Volca Beats Analog Rythem Machine w/Electribe-style 16-step Sequencer and Real Analog Sounds

fun to play, easy to learn, and sounds great. you can store your patterns for quick recall in a live situation. for the price, it's an astounding machine; want something more powerful? you're looking at another $600-800. the Volca is as close to perfect as you can get for the price. the only downside is the fiddly nature of bringing up a tempo quickly and precisely because the pot is tiny.

Fun little machine. Def worth the price. It takes a headphone output or some larger outputs on the back. I just plug in my headphones with a 3.5 and I just play all times of the day. It takes 6 AA batteries. It is cute. It feels nice. I think it was slightly larger than I thought it would be. I like it and for $110ish, it was worth it and they hold their resale value. I have had a few Korgs.

Korg's recent adventure into classic analog electronics produces some interesting instruments and the Volca series first three releases, Beats, Bass, and Keys, are no exception. The Volca Beats is a drum machine with analog and PCM voices and a layout that is mildly reminiscent of classic Roland drum machines like the TR-808 and the TR-909. If your are looking for live sounding drums and percussion at a similar price point, try an Alesis SR-18 or a sampler. The Volca beats sounds like a classic beatbox. Do not let the unit's speaker fool you. The kick drum can be felt in the gut when pitched low and played through headphones or a decent amplifier. My unit did not suffer the snare voice defect of another reviewer's Volca Beats, but I had heard some initial units were recalled. Instead the snare sounds really good for an analog snare voice even when heard through the unit's internal speaker. The hi and lo toms have woodiness to them unlike the toms on Korg's KPR-77 from the early 1980s or the purely electronic quality of Akai Professional's Tom Cat disco toms. The hat sounds are decent, but unremarkable as they sound like hi-hats. The remaining four PCM sounds are like classic PCM sounds and only their playback speed may be modified, changing pitch and duration. The PCM claps and crash are useful, but the claves and agogo are unlikey to be used unless you like to integrate "ethnic" percussion. However, they are still good sounding PCM voices. Since the Volcas lack a song mode or chain playback, they part of a trend of performance instruments like the Akai Professional Rhythm Wolf and Tom Cat, or the Roland TR-8. Changing beats in a performance has to be done completely manually by holding the memory button and tapping the memory location. Unlike the Akai and Roland drum machines, the newly selected pattern will not hold until the last step of a current pattern plays out. Creating beats isn't difficult, but the instructions should be read first before step recording and saving patterns to memory. Korg Electribe-style motion sequences may be recorded also for adding a dynamic character to the beats. This includes a stutter effect that can be quite fun and applied globally (all sound playing). All the Volcas have a MIDI in that allows the unit to respond to MIDI clock, start and stop, note number (for voice triggering), and some control changes. Program changes cannot be made via MIDI. So, still no way to change patterns except manually during playback. Analog synchronization with other Volcas, the SQ1 step sequencer for the MS-20 Mini, and even Teenage Engineering's pocket operators. However, the Volca clock pulse is constant and other synchronized instruments will have to be manually stopped and started. For those who are not rhythmically challenged, the manual requirements for starting, stopping, and changing patterns liberate from creative performance restrictions. Otherwise, MIDI Solutions offers a four output MIDI thru box to start up to four Volcas on cue. I own the other drum machines and instruments mentioned in my review as well as roomful of other instruments collected and played over three-and-a-half decades. I like the Volca Beats sound overall and the price is a very nice considering the cost of vintage instruments that tend to be less reliable. The Volca Beats is even more fun when linked up with its siblings, Bass and Keys, or an SQ1 driving the MS-20 Mini. The Volca Beats "retro" beatbox quality makes it choice for EDM genres like electro, house, and acid. Tweaking those knobs sure is fun.

This thing can have a BIG sound when you want it to. Crisp instruments and crunchy lo-fi PCM samples for the non-drum sounds. The drums have adjustable parameters. There's motion recording. The touch-keys are very responsive. The knobs are tiny and painful to twiddle too much, but easily replaced with other Korg instrument knobs. 1/8" jacks and only a midi-in are pretty annoying. Be ready with a converter or a 1/4"-1/8". CV sync makes it incorporate nicely with other analog instruments. Thing is small and has an incredible battery life. I like to take it to work and jam on my breaks. Time will fly very quickly if you do this, so work quick. The snare sucks. It's really bad, but it can be a good third tom at least. It was because they forgot to put a capacitor in a certain spot on the PCB and the quality control guy who approved this was probably new and didn't know analog snares were not supposed to sound like they were coming out of an 80s game console. There are resources online on exactly how to fix the snare by soldering the appropriate capacitor onto the appropriate spot on the PCB. It takes 10-20 minutes and a bit of bravery (if you've never soldered before). Once modded, the snare sounds like a proper analog snare and really elevates the instrument to astronomical levels for its price point.

This is a great little drum machine.

To be honest it was better than I expected. The analog sound it produces sound beautiful (the kick is amazing), as well as the digital sounds it makes sound really nice (clap specially). Another thing that is very versatile is the automation of some of its sounds: you can produce quite different sounds with merely twisting a knob. One downside is that you can't chain sequences :/ If you see reviews you will find that people complain about the snare. Out of the box this is true: it's not the best snare out there... However, I found that with the correct settings of parameters it can sound nice, as well as using the Stutter feature and automating it, as it gives it more body and color. Also, if you feel brave, there are videos out there showing that you can Modify it to "improve" the snare (adding a capacitor and some other tweaks). You'll need some soldering tools and a precise hand though (haven't tried so far).

Aún no puedo creer lo que hago con este sinte, es tan versátil, intuitivo y da buenos resultados sin tantas horas de estudio. Como principiante lo recomiendo.

I found going online to find some tutorials for it was pretty helpful. It does take time to get acquainted with it as there is a LOT under the hood. The information provided with the gear is helpful but it's all on one large sheet basically. For me video tutorials work a lot better so I use those plus the sheet of info that came with it. Basically, I really love discovering all the stuff this thing can do.

Yes, a good- sounding (& good-looking) drum machine. Fairly easy to use, once you understand it's workflow. Great sounds. Versatile. Very good price, too.

ドラム音がイメージとちがったが、コンパクトで遊びには最高 他の機材と合わせたらかなり面白くなる

Korg Volca alıyorsanız ne aldığınızı biliyorsunuzdur zaten. Satıcı gayet özenli ve güzel bir paketleme ile hızlıca kargoladı, gayet memnunum.

Ho acquistato il Volca Beats per utilizzarlo come drum machine e farmi delle basi per suonare la chitarra o il piano sopra, e funziona perfettamente. I suoni sono elettronici ma non in modo eccessivo, diciamo che funzionano perfettamente se si vuole lavorare ispirati da gruppi come i Radiohead. Ciò non toglie che si possano anche fare cose più spinte verso l'elettronica, collegandolo agli altri Volca o ad altri sintetizzatori. Si può anche utilizzare da solo poiché la modulazione dei suoni permette di creare delle melodie. Molto versatile

FUN!!! I love this volca!! This is a great little drum machine. Battery power for portability is a nice touch. It's more or less a portable sketch pad for jamming and could be used for gigs in a pinch. It is limited to 8 memory slots and can't save patterns externally. You have to save over the presets. Otherwise, it has fat rich bass tones and lots of great sounds. Having physical potentiometers is a huge plus over a touch screen. Synching to other synths makes jamming very easy!! Wish it came with an adapter.