“I’d buy that for a dollar”

Right. It’s cheap. It’s small. It’s a Volca, so that alone is supposed to excuse its numerous limitations. It can make certain sounds reasonably well: a three oscillator vaguely Moog-like sawtooth buzz, a very analog square wave and…that’s about it. I know. A 303 is also a very limited synth and that has a legendary character in certain circles. But that has a killer app: ACID. I don’t know what the Keys killer app is. It doesn’t really excel at anything other than, once more, it’s cheap and it looks interesting, in a retro sort of way. I was drawn to the Keys because of its three note paraphony, but it sounds a little thin that way and usually play it as a monosynth in unison mode. If you see this mostly as monosynth, the uniqueness of its paraphony is meaningless. You may be better off with a Behringer Model D if a three oscillator analog synth is on the menu. I lump this synth in the category of “after playing this synth, you will know what your next synth won’t be missing”. Ever drive a car without air conditioning? Your next car will definately have air conditioning. Your next synth will have polyphony instead of paraphony, bigger knobs, a MIDI out or USB connectivity, an actual keyboard, presets, more control over sound creation, perhaps a display. And will cost a lot more. This isn’t a Minilogue XD. It’s not even an IK Multimedia UNO synth. Assuming you must have an authentic analog sound at the lowest price, this fits the bill. At least on paper. Me, I’m a bedroom producer, so my expectations are low for entry level equipment. Still. Deliberately limiting my already barely adequate abilities removes the question “is it the equipment or the producer that achieved that sound”? With the Keys, it is all you, for better or worse.

From Gear Setup

The best from the analog Volca series! 3-part paraphone (not polyphonic!)

I own all 3 analog Volcas since they are available in Germany, including the Korg VOLCA BEATS Analog Drum Machine and the Korg VOLCA BASS Analog Bass Synthesizer.

The Volca Keys is the only one of the 3 analogues that has Flux-mode, i. with the on-board sequencer you can use up to 4 measures (instead of 1 like the others). This is ideal for changing chords on surfaces. 3-voices in pads is of course little (1-star deduction), but with some external effects (phaser / chorus / delay and especially reverberation for the release phase) can be conjured up creamy surfaces!

Because the basic sound is beautiful earthy and rough, but the filter is based on a vintage synth by Korg. By the way, the keys are paraphones and not polyphonic because the three OSCs share one filter! Since I've learned to appreciate Duophonie in the ARP Odyssey, that does not bother me much.

What I also like very much are the different modes. Especially with Ringmod and Monomode you can conjure very nice drones, but also funky leads and fat basses !!! The delay is nice-to-have, absolutely sufficient for LoFi or short delays. To make it short, even if I do not use it that often anymore, for me the Keys sounds better and is more versatile than the vBass.

Not for noobs. Questionable value, unless you need MIDI in and Polyphony

As a beginner, i much prefer Teenage Pocket Operator synths because they include basic drum machine to make a complete song with just one device, and Volcas are pack animals.

There's also an issue with sync signal generator - it never stops. If you use Volca as a clock provider for your setup, you can't restart the whole device chain to be in sync like with, again, Teenage POs

Great MIDI Implementation & Sound for the Price

Unlike most of the internet, I don't feel the Volca Keys sounds that great unless you put work into finding the right combination of 5-8 parameters. It's not like an OB-6 (duh) or even it's brethren like the Volca Bass (less duh) which both sound great no matter what you do. Still unlike most of the internet, though more positively for Korg, I think the greatest strength of the Volca Keys is it's best-of-class MIDI implementation. By class I mean size+price. Despite it taking either a powerful CC-fluent device like the Pyramid or wizard-like knob-twiddling ability to make the keys sound like a trackable synth, it's the synth I take with me on vacations because, in concert with CC massaging on the Pyramid, it's a powerful experimentation tool.

Good little synth and powerful but limitated

This was my first synth ever and i really enjoy it,sounds great and with effetcs this becomes a huge powerful machine but at the same time i feel it really limitated and you will do more than you can with this device,but it´s not a waste of money,it´s cool and works amazing for what it does.

Great Little Synth, it makes big sounds. The MS-20 Filter is extremely nice! For it's size and price a great synth!

For the price it's a great synth. The money to synth ratio is very good :) . The delay could be much better but hey.. there's a delay! From the korg-volca series this is by far my favourite. Very transportable, battery powered if you want. And a huge sound for such a small synth! LFO can be synced to the clock which makes for some nice "in clock wobbles". From screaming leads to bird sounds to big basslines ... you can have it with the KVK.

It's OK

It is pretty good value for money and you can play chords on it. If this is all you had in your setup for making leads on it I'm sure you'd get a lot of use out of it. For me and maybe other people though, it's a case of "where does this actually fit into my gear setup?" If you have all three volcas you can sync them, which is handy. I think everyone is going to end up with one of these at some point. They will be the space hoppers of the future.

Amazing!!!

I bought this little beast off of my mate for £80 (anywhere from £116 - £124 brand new). It had hardly been used, just needed a tiny bit of a clean. Absolutely sick though.

Cool

These Volcas are very cool little units and can make some great sounds but I ultimately found it very difficult to sync with my bigger keyboards like the Kronos and found them hard to record with great quality. Still I plan to try and use them eventually in a track or two as they are inspiring.

Excellent Beginner or Portable Synth

I love this little guy. Great analog sound, a little versatile even with limited features, and a fun sequencer.

Utilizing the MIDI IN and sequencing in a DAW opens up more possibilities. I foresee this synth being placed on almost every cue I do.