Volca Sample 2

interesting… yeah that’s pretty sweet actually. not sure it’s worth upgrading from the OG one, or worth even creating a whole new version though…

actually I’d say these upgrades are so minor they’re essentially an admission that they should’ve put these things in the original version.

No changes in the MIDI implementation ? One channel per track is super annoying.

If I had one I wouldn’t upgrade.
But for new customers I guess it’s better.
But I would consider a 2nd hand v1 too, depends on the price difference

I have had one but never used it much as I’ve got other stuff.

As usual, CDM is pretty awful, selling out for Korg and not even mentioning the superior pajen firmware. The tone of this article is incredible, sounds even more corporate than the official korg announcement. As the hilarious cherry on top, the original volca sample already had 8 voice polyphony, they pulled the 3 voice thing out of their butts :stuck_out_tongue:

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Every music tech news site has its flaws. I saw a couple of others that don’t mention a change in poly.

I was kinda interested and now I’m not so I’ll show myself the door outta this thread now…

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I actually like Korg grooveboxes, including the Volcas—I mean, they do have their charm—but I maintain that a single E2 or E2S is the equivalent of at least three Volcas, and easily overcomes most of the above-mentioned limitations of the Volcas; all for not much more money, while keeping with a relatively small footprint.

If you need, say, one Volca for a specific, otherwise menial task, I can see that making sense; but to collect them all or expect much from them… Ya, that I don’t get.

To that end, I have no idea why Korg is marketing this as a v2, or why they even bothered.

Cheers!

the appeal of the VS over the E2 is the sound, it has that vintage sampler vibe to it, when you glitch out sounds using the loop and pitching things high up, it responds in a way I really like. Also I find the amount of control you have over sounds if sequencing externally to be perfect for the way I work.

The e2 is definitely the better sampler but then we start getting into territory where there’s samplers better than it.

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Read the comments … TonyDS has left the Volca Sample2 chat for good :smiley: :checkered_flag:

But this is exactly the irony of which I speak: i.e. somehow buying several Volcas makes sense to people, even though they’re crippled in so many ways; but buying an E2, which suffers not from said deficits, leaves those same people feeling short-changed, if only by comparison to instruments a league above. I don’t get it.

That said, I can’t (and won’t) deny you the observations you’ve made about the sound and workflow of the VS, in so far as it pertains to your personal aesthetic. Fair play.

Cheers!

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I don’t know. 130 seconds of sampling time means there’s more room for loops and stuff now. I’d say that addition alone, makes this quite more capable. And pattern transfer means you can build entire songs on it, save them and then build new ones. Through a USB port. And the additional patterns make that even more appealing now. That’s a big deal and one of the most requested Volca features overall, for the entire line-up.

If I look at this upgrade from a song writer point of view, I think it’s pretty substantial.

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Hi there,

I have some questions.

  1. Why do you say " Feels like they changed the structure only to block Pajen firmware"? A Pajen firmware update is not possible on this one?
  2. What is M:S?

Thanks.

Well, Pajen has coded his FW with the VSample mk1 parameters in mind. The added parameters and pseudo new midi chart render his FW useless on the mk2. But he could code another one specially for the mk2 though.

The M:S is the Model:Samples.

Edit: but maybe I’m wrong and Pajen FW will work directly on the mk2. Just a guess.

pajen: I have no idea, I know nothing about the internals of the Sample v2.

So he’s gonna look through it.

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I bought one of these cause I used to have the original Volca Sample. I find it great to use with my Digitakt’s 8 MIDI channels. A nice and cheap way to add 8 additional one shots to my hardware setup, and free up my DT’s audio tracks for instrument samples. As far as I know the MIDI implementation is the same as the first one as far as CC assignments go, I wish Korg detailed it out officially for us. Also it would be nice if Korg made an Android app to work with this thing.

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How fast is the new usb transfer for samples?

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Any insight on the noisefloor of the thing? Version 1 had this beehive hum, I wonder if they did something about it on the newer model.
I wanna drive it through lots of crunch, but you can’t turn up the gain much with such a noisefloor.

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I actually managed to sort this on my original models. Apparently this noise comes about depending on how you power them and not every unit has the issue. The noise issue is related to groundloop and can be sorted with one of those groundloop isolator audio cables. I bought two for mine and the noise is like 99% gone.

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Oh wow, that would’ve been good to know earlier. Gotta try this!
I was always pretending the stereo output was actually a balanced mono signal, which also eliminated the beehive, at the sacrifice of one audio channel.

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Yeah I heard that works too but I like using the panning as a midi controlled send. L channel for dry signal R channel for wet.

I think one thing not to overlook if you’re considering getting one of these is that Pajens’ custom firmware doesn’t work on the new one. His firmware is amazing and really is a huge upgrade.

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Worth knowing - thanks!

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