Audiobus: Use your music apps together.
What is Audiobus? — Audiobus is an award-winning music app for iPhone and iPad which lets you use your other music apps together. Chain effects on your favourite synth, run the output of apps or Audio Units into an app like GarageBand or Loopy, or select a different audio interface output for each app. Route MIDI between apps — drive a synth from a MIDI sequencer, or add an arpeggiator to your MIDI keyboard — or sync with your external MIDI gear. And control your entire setup from a MIDI controller.
Download on the App StoreAudiobus is the app that makes the rest of your setup better.
Buying all 6 Volcas
Okay
So I have a quick question^
Currently I'm planning on getting the Volca Keys & Volca Fm
The question is : is it necessary to buy all 6 Volcas or some of them can generate the exact same sounds as any other Volca from the Korg Volca series?
For example : a lot of people say that the Korg Volca Kick can really generate a lot of good/bright leads such as the Volca Keys do
So I am curious if I actually need to purchase all of the 6 Volcas or some of them are basically interchangeable ?
Comments
Two of them are about roughly interchangeable with one Korg Monologue, from a price point of view.
I've had all of them but one (never got the Bass, because I already have a lot of Roland bass synths). Sold a bunch of them. Now I only have the Beats, Kick and Sample left. (Can you tell I'm into drum machines?)
Not sure about using the Kick for leads. It can do very interesting pulsating and pumping bass lines, but for leads I would always go to something else.
Interesting. I had Keys, Bass and Beats. Only kept the Beats. Modified the snare successfully (somehow) or I would have dumped that too. I thought the Keys and Bass had very few and very narrow sweet spots. Didn’t like the Minilogue either. The filter wasn’t great and the overall layout wasn’t what I was looking for. I prefer the Roland SH series.
I have had the Beats, FM and Sample. I sold the 1st 2 and have now 2 sample, with the samples you can do anything
Maybe I buy a third in in the future. There's nothing compared to the sample for the price point
i have bass, keys and fm.. but bass looks for me most capable, not just for based but also for leads and fx's ..
in this track, except of drums, i used just volca bass for all sounds.. not much fx added, just a bit of eq, delay/reverb (sequenced in bestmaker 2)
https://www.soundcloud.com/ray_subject/volca-bass-synth-demo
I had Keys and Sample and sold both, although had some fun with the Sample, and might re-buy it again at some point. If only it had 4Mb instead of 2Mb...
bass for me. best filter, loads of character, no stepping. as long as you don't spread your note range over too many octaves, it sounds sweet.
No, I don't think any really overlap but can't imagine really wanting/needing all 6. Keys, FM and Sample here. I think the keys is the sleeper. Love it to death.
Six volcas are more expensive than one Digitakt or one OP-1.
Good point! I would take 1 op1 over six volcas any day
+111111...
I do have all 6. I just liked the form factor, and buying them $160 at a time is somehow a lot more palatable than spending $800 on a single unit you may or may not love. Logical or not.
The FM and Sample are the most versatile. Beats is almost like a mini-808, but the snare is defective. I got the keys before I got a Minilogue, so it’s probably the one that’s the least needed, but it’s an impressive value.
The Kick is weird. I was going to pass on that too, but did a ton of homework on it and confirmed you can use it as a pitched sub bass generator. You can even save like 16 different sounds as “presets” which is kinda neat. It was pretty widely mocked upon release but I think they should have marketed it as a monophonic bass synth, not just a “kick drum generator” and more people might have been interested.
I hope they go Volca 2 one day, taking the best bits from all the Volca sequencers and extra features and making them standard across the line. Keys is the only one with Flux mode, only a few have pattern chaining...
I'm also kinda surprised they haven't made the Volca mixer yet. Someone else did it for them! Almost more surprising: no Volca FX. Something where you could motion sequence the FX ala effectrix.
Have they put out anything analog since Tats left? Guess NAMM is around the corner.
PS. The VFM is the only one I bought new. Got the Keys and the Sample used, with the box, for $80 each.
I have 4, Keys, Bass, Sample and FM. Would never get rid of the first 3. They're superb!
The fm on the other hand is really not for me.
I have the sample, keys and bass. I used to have the beats but I just couldn't live with the terrible snare! so I sold it. If I went for another it would probably be the FM.
I think there are a lot better ways to spend your money
Double
Triple
Go for the kick & sample and omit the beats, unless you’re after rhythm ace-style drum sounds. I’d personally take the PO-32 over all 3. The keys is brilliant and can also handle bass duties. FM is FM. Editing sounds on the Volca is a pain, but you can load DX7 patches via sysex. The FM’s arp is neat.
Bought the Bass, FM and Keys. Only kept the Bass. Such an underrated synth with three individually sequenced osc's and a filter full of character. It's probably the piece of gear I'll never sell.
All six triple vodkas?
I love love love love love love the Volcas! They don’t really overlap but you can certainly approach similar sounds with a few like Beats and Sample or Bass and Kick. But they’re different and each have a few unique quirks.
I have all the Volcas, and even have two of a few, and two Monotribes, the precursor of the Volca line. They’re rather cheap, so the more the merrier!
I have even made a special stand for them all and bought right angle adapters for all so everything is easy to play. I’ll take a photo when I get home if anyone cares to view my Volca obsession.
+1
Yes, please.
I wouldn't mind the kick as a sub bass synth for my mpc. Will grab one if I ever see em second hand for a decent price
I loved them and the price at first and have had the keys, sample and kick. All gone now. Don’t miss them. You can get a roland boutique for less than 2 volcas. For me a way better value. Also a monologue. Or waiting and getting something higher up. I think when they came out they were more enticing because there was nothing else in the price range.
Good stuff. For me though, nothing I know of quite sounds like the Keys. It's a little freak; makes for a nice SAW machine by default and can go completely weird when pushed. I mapped the knobs to my midi controller. That's when it really opened up for me: full size keys and well spaced controls. I can't play the same thing twice on the Volca keyboard itself.
Did the same mapping thing with the FM. Lack of velocity lets it down but again, a 'real' MIDI keyboard ups the playability considerably. I like the FM mostly because of the extra features like the crazy fast ARP clocking, etc. Wish it had a filter on it and the awesomely shitty delay from the Keys instead of the chorus. I mostly use it for bass, rando weird sounds and pads via a wah pedal as a filter replacement. Much fun. Still, with so many other FM options available in software, it's on the might sell list for sure.
The Sample on the other hand... it's absurdly fun to drum up little groves with it. I love the sound and most of the available controls are 'just right'. The main problem with using it stand alone like this is the lack of sequence storage! I think every stupid little groove increat deserves to be revisited in the future, naturally. Let down.
Instead, it mostly fills a role in my setup as a digital sample drum brain. I have the first few sequence slots filled with some super basic "just get going" rhythms. The others are generally blank. All 10 have different kits. I sequence it from the BeatStep Pro. The 32k sample rate gives it a crunch I really dig and the basic sound controls are pretty much what you need for a drum brain. Would love if each channel had a boost and HPF but otherwise, yeah, pretty perfect for this application. Small, battery powered and analog clockable become mostly bonuses.
There are other mini battery powered units now. e.g. I just the long delayed Softpop. Its just awesome, but it is not cheap. With the volca beats going through it, its an incredible combo as the Softpop filter brings the Volca beats weedier sounds to dazzling life.
I still crave the ones I don’t have (Kick, FM, Keys). But perhaps I have enough little boxes for now.
My recommendation for a tiny but powerful hardware setup: Volca Sample, Volca FM, Monologue, Zoom MS-70 plus a small battery powered or passive mixer.