Korg Volca Beats Analogue Rhythm Machine
Peerless beats generated by solid analog drum sounds and an Electribe-style sequencer.
Following in the footsteps of the monotron, monotribe, and MS-20 Mini analog synthesizers, Korg announces the Volca series. volca is a new lineup of EDM prod... read more
Korg Volca Beats Analogue Rhythm Machine
Reviews
Trusted musician and artist reviews for Korg Volca Beats Analogue Rhythm Machine
Based on 37 Reviews
An 808 in your pocket for under $200.
Big fan. This is a fun machine to play around with. I like running it through crazy effects and tweaking the stutter button on the high hats.
Easiest analogue drum machine to use.
It was my first approach with the synth/drum machine world and I use it in every situation, especially when I play on solo shows or in duo. It's an honest drum machine with some good sounds. I think that on the track "Interfuit" you can hear a good example of it: https://lepiccolemorti.bandcamp.com/track/interfuit
Don't like the kick
Nice little drum machine, with a nice little feature to mix up the beat. The 808ish kick is to weak for my taste.
A lot of bang for the buck... and the kick BOOOM.
The Kick is awesome, you are limited in sound shaping but you get a lot of bang for the buck. Great for getting into drum synthesis. And a funny little tool for on the run jamming. I like it but it's not my favourite synth of the Korg Volca series (which is the Korg Volca Keys).
Need more Cowbell
DONG I wish. I bought a metal cowbel and smapled it with the VOlca Sample... did the trick and then some.
Small but powerful
To be honest, I don't like it enough to use it as the main percussion in a track, but it is good at adding an analog feel to the drum part in a track. It's also surprisingly good at making some messed up, cool sounds which I love to do.
The best programmable drum machine under £200
A brilliantly price tiny box of nothing but fun. I really enjoy playing around with the volca beats and I always love just making beats from scratch. As I own a unit with the snare mod all of the sounds are great except from the crash, its neither realistic like a 909 or like an 808 but except from that really good quality sounds. The level balancing could be improved e.g. the snare and kick are a little too loud in comparison to the hi-hats and the PCM sounds need to be a lot louder. There are a couple more things it could do with like shuffle and MIDI out and maybe the motion recording of all the analogue sound parameters but other than all that it is an excellent drum machine for the money and is THE drum machine to go for if you're on a small budget.
I am on my second volca bass, at first I didn't bond with it and sold it too soon, but now I am using the shit out of it. Does the beats only have stereo outputs?
The beats just has a single mini-jack output, which is stereo but there is no panning of any of the parts or anything so it'll work in mono. I just just have it running into a mixer in a mini-jack to normal jack cable.
good, for the price
The biggest flaw is the lack of MIDI volume control for individual sounds
as great as its synth engine and sequencer may be this thing is just a toy.... its a shame because outside of the mix it sounds really nice in a retro, pre-linn way
Funny
Pretty easy and funny to use, the hugeness of the sound does"t seem to be here for me but it's cool to find some ideas on the fly !
Excellent but not perfect
Excellent value small factor drum machine. The analog sounds are all good but range from fantastic (kick) to hmmm not so good (snare), although the snare is better "in person" than it seemed on videos of people eager to mod the capacitor onto the circuit board. The PCM sounds are all very quiet compared to the analog ones though which means you would have to turn all the analog sounds down and then turn the main volume up which is fiddly and will probably get noisy. Love the colours of the unit though: feels like a 1970s hot tub, sports car, chocolate fondue set or something!