I’ve never understood the desire to have millions of kits and patterns. If you’re a professional musician who just has to perform with hardware, and has hours worth of tracks to play to exact specifications, maybe I understand. But for hobbyists who are likely sampling phrases and one-shots, running then through external effects and filing them away for when inspiration strikes, the Volcas are awesome.
Lacking pattern memory? Save MIDI patterns on an external sequencer and play them into the Volcas. Lacking kits? Use one of the editors. Want to do it all in the box? Embrace the limitations, separate the wheat from the chaff and save only your best stuff, removing your earliest creations where you were only learning how to use the unit. And if you are someone who has to perform with hardware, why are you punishing yourself with those tiny Volca knobs and that finicky touch strip?
No, I don’t want millions of patterns and kits, If I buy a digital hardware box is to use the box outside de computer… I could make the patterns in the DAW but I want to use the boxes by itself.
Last month I bought a RD6 which have 32 patterns. I spent one day and made more than a falf of them. But… Behringer provides a tool for backup. I don’t blame Volca Drum, in fact its a very fun machine, well built, sounds good, intuitive, but even RD6 (which is a very very very simple drum machine), has a tool for backup and double of patterns.
As a fan of Polyend tracker, I totally embrace the limitations but 16 patterns…
I think the design and ethos behind the Volcas is starting to look a little long in the tooth, a product of their time if you will. Of course we’re all using gear much older than 10 years (glares at OT), but most of it wasn’t designed to begin with as super simple, budget boxes like the Volcas.
The Volca Drum was one of the two Volca’s I kept from my sell off (I had about 8 at one point) and it remains a deeply frustrating thing, yet filled with potential.
For custom synthesized drum sounds I can actually use on a track (a test the Volca Drum rarely passsed), I’ve long since switched to the TR6-S, Model:Cycles and other gear.
I get a sense even Korg have given up on the Volca’s at this point
To clarify, you can’t backup, but you can create a patch in the webapp and save the settings that are currently on the screen on the webapp. You can only ever transfer data TO the Volca Drum.
I would use something external to sequence the Volca Drum if you want more sequencing abilities. I’ve done the same with my Volca Sample 2 and my MIDI out from Digitakt, so I’ve got all the probability and multi bar room to work with.
Maybe this holds true to an extent with the more basic Volcas but the issue with the Drum is that it has a relatively complex synthesis engine and it takes time to program something useful. It’s not a cute instant fun toy like the Beats, there are a lot of layers to tune and balance and iterate on with those tiny little knobs. If you do your programming on the box, which I would guess is the typical use case for most people who buy a hardware drum machine, you end up with a carefully tuned drum kit you’ve spent ages on that you can’t export out or back up.
Very frustrating because it’s an excellent, deep percussion synthesiser that lets you program from first principles rather than macros or preconfigured engines and deserves to be turned into something more capable. If you’re using it as you suggested and just editing drum sounds on a computer to resample and cut up later you could save a bunch of money and get a Microtonic license instead.
I would pay 100 or 200 EUR more for more memory. Yesterday I spent some time with it and is great… Again, compared to the LXR02 is softer, and it’s absolutely fun. The paid app from Momo lets you save kits and is very very cheap.
This is why I bought another Volca Drum… 2nd hand less than £100 gave me another 16 kit spaces…
I have loads of their parameters mapped in my Akai Force template which has both the Volca Drums in split channel mode, each with a midi channel/track per voice and a channel of program change midi events.
Then I can edit patches and sequence from the Force, save the kit to one of the 16 slots and have a total of 32 kits available.
Still working on the mappings and workflow - it’s nearly done - I’ll share template and video where I find the time!
AFAIK there is a midi out mod but it only transmits sequencer data - the sound engine doesn’t transmit any midi.
Such a shame! If they put this engine in a proper box with proper midi IO (and added some filters cos the sounds often wants a little off the top end!!!) it would be next level.
Very true, and I think the desire for ‘more’ with the Drum is indicative of how good the synthesis engine is and how much fun it is to use. Plus the ancient ER-1 had a 256 pattern memory if I recall, which is pretty crazy in comparison. The Volcas are very much a budget range of instruments that punch above their weight in many ways but Korg made sure they weren’t blessed with the best memories in the business.
Echoing @ThorntonForce - it’s a fantastic-sounding drum machine with unique features that can be picked up for about £90 2nd-hand - wonderful little thing and wouldn’t ask any more of it at that price!
Hopes: Korg continue to iterate on the Volca line - mk2 versions of all. Korg implement a Drumlogue update to ‘drop’ the Volca Drum engine in the digital tracks (or Sinevibes conjure something for multi-engine)…or honestly a Volca Drum Deluxe/Volca Drumlogue digital drum machine in the Drumlogue housing/form factor.
