Korg Volca SAMPLER

  On 7/23/2015 at 11:07 PM, modey said:

I don't imagine it's easy to get melodies out of it. This is what I consider to be a major limitation of most compact samplers on the market. Why are they all so geared towards rhythm or loops?

Surely it's not difficult to include a feature that will allow incoming MIDI notes to affect the pitch of a sample?

Yes you can get melodies out of it. The pitch controls go up and down semitones but you can't step sequence the pitch changes without a computer or external sequencer. I end up using 4 banks for a melody and then changing the pitches of each sample for each pattern.

Edited July 24, 2015 by Entorwellian

So you're loading the same sample multiple times at different pitches?

 

It can't actually just map one sample across a defined set of MIDI notes, right? I don't get what's so difficult about implementing a feature like that in a sampler. Even the Octatrack doesn't seem to do it properly.

Yes.

 

Not without an external sequencer and automation. The MIDI is set up so that each sound bank is a MIDI channel onto itself so it can be soft modded in.

Have you got the latest firmware Entorwellian? I read there were some bugs with the pitch control per step or something in earlier versions.

 

I guess if you want a melody-oriented sampler you'd be better off using a Microsampler or something. But then that's 5x as big soo...

Yep I'm good with firmware. Thanks for the heads up regardless.

Pretty cool demo featuring a bunch of transformer toys.

http://www.frederikson-labs.com/

Very good sample manager, I used to use Caustic but with this one you can drag 'n drop entire folders of wavs which is quite less tiresome.

There are a few undocumented features in the volca sampler that I've been slowly discovering. You can get semitone pitch shifting by holding down function and speed.

Edited November 12, 2015 by Entorwellian

  On 11/11/2015 at 6:44 PM, th555 said:

http://www.frederikson-labs.com/

Very good sample manager, I used to use Caustic but with this one you can drag 'n drop entire folders of wavs which is quite less tiresome.

 

Shit man, great find. I had consigned my Sampler to the scrap heap because I deleted all the samples, then couldn't add any and couldn't assign it back to factory settings... lol. Hopefully I can do something with this. Definitely a lot of possibilities in this little box, just need to learn how to use it properly.

 

Edit - It lives!! Now time to get some decent samples on there...

 

Edit 2 - So it's extremely dull but making part of mine into a budget TR8 (also with 606)

Edited November 12, 2015 by flacid

  On 11/12/2015 at 6:37 AM, Entorwellian said:

There are a few undocumented features in the volca sampler that I've been slowly discovering. You can get semitone pitch shifting by holding down function and speed.

That's a good one, you can also get swing the other way if you twist it while holding func.

 

  On 11/12/2015 at 12:27 PM, flacid said:

Edit 2 - So it's extremely dull but making part of mine into a budget TR8 (also with 606)

Lol yeah when I just got it I just put 505 samples on it and nothing else.

Man, the 505 is well underrated. I added 4 or 5 sounds from it too. Managed to get some decent synth samples on as well so will see how that goes.

I love the 505 and wish I hadn't traded mine.

 

If anyone needs the print manual, I've still got that.

more 505 love here ;>)

i use a circuit bent 505 as a battery portable sequencer for my volcas and monotribe...

 

 

heres some sweet volca sample tricks

[youtubehd]j4_e8LXbiQ8[/youtubehd]

 

[youtubehd]XD5bKbM4OhQ[/youtubehd]

 

[youtubehd]rqUUDyoUf-s[/youtubehd]

 

 

 

 

 

Anyone else seen the Retrokits RK-002 which can be used to make it possible to play melodies on the sampler?

That kit looks pretty cool, could also just be done in software though. Does it map midi note > pitch of a single volca sample channel, or do you get a midi note for each sample?

I just bought this and the Volca Beats. I'm going to load it up with some breakbeats for live tweaking.

Word has it that Roland is fixin' to release a new sampler, allegedly SP1200-ish

Can't wait

Still play with this and the volca beats the most. It takes a lot of trial and error but you can do some really beautiful melodic stuff with the semitone pitch shifting and the 4 bass drum oscillators from the beats. You can make some really grainy pads with the looping function on the volca sample too. Writing patches for it is going to be a side-project of mine in the coming months.

 

I do have some problems with sample uploading to the volca sampler with the line outs from my laptop and desktop computers; it doesn't like handling bulk wav files over cv. Either i have to do it one at a time or I have to fiddle with the volume settings on both the volca and the computer sound settings to get it just right. I don't know why they didn't ditch the useless speaker for a USB connector in its place. Also another problem is that its really easy to fuck up a song by accidentally nudging one of the little knobs when you didn't mean to. I also find it harder to get back to a desired setting with the volca sample by intuition, especially with the envelope generators.

 

edit: for the record the prestock samples that the volca sample comes with aren't that bad. You can mangle them enough to make almost completely new sounds out of them so I don't really bother to replace the samples unless I'm wanting to make a professional track. It has a really good collection of snares and hi-hats.

Edited March 18, 2016 by Entorwellian

  On 3/18/2016 at 7:52 AM, Entorwellian said:

Still play with this and the volca beats the most. It takes a lot of trial and error but you can do some really beautiful melodic stuff with the semitone pitch shifting and the 4 bass drum oscillators from the beats. You can make some really grainy pads with the looping function on the volca sample too. Writing patches for it is going to be a side-project of mine in the coming months.

 

I do have some problems with sample uploading to the volca sampler with the line outs from my laptop and desktop computers; it doesn't like handling bulk wav files over cv. Either i have to do it one at a time or I have to fiddle with the volume settings on both the volca and the computer sound settings to get it just right. I don't know why they didn't ditch the useless speaker for a USB connector in its place. Also another problem is that its really easy to fuck up a song by accidentally nudging one of the little knobs when you didn't mean to. I also find it harder to get back to a desired setting with the volca sample by intuition, especially with the envelope generators.

 

edit: for the record the prestock samples that the volca sample comes with aren't that bad. You can mangle them enough to make almost completely new sounds out of them so I don't really bother to replace the samples unless I'm wanting to make a professional track. It has a really good collection of snares and hi-hats.

 

I haven't loaded it with new samples yet either, but your problem with loading it seems common enough. It's a strange archaic way to go about it, but it's cheap.

 

The stock samples are pretty good, I agree. The pitch is good fun and parameter lock per step gives a lot of variety.

  On 3/17/2016 at 1:59 PM, LimpyLoo said:

Word has it that Roland is fixin' to release a new sampler, allegedly SP1200-ish

Can't wait

 

GOODBYE SAVINGS

After owning the Volcas for about a year now the beats, bass and keys are starting to sound very samey and limited. I'm probably going to be saving them for jamming with other people and playing for fun.

 

The Volca Sample has gotten so much use now, however, that I consider it an essential setup for my studio. The filter that it comes with makes the drums sound pretty gritty and deep when you tinker around with it enough and I've been able to use a lot of techniques to bring it close to approaching my percussion I normally make in renoise (and surpassing it in a couple of areas). I can't recommend it enough.

Anyone know how they compare to an old electribe sx ( http://www.vintagesynth.com/korg/esx1.php ), a mate tries to sell me his for around 100 euro's.

Get the electribe, imo.

  On 5/19/2016 at 10:47 AM, modey said:

Get the electribe, imo.

 

yep, been looking at some youtube's, and besides being physically the bigger machine, looks usable as well :) .

I haven't used the volca sample but I have an ES-1 and it's really great. Nice and gritty. Most of the effects are kinda dinky, but the delays, compressor and decimator are really handy for messing with sounds.

 

edit: it pairs nicely with Elektron gear too. I have one output of my monomachine going into the ES-1 input, with the output going through a KP3+ and then back into an input of the monomachine, routed through the master out. It's pretty much a recipe for instant IDM fuckery.

Edited May 20, 2016 by modey