Just received FM, to go with BASS, KEYS & KICK
Sample 4 life
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Sample. Drum. Mix.
I agree that they all sound one dimensional, but my favorite is the FM… played through an Electrix Filter Factory set to LP and then a MX200 lexicon reverb its really lush…patched this way its almost like 1/2 of just one track on a DN but no plocking or multi…but also cost just as much as the entire DN…
Oh face palm…
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I had a Sample which I just sold. Always had trouble with changing the sounds out and it just took forever so when I got the DT that took over and it sat. I owned a kick, didn’t get along with it. Owned an FM and I really liked it but it had a hardware problem where you nearly had to have a pair of pliers to turn some of the knobs. The DN came out so I got that instead of picking the FM up again. Then we come to the Volca Drum. I see lots of people sleeping on this one. It goes nuts and out of control with the envelopes but it legit can make some big ass Kicks and if you consider the 2 layers per sound, each with their own envelopes and modulations and sound sources, it’s powerful. It definitely suits my tastes and when you add in P-Locks and LFOs from the Elektron sequencers, it’s mad science day! Here’s a recent demo someone put up on YouTube it’s pretty nice shown in context with some other sounds.
I really liked the vibe and UI of the FM but was a little disappointed by the sound - was a bit plastic, tinny, lacking the depth and space of the original DX7. Anyone else feel this way?
Yeah, the criticisms of the Volca FM are well known and have been covered many times over the years.
Nice thing about Volcas though is they’re fairly easy to resell - always some younger person who can’t afford even a Digitone willing to buy in the used market.
My favorites were the Sample and FM, and it was actually my slight frustrations with the limits of the sample that ended up pushing me to get DT, and then with the FM the DN. Since then, I have to say, I never touched the sample again and sold it on again, and very rarely play around with the FM.
I still often find use for the kick (I think actually probably my fav now), bass, and beats. I actually control all three with the DT midi channels. Why do I keep the beats instead of just sampling it into the DT and selling on? Well, I actually really get a kick out of the stutter effect on it, particularly with super short delays and motion sequencing it with the DT.
havent tried the drum or modular, though, and the new nubass is not my cup of tea
The volca mix is way overpriced in my opinion, but if you can find a good deal on it, its hidden gem for me is the “width” effect on it. To be honest, Im not sure exactly what it is doing, but I think it is essentially doing a frequency dependent panning. If your jamming, and dont want to spend alot of time optimising your mix pan-wise, just crank that baby to the max level, and to me it always sounds pretty awesome.
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@ khlaed: get your hands on some ground loop noise isolators, you can even buy them with minijack in/out, I forget from where, but I ordered 10 from china for ~2-3$ each some years back for some other gear. Using them on the volcas clears up almost all of the noise and hiss. I found the volcas noisy even on batteries, but the isolators work wonders
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Had the Digitakt with the Volca Sample - along mixer and effects - for a short while before selling the Sample.
Used to run the Sample as mono through the mixer to some overdrive. The dirty character of the Sample really came through that way! Removed its cool beehive-noisefloor aswell, if I wanted.
Digitakt p-locking trigless trigs on Volca FM’s Algorithm while on ARP Random Mode 3 is very sweet. It’s like having a random LFO sending prog change to a synth.
LOVE that Digitakt/Volcas setup 
Now can’t wait to get back my MODEL1 to hook it all up
haha I just sold one like 5 minutes ago and have 3 others for sale … I’m moving on from the volcas, they were the perfect gateway drug but I’d rather find them a new home
Volca Bass is a lot of fun. Load up it’s sequencer, and then trigger the steps from the A4’s CV track, or a drum machine with rim/tom trigger-out for random acid goodness.
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Oh, not thought of that; I will give it a try.
This is very much what I find useful about the Beats too, and running it through yet more FX, whether a Thyme or the far simpler Monotron Delay, can lead to intriguingly abstracted spaces.
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My gateway into hardware were Novations both circuits, and several volcas.
Later i replaced the Circuit (not the monostation) with an octatrack. Then i sold all volcas and bought digitakt, digitone, a4, neutron and a lot of other crap.
Eventually I recogniced something - I missed the volcas, and too much options are limiting creativity. Yes, that’s right - I used to fiddle with technical stuff more, than I made music.
Now I’m back to basically two setups: one is octatrack and lxr (and sometimes micromonsta), and the other one - yes, that’s it: suitcase with volca beats, drums, kick and mix.
As much I appreciate the smaller digi boxes and the a4 - those two setups give me so much more fun.
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Sample for me. I have the Bass, Drums and Keys Volca’s too but the Sample get used the most. A lot of the drums on my tracks are samples of the Sample. The Keys can deliver up some nice sounds and the Bass is good fun too.
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Keep reading the title of this thread as “Vocals - which are your favourites”
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I have nostalgic feelings about the sample. Its such a cool box. Ultimately it made me want more and got the digitakt, which can do everything it can do and more
But for what it is, i think its the most well done volca.
I havent tried any of the newer ones. The volca drum looks really interesting to me. Seems to make some nasty beats in the vein of machinedrum maybe?
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Volca Bass actually. The slides just sound amazing, especially with delays or reverb.
The sequencer can sequence the 3 vcos independently which is really cool.
Although usually I’m sequencing the Volca Bass from the OT.
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My favorites are definitely Volca Sample and Volca FM. Very versatile toys that provide a lot of fun. But just toys. Sooner or later you buy something real.
Nevertheless I find all Volcas (except the mixer, because it is not battery operated) very pleasant and I hope that Korg will bring many more models (preferably crazy devices) on the market 