Volca FM

  On 10/20/2016 at 5:28 AM, modey said:

I'm highly tempted to get one of these, but then again DX7s keep coming up at my local secondhand instrument store.. I've always wanted a DX7 just as a keyboard to play

Still my favorite synth-action keyboard I've ever played, I'd consider one just as a controller.

...i got one

Only tried it with one of my MIDI/USB devices, but couldnt get DEXED to use the MIDI ports, kept giving me an error along the lines of "cannot open ports"

shall try it with my other MIDI sport and see

heard other people using DEXED to create the carts then use C6 to transfer them over

Falling in love with DX7 patch videos, so relaxing to listen to...shame the volcas only got the 3 voice...

I love that video. Sweet versatile fm.

I've been giving a go at the advanced editing in the volca. It's still complex but I find it a bit easier in some respects to edit than the yamaha. The envelope generator rate settings for the operators take a bit of playing around to figure out the attacks and decay rates right (almost seem like they're logarithmic in their response time). Being able to change the algorithms around on the fly is so amazing. Its almost a cheat function to make crazy sounding stuff with automating that with "smooth motion sequence" turned on. If this wasn't limited to 3 voices this would be my favourite cheap synth. I almost want to have two of these and the volca sample and leave it at that.

  On 10/26/2016 at 4:34 AM, Entorwellian said:

Being able to change the algorithms around on the fly is so amazing. Its almost a cheat function to make crazy sounding stuff with automating that with "smooth motion sequence" turned on.

Mmm, tasty... can you control the algorithm parameter over MIDI? Is it just sysex or can you assign a CC to it?

I've really cooled on my beats, and am not that excited at the bass or keys (except maybe the polyphonic ringmod...) but this and the sample are still looking pretty nice. I think I'll end up picking them both up, just not sure which I want first. 

  On 10/26/2016 at 6:15 AM, sweepstakes said:

I've really cooled on my beats, and am not that excited at the bass or keys (except maybe the polyphonic ringmod...) but this and the sample are still looking pretty nice. I think I'll end up picking them both up, just not sure which I want first. 

Algorithm is MIDI mappable. CC# 30

I'd get the Volca FM if you have to choose between the two. It *is* a dx7, more or less, so if you want Boards of Canada's vibraphone, here you go! Even if you don't use it for synth leads and stuff it makes for one very good dedicated percussion instrument. It's good on its own with morphing the presets and its great at making drums once you get into the advanced editing.

Volca Sample is a close second. I haven't tried the Volca Kick yet but I'll give that one a whirl next.

Excellent!

Yeah, that's what I'm thinking.

I already have samplers coming out of my ears. The more the merrier though :D

That FM patches video is sweeeeet

Also, not Volca-related but I ordered one of these off eBay, 50 squid, should make for some limited but fun FM antics:

Should be arriving any day now...

hey the quadraverb is amazing in its own right!

  On 11/12/2016 at 2:45 AM, xxx said:

https://youtu.be/S_LC1SqvlsE

 

Lovely! Got more in that vein?

  On 11/12/2016 at 5:05 AM, psn said:

 

  On 11/12/2016 at 2:45 AM, xxx said:

https://youtu.be/S_LC1SqvlsE

 

 

Lovely! Got more in that vein?

 

Yes please, great drums indeed.

  On 11/12/2016 at 2:45 AM, xxx said:

 

  On 10/28/2016 at 12:50 AM, Leon Sumbitches said:

That FM patches video is sweeeeet

 

Also, not Volca-related but I ordered one of these off eBay, 50 squid, should make for some limited but fun FM antics:

 

 

Should be arriving any day now...

Oh my stars. I spent many an hour with the 570 as a teenager. I would love to be able to have one again. This track was all 570 with the exception of the noisy clicky portion. I still love the sound of the drums all these years later

https://youtu.be/S_LC1SqvlsE

I picked up an FM today after watching that Japanese guy's video. Alesis Quadraverb is no Eventide but I want to explore like that all the same

 

Aw man this is ace! The Amorphous Door is a superb name for a project btw. Loving the 570 so far, although I didn't get it for ages as it ended up floating in courier limbo somehow. Drums are limited but lots of fun, being able to apply the synth controls to the cheesy auto-bass function means you can make weird morphing bass freakouts that get very interesting at high tempos. Lovely FM tones, as you'd expect. Would definitely recommend keeping an eye on ebay for anyone who's interested, they (and the PSS470, 480, and 580, which only differ very slightly) don't seem that uncommon and generally don't cost a lot of money.

Will try and post some demo/jam-y things at some stage...

  On 10/25/2016 at 1:57 PM, TRiP said:

...i got one

 

Only tried it with one of my MIDI/USB devices, but couldnt get DEXED to use the MIDI ports, kept giving me an error along the lines of "cannot open ports"

 

shall try it with my other MIDI sport and see

 

heard other people using DEXED to create the carts then use C6 to transfer them over

 

Falling in love with DX7 patch videos, so relaxing to listen to...shame the volcas only got the 3 voice...

 

 

I've never owned a DX7, just a DX21 and a TX802, but I always found it easier to edit from the front panel than to use an editor, anyway.  Once you get a feel for how Yamaha handled envelopes it's pretty simple, even the 802 with just the numeric keypad (although the buttons on that can be fussy sometimes).  The 21 (and the DX7's I've messed with) were great because you can do it all by ear so easily, just select a parameter and tweak it with the data slider while you play until t sounds the way you want it to.  Almost as immediate as a -one-control-per-parameter interface once you get a feel for it.  Software editors always make FM feel more complicated than it actually is, to me.

  On 11/15/2016 at 11:04 PM, Leon Sumbitches said:

 

  On 11/12/2016 at 2:45 AM, xxx said:

 

  On 10/28/2016 at 12:50 AM, Leon Sumbitches said:

That FM patches video is sweeeeet

 

Also, not Volca-related but I ordered one of these off eBay, 50 squid, should make for some limited but fun FM antics:

 

 

Should be arriving any day now...

Oh my stars. I spent many an hour with the 570 as a teenager. I would love to be able to have one again. This track was all 570 with the exception of the noisy clicky portion. I still love the sound of the drums all these years later

https://youtu.be/S_LC1SqvlsE

I picked up an FM today after watching that Japanese guy's video. Alesis Quadraverb is no Eventide but I want to explore like that all the same

 

 

Aw man this is ace! The Amorphous Door is a superb name for a project btw. Loving the 570 so far, although I didn't get it for ages as it ended up floating in courier limbo somehow. Drums are limited but lots of fun, being able to apply the synth controls to the cheesy auto-bass function means you can make weird morphing bass freakouts that get very interesting at high tempos. Lovely FM tones, as you'd expect. Would definitely recommend keeping an eye on ebay for anyone who's interested, they (and the PSS470, 480, and 580, which only differ very slightly) don't seem that uncommon and generally don't cost a lot of money.

 

Will try and post some demo/jam-y things at some stage...

 

A friend of mine has a 570, thing is pretty great.

EDIT: deleted UMR2 retrofit recommendation, I guess it's discontinued.

grabbed a 570 from ebay because of this thread -- incredible toy. i just sat here for 90 minutes twiddling sliders at high bpm with the auto bass and chord accompaniment recording out into reaper. generated many useful bits to sample. i like how a few of the bass and chord combinations sound stereotypically rave-stabby. can do acidic techno loops easily. have gotten a few good kicks and hi hat sounds out of the FM section accidentally too as part of the accompaniment loop, have to chop those out.

Woohoo! Welcome to 570 club :D

apologies for the bump but wanted to share these vids somewhere

also very tasty:

Nice.

I wanna get one off Gumtree. I think £80 might be good 2nd hand he he.

Volca FM is really great. Building patches for it is a world to get lost into in itself.

It's no 570 but a couple weeks ago I got a text from my dad saying he found a discarded PSS-190.  I'm going out to visit them this weekend, should be fun to mess with.  Every 2-op Yamaha M toy keyboard seems to have something about it to like, from what I can tell the 190's strong points are voice layering, keyboard split an an onboard chorus.  My plan is to see if I can ad an audio input so I can run other stuff through the chorus, unless it's not a chorus at all and is really just layering two identical voices and detuning them.

Edit: it's also cool that the demo song isn't just Venus, it sounds like they were going for the original Shocking Blue version not the more famous cover that was big at the time.  Good on them!

(PSS-50 is the same keyboard with only one speaker and no finger-drum pads)

Also the drums sound a lot different than the PSS-140 that was my first instrument as a tiny kid, and that I still use sometimes (mostly for the drums), so that's cool.  I assumed they would be the same.Also

Apparently all these old PSS series Yamahas have a pretty decent cult following in the Banda world for their tuba presets.

  On 6/15/2017 at 5:25 PM, paranerd said:

Volca FM is really great. Building patches for it is a world to get lost into in itself.

Just noticed the Volca FM is back in stock on Sweetwater, so I bought it. This is the last piece of the Volca Live Set puzzle. All that's left is to get one of those weird cables for the Sample (so it doesn't require one MIDI channel per sample   ) and write a set in Ableton.