than the original adapter's. (even a little less would most likely work. It's just saying the max current you can draw from the box. If a device doesn't need it, it will draw less. And nobody would design a device to use 100% of the rating on its power adapter)

Doesn't matter if regulated power supply, does matter if unregulated power supply.

True, but it's so cheap now to make regulated supplies that I'd guess they're much more common than unregulated, so it's not a huge thing to consider.

Also, I'd assume the volca has internal voltage regulation, as it has to deal with variable voltage in the batteries anyway (as they're drained, or if you're using lower voltage rechargeable cells), so it probably wouldn't make a difference. Hell, you could probably get away with an adapter that's a volt or two away from 9V.
But this is all hypothetical. I'd never try it.

Some more shit I made with the bass and a fuzz pedal. plus the monotron for a crappy off-beat kick. jus havin fun

I'll pay more for the Korg and not have to deal with the noise issue. But before I buy the adaptors, I'm buying an EB-16 FX Card, then the Volca Bass. That's the new game plan for me.
I havent thought about mods for the Volcas yet. The 1/4" out is a good idea. But I'm looking to hold out for a while and see what else can be done with the space the speaker takes up. Eventually We'll see some crazy shit happening with the Volca mods.

I recorded me fiddling around with the Bass the other night. Drunken, improvised recordings straight from the board into my Saffire 40. Used Logic 9's stock compressor to tighten it up a little bit. Uploaded to a long-forgotten SoundCloud profile.

Two jams, nothing fancy. These were meant as "sort of cool" demos of the Bass and nothing more. I normally don't share anything so it is weird that I'd share something like this first... two jams that were made while thoroughly wasted in a music style that I hardly ever listen to let alone make! Don't judge me, a** holes!

Anyway - have fun listening.
http://snd.sc/1cb9hwC

Volca Bass, MPC 1K, MonoMachine (on both) + electric kalimba + sample of CAPCOM's intro sound from the 90's.


Peace!