sounds like a plan.
I’ve always struggled to use my volcas for more than single pattern jams. sp layering could be great
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Just got a Kick on impulse buy in black Friday sales, I can see how it will be a nice compliment to MDUW.
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love the kick. feels a bit like a mini dfam in a way. wish it had stepped p-locks. sounds great tho.
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I’ve owned keys, bass, sample, kick. Kick is the only that remains. I’d grab a used keys again if the price were right. drum looks interesting.
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yea keys sounds amazin. stick it thru some fx & it can make a grown human weep.
my personal favorite.
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I’ve been rocking the kick/drum combo for almost two years now. I think they’re both awesome and also work very well together. Still looking to get a modular as well at one point. Not really interested in the rest. 
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I’m still way down the Volca rabbit hole, so I figured I’d inspire some GAS. 
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I’m not usually into retro video game music or 80s music, but this is killer. Almost reminds me of Italian disco.
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This guy is the Volca Sample master, the reason I just bought a Sample 2!
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FiveG, echigoya, implant4 are synth shops that usually have lots of used stuff for sale. Not the cheapest but they have quality sought after stuff.
Netmall/hard off, which is the hard off-online store occasionally has crazy good deals but you’ll have to sift through a lot of stuff to find them. I’ve bought monitors and effects there. Lots of old mixers and odd gear as well. I randomly came across a lyra8 there last year which surprised me.
cheers! yeah the real shop are too pricey for me…but Hard-Off does good deal, that’s true.
Junk corner is gold 
Yup, hard off is fun
I use Mercari most of the time. Easy to buy/sell and very streamlined to use. 10% feels like robbery when selling though. They must have insane profits.
Word of caution: I’m sure you already know but unless you have a bank account registered to your name in kana/kanji you’ll get fucked over when trying to send your money to your bank account. Mercari will let you register and sell with an alphabetic name, but it won’t let you withdraw to a bank account registered in romaji and changing the name/identity registered to the account is also disallowed.
I ended up in a situation where my only option was to ask my wife to create a fake listing on her account so that I could then buy that and thus transfer the money to her account at an additional 10% cost.
Not sure if you are in Tokyo, but there is a killer music gear only Hardoff in Kichijoji. I have scored some really obscure things there. It’s in my neighborhood though, so I have the advantage of being able to pop in regularly. They also don’t post everything on the netmall so there are advantages to going into the shop.
This photo I took of their Russian Big Muff display got picked up by all of EHX’s social media accounts last year.
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Man, I love the Volca line. I’ll just keep saying it over and over.
I don’t own the Sample, but now have the original three (Beats, Bass, and Keys) and the Modular and Drum. All of which were picked up quite cheaply used (except for the Beats which I found on a close out sale for the price of a used one, with an adapter and free shipping!)
Here’s my overview after revisiting the Volca line and going deep down the rabbit hole.
The Modular and Drum are fairly deep, so I actually recommend the user guides sold on iBooks (and probably Amazon?) for those like me that aren’t super well-versed in synthesis and want to get up-and-running quickly and get the most out of them.
I mostly lean toward the old-school analog stuff, and was put off by the Drum a bit at first, but holy crap, with the randomize function, you can quickly generate all sorts of amazing sounds. It’s going to be awesome for sampling. I’m not sure if it will scratch people’s itch for a Machinedrum light, but it is a lot more fun for me than I had with the PO32, so might be good for people that like the Microtonic VST.
The Modular in particular reminds me of some kind of pre-internet science toy, and I mean that in the best possible way. Just so lovely.
All of the Volcas inspire that feeling of playing with toys as a kid, again I mean that in the best possible way, as they punch way above their weight class in terms of what people get out of them, particularly when run through a good reverb pedal or delay.
I find laying in bed with the Keys and a pair of headphones before bed to be really relaxing, almost like meditation.
I’d say the weakest of the bunch that I own is the Bass, which I knew going in and is the one I got for the cheapest price, but it’s still got some really cool stuff like the sort of secret (or at least not apparent without using the manual) switchable LFO speed using the function button. The independently tunable oscillators sound great as well. My only gripe with it is the lack of motion control, as it would be amazing to be able to sequence the filter.
The Beats also sounds fantastic. It got a bad rap because of the snare, but, whatever, the kick and high hats are sick, as are some of the PCM sounds. The Behringer 808 undoubtedly sounds better, but I much prefer the small size of the Beats, as I’m not using analog drums on every track, so can’t justify the space.
I used to have the Kick, but much prefer the sound of the Beats. I could never tame the Kick and I found it almost dangerous to use with headphones. I was seriously worried I would blowout my ears. Also, it was really hard for me to tame it in the mix with the DT. There is so much low frequency that everything else gets drowned out. I think you really need an EQ after it, so not great for standalone. Other people might have better luck with it though.
The original three to me are a must for Boards of Canada fans that don’t want to break the bank. So much lofi, retro vibe. I think the Modular hangs really well with the original three as well.
Anyway, just some thoughts.
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yeah sadly I have first hand experience…I just sold an A4 mk2 on there 
@DimensionsTomorrow Sounds great, but I don’t find my way to Tokyo very often…the mountains of Niigata won’t let me leave…but Hard-Off in Nagano has given me some really good deals before. It’s nice to know that there are place where you can still score some real gems.
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There’s a dangerous Volca? Right, I’m off to buy it straight away!!
In all seriousness I have been contemplating adding a Kick and Modular to my collection. They’re super cheap second hand and sound really good, plus would be fab sample fodder, not to mention tasty additional voices for my Pulsar-23.
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Modular is amazing. Highly recommended!
Maybe you’ll have better luck with the Kick than I did. Concept-wise, I love it. I had always wanted a kick generator from back in the day when they cost a fortune. Unfortunately, I could never get it to work like I envisioned.
I thought from demos that the Kick sounded a bit weird but through limiting, compression and distortion it must sound lush. Maybe I won’t get on with it. I had a Vermona Kick Lancet which was lovely - sampled all the sweet spots and sold it. Now my kick is the Pulsar but would.he lovely to have a secondary kick for groove, plus for rolling basslines. The Jomox Mbase-11 is absolutely lovely, the best desktop kick I’ve heard.
Will check out the Modular, seems like a cheap way to achieve wonky West Coast melodies. The reverb is nice too.
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Omg. Open the damn border! I am planning to live in Suginami when they finally let me in. I don’t think I’ve been to the Kichijoji HardOff (I still snicker at the name), but that looks tempting.
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