Yes, this or bank CC messages. Fingers crossed for the mk2.
Did I hear him right, or did he say it did not come with a MIDI DIN adapter?
You heard it right. Not even a power adapter.
My Volca FM MkI didnāt come with power adapter either, but at least I didnāt have to worry about the MIDI DIN port.
I donāt think any of the Volcas were ever shipped with power adapters. Just a set of AA batteries.
I would hope the FM MkII at least shipped with batteries. I can see why peeps are interested in this thing - some donāt want to pay for the Opsix, others want something smaller than the Opsix.
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Can I just sayā¦there is no way the Volca FM MkI was the āworstā Volca. Not even close. I owned the first 6 or 7 until the original designer guy left Korg and their new releases were just reiterations or vacuum tube stuff. The FM had the most musical utility, arguably, out of all of the Volcas, save perhaps the Volca Sample.
There were Volcas that were sort of niche or pointless (Kick & Mixer), and Volcas that were held back by surprising technical limitations (Sample), but if you want my unpopular opinion, the Volca Beats was the āworstā Volca because it should have been such a simple concept to nail, and it shipped with basically a defective snare drum that sounded crackling plastic wrap.
I could definitely see upgrading to this one - even though it looks very similar, the 6-note polyphony and 64 patches are notable improvements.
But not having fully reviewed all the materials for the new release, I am disappointed by two things. First, did they not improve the method for getting patches on and off of the device? IIRC, you had to use sysex transfers either through a 1/8" audio cable or via MIDI, but it was wonky. Plus, many (most?) smartphones these days have done away with the audio jack, so itās kind of annoying to have to find an assortment of adapters, etc. just to send over a Solid Bass patch. Really should be an option to do that via Bluetooth or at least microUSB cable here in 2022. Perhaps I missed something on that.
Also, the loss of the 5-pin DIN MIDI jack really is a bit of a bummer. I understand that eats a lot of real estate on a small device, but the Volca FM, in particular, has to be played on an external keyboard, and youāve now made that one step harder. Does it at least recognize USB MIDI now? The tiny MIDI adapters are sloppy and fragile, and I have a crap-ton of them laying around, but never know if the one Iām looking at is meant to fit an UNO Synth, an Arturia MIDI Controller or something else.
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Think of it as a DX7 player, not a workshop for designing FM patches on. Would anyone who actually understands FM synthesis and had interest in designing DX7 patches actually want to do that on a Volca?! Plus, the performance of the parameter randomization in the few videos I saw was VERY encouraging. Iāve seen that feature in Dexed and a few other places, but if you just arbitrarily screw with FM synthesis parameters, 90% of the time you end up with something completely obnoxious (or hearing damage).
Itās fine, you donāt have to see my face in the video and my voice is very quiet. I put a lot of work into trying to learn stuff in depth to put out useful, mostly educational content (and building free utilities for people to use in this case) and I do actually want people to view my videos (and use those utilities). The sad fact is that thumbnails with faces in do better - Iāve resisted it for years, but itās true, so Iāve started doing it (and I ham it up as much as possible to amuse myself).
I donāt tend to do release day videos because thatās not really what my channel is about, but one of the things that made me realise that the channel was worth persuing years ago was a series of videos going in depth on sound design on the Volca which led to me building the editor so that people can build patches and hear the results in real time (something that wonāt work on a dx7 editor because of how the Volca works with sysex). Korg saw the value in that and sent me a unit early to make sure the new version still worked with it (it didnāt, which is why I had to update it), so thatās why I had a unit on release day, itās not usually something I get offered (again, because I donāt tend to do release day videos).
I hope that clears up the whole face thing, and if you have one of the Digi boxes you might even find some useful stuff on my channel (they were recorded in my āpre-faceā phase, donāt worry).
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I appreciate your face and your content very much Mr @OscillatorSink. Thanks for all you do.
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Nice. Just as I said. A good and smart guy 
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The power adapter I can forgive (and none of the Volcas have ever come with them), but the lack of the MIDI adapter is a big misstep. Korg have been transitioning to TRS midi in a lot of places and they never supply adapters and they reaaaaaaaally should. I was really shocked that the SQ-64 didnāt come with them given that itās a sequencer.
I actually hope that Jeremyās video can be used for good as ammunition inside Korg for those who (rightly) think they should be supplied.
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Honestly I really like TRS mini but its like manufacturers are colluding to make it fail. Dongles cost way too much and are not that easy to come by. I couldnāt even find a TRS to DIN cable last time I looked for one. And then thereās the whole 2 standards thing. Couldāve been cheaper and easier but instead itās just a huge pain in the bum!
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Exactly. I never get mad about non-premium gear that ships without a power adapter, particularly if it can be powered by batteries. (Or, in other cases, with something like a micro-USB cable and iPhone charger, that virtually everyone has a bunch of).
But the mini-plug MIDI adapters - itās annoying enough to have to use them in the first place and thenā¦you donāt ship one with the device?! Thereās definitely more than one size of those, also. I had a bunch laying around from Roland, Arturia, and other devices that I have or used to have, and there are definitely at least two different sizes.
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At this point all devices should all have the dual polarity TRS midi adapter jacks like the Model Samples and Model Cycles. Not sure which adapter you have? No problem, just try it out. If it isnāt working, just change the setting to the other type.
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Fair enough.
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Nice demo:
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Yeah, the Warp Active Step is pretty interesting, not sure Iāve encountered this anywhere else!
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The good news is my Volca fm2 arrived from sweetwater today!
The bad news is the box contained everything but the Volca!
Truly bizarre, never experienced anything like this before lol. I wonder what happenedā¦
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Wow, that is terrible. I hope they donāt give you any hassles over this. So disappointing!
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Sweetwater told me August. I hope mine comes with a Volca.
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Lol, I do too. I wonder where that Volca is right nowā¦
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