The Bass was initially my favorite, but it had this annoying minimum portamento that could not be controlled. It was separate from the slide, and made it impossible to play by hand.
I never minded the snare on the Beats, but the hats sounded very wrong to me. I wish manufacturers would realize that not everyone likes abrasive metal 80s hats. The 70s were the decade of magic analog cymbal sounds.
The Keys is a lovely instrument. I liked to mike the speaker for a more toy-like sound. Modular is fun too.
Yep. The Jomox was what I wanted back in the day, so was keen on the Kick. It just never worked out for me. I actually just searched Kick videos on YouTube to see if people had done cool stuff with it, but wasn’t finding much to make me me reconsider it. Anyway, I’m much happier with the Beats. Sounds great and less fiddly to get the sound I want.
If you want to experiment with West Coast synthesis on a budget, the Modular is fantastic. Highly recommended! It’s the only Volca where I could see owning multiple ones of the same one.
This thread is seriously reigniting my GAS for a Volca Modular.
I own three: the Samples (v1), the Keys, and the Drum. I adore each of them in equal measure and couldn’t imagine giving one up.
Other than the cumbersome way to transfer actual samples, I have zero complaints with the Samples. I love its limitations and the SP-303-ish grittiness to the sound. I once transferred a pool of Barry White and Love Unlimited Orchestra samples to it and made some of the best music of my life with it.
I’ll never understand the complaint that the Keys is just a beginner’s toy. I used it for leads in several pre-pandemic live sets and it floated above the mix in such a glorious and beautiful way. I’ll often do what @DimensionsTomorrow mentioned above and lie in bed half-awake with a sequence running, maybe with a little touch of that lo-fi delay, and let its sound lull me to sleep.
I’ve had the drum for about a year and still marvel at just how bizarre and out-there it can get, particularly when you start throwing external CCs at it. I have hundreds of samples from it that I regularly use in my DT and TR-8S. The tube and string effects get a little numbing after a while, but my new favorite trick is to lower the tuning of the string between 15-25 to simulate a delay. I absolutely love that they included probability in the sequencer.
Can anyone help stabilize my bank account balance at this point and talk me out of a Volca Modular?
@Flood I absolutely agree with you! The Samples (for gritty lofi samples), Keys (I love the slow attack sounds) and Drum (for crazy microtonic drums) are my favorite volcas, too. They are versatile and sound great.
You should definitively add a modular to your setup. (Sorry for that )
I wouldn’t understand that either, since the Keys is a three oscillator synth! I suppose it’s one per note in para mode but the unison modes with a little detune are where it’s at!
I posted this before but here is the Keys with some filter sweeps.
If I had no gear, I’d be very happy with a volca sample and volca keys. They are phenomenal values for their price. I used the volca keys in a live setting a few times! Sounds amazing.
Having plenty of other gear though, I found I never ever used the volca with them, never sequenced, never triggered, just used them to fill space in my closet until it was time for donation.
Volca drum and FM too were really cool but I used them even less.
Just adding that I’d absolutely have a Keys again and would love to get my hands on the Modular and Sample 2. Great wee devices - I wonder what’s next! I could see/would welcome version 2s of the original trio…could maybe see them doing something in the granular and wavetable realms too!
The Modular is fantastic. I’m leaning towards saying it’s the best Volca yet. Pretty advanced features such as the definable scales and tonics, and the reverb is really unique. I’m hoping to spend a lot of time exploring it over the next year. I would honestly be GAS’ing for a second one but plan to mainly sample the Volcas rather than do live stuff, so I’ll be able to do overdubs. A second one would allow more complex routing but my patching skills aren’t there. One will keep me busy for a long time.
FYI, I got mine used for only around $100, so seems like a steal. Definitely look used if you do go for one.
Do you have much experience with this kind of synthesis and modular? If not, I would highly recommend buying the Volca guidebook by Tony Horgan. It goes through every module in detail and has loads of sample patches to help wrap your head around everything, and I definitely needed that.
Just sitting down and going through all the sample patches in the book is quite enjoyable (for me at least) and gives you loads of jumping off points. Some of the info, like how to create a basic LFO patch to route to other things or how to get the second cutoff routed in can be found on YouTube, but it’s scattered, so it’s nice having that info all in one place.
I don’t have any other modular experience, and this is my first foray into West Coast synthesis, so bear that in mind.
The sounds though are lovely. You can get some really haunting sounds with the reverb.
The other thing is that even the core tone of the synth without any patching sounds wonderful to me, particularly if you are a fan of the retro vibe from the Keys, and you have the benefit of choosing different scales so it sounds very musical right off the bat.
I would also agree that the Volca Modular is a superb instrument and definitely worth the full asking price. I got mines whilst I still had a MakeNoise 0-coast and whilst the 0-coast is definitely a step up in quality compared to the Volca they felt to me like stylistic brothers. Ultimately, I sold my 0-coast because I felt the Volca gave me 90% of what the 0-coast did and the other 10% I wasn’t so fussed about…
More generally in relation to the recent chat about the Volca range, I have to echo the sentiments about how good they are… I’ve got the Keys, Bass, Beats (with snare drum and PCM mod), Sample, FM, Drum, and Modular. I couldn’t say which is my favourite, I got through phases of preferring one over another and then it changes with my tastes.
My favourite thing to do with them is pair two with my Digitakt - such a flexible and inpsiring setup and totally easy to swap the Volcas in and out depending on what I’m in the mood for.
This is a love letter
Eight years after, yesterday I rebought the analog volcas, adding the volca mix to the family. Today I had a lot of time to play the small beasts and I want to share my (very positive) opinion about it.
The Mix works very well, despite the bad online reviews. Some users complains about the output noise, but to be honest I don’t ear it very much and it became audible only at very high volume settings. The power splitter is a huge improvement for the setup, it’s useful!! The sliders are ok and if you like the tiny volca’s keyboards surely there is nothing to complain about tiny sliders. Onboard compressor is fun and adds a pleasant ducking effect to the mix.
Volca Beats is exactly as fun and grooving as I remember. Ok: the snare is what it is… but it has a very good kick, a nice clap and enough sound shaping options. It may not be the best drum machine on the market, but given the price it is still the winner in the quality/price competition.
And now let’s talk about the true beasts!!!
The Keys sounds huge in every setting: poly is good enough for pads, but it needs a midi keyboard to unleash its powers; unison, octave and fifth are fat and the detune knob make it even fatter. Pure analog joy! In the high register it can scream a lot, in the lower register it gives very punchy basses. Ring modulator roars as a lion and gives a very good amount of ultraviolence to the sound. A must have.
And finally the Bass: the king IMO. A masterpiece of a synth. Voices routing is pure genius: it can play a devastating bass line and an high arpeggio at the same time! The filter gives some of the fattest analog sounds! Closed it goes very much deep, open it screams in a very pleasant way. Interaction beetween filter, amp and envelope is perfect: the box is filled with sweetspots! Volca Bass is a one man band: it can play a full track on its own. Added to Keys is analog heaven! I’m very, very, impressed.
And now some word about the three boxes all togheter. The sequencers run perfectly in sync and the entire workflow is fluid and intuitive. The player is invited to improvise and every action makes happy accidents, spreading fantasy and creativity.
Ok… I’m in love with Volcas and surely I’m not alone
I’ve had the Sample, Keys, and Bass. Only the Bass is still here, sounds really aggressive and I like it. I’ve been eyeing the Kick and Drum for quite a while, maybe I will bite and get the Kick soon. And now, by reading this thread, I’m seriously considering the Modular.
Those OG Volcas are so good