These little machines grabbed my attention this week. And after watching some videos on YouTube my GAS came along =)
What do you guys think about them? Are they any good?
I have owned all 4 but sold the Beats. Cracking wee synths
The volca bass has a surprising thick low end. I noticed it when playing out in a pub recently.
I had the VB slaved to my mpc1000 and the volca’s output going in the mpc’s input thru. The mpc1k is known for it’s rather cold sounding outputs in comparison with its older sisters. Yet, very deep, round and thick bass. I don’t think the Pub had amazing subs either.
I always leave it as a sub bass as it mixes pretty well with vynil sampled beats, also not so interested in the acid-type stuff or lead-type sounds.
Had the bass but sold it - nothing against it - pretty decent.
Have the Sample. It’s awesome! best gear of 2014!
The keys is a lot of fun. Ultimately sold it. Currently I use the monotribe with keyboard for bass/lead plus crazy analog synth sounds. And my volca sample is a super powerful drum machine. Syncing them all up with my PO-14 has been a blast!
I think the sample would probably be the one I’d get. The only reason I have not yet is I have an Octatrack, so it feels pretty redundant. I would like something smaller, cheaper and battery operated to mess with for fun though, so probably soon.
If you have an Op-1, what would be appealing about the Volca Sample? I could see getting Keys or Bass as they may provide a better analog/subtractive synthesis option than the Op-1 can do but sampling seems to be a pretty strong point on the Op-1.
I’m asking because I’m also interested in a Volca and while there are some comprehensive videos on YouTube covering the initial three, the videos for Sample (since it’s so new) aren’t as deep so I don’t know much about it.
You can do more (and less) with the Volca Sample @jshell. You can loop the sample at a single cycle and use it like a synth voice, and it will fade along the decay/release, unlike the OP-1 which goes “lol, nope!” and stops playback. You can also apply a pitch envelope, up or down (on the OP-1 you’d use an LFO).
OP-1 can, of course, actually sample, and resample, with fx, on the fly, which is quite powerful. On the Sample you’d use something like Caustic Editor (actually I don’t see why anyone would use anything else >.>) for most mangling w/ fx duties, then load it to the Sample, which could be a workflow killer for some people.
Even if the op 1 has a great sampler this seems like good supplement.
@jshell also couldn’t find any good videos about the sample.
But I found this one http://youtu.be/7z9qst9goak
das is great seems like a prison jam
out of the 4 volcas i like the sample the best. very usable even if you have the OP-1. but the other 3 are cool too. they are a little noisy but they all have their own interesting character imo. i would say get the sample first. unfortunately i haven’t made a video with it yet. here’s a live session i did with 3 volcas (without the sample), a monotribe and some effect pedals:
http://youtu.be/bvK2jIK5-nI
I have the Keys and Sample.
Keys: You can conjure up some sweet sounds from this. It does have a fairly distinct sound (kinda brassy in a way), but it’s not only useable, but good. The flux feature is great, so you can bypass having just 16 steps on the sequencer. The delay is noisy, but you can make some cool sounds from that as well.
Sample: This is my favorite. It sucks that you can’t sample straight from the Volca, but besides that, it’s great. The samples sound great and you can manipulate and mangle them really easily. Adding swing is fun. Motion record per step! It’s pretty easy to make a playable track on just the Sample as well.
@wildfrontiers noticed that you said you could bypass the 16 step default sequencer on the keys, does the same apply for the volca bass? Wish it was possible!! Also considering buying a beats or a sample but pretty torn between the two
I’m really torn also. I like the keys. The only other synth (besides OP1) is a microbrute and the keys seems like a nice addition.
The drums also seems nice. And having a separate drum machine would be great, although the sample also seems to do the job well.
The flux feature is great, so you can bypass having just 16 steps on the sequencer.
@wildfrontiers How is that ?
IMHO Volcas are very nice instruments, you can carry them anywhere, plus they have MIDI in which is very great to bypass the limitation about the step number.
I also like the awkward touch pad where you slip easilly from a note to another : it game me many times some really cool “James Blake” sounds 
For me, the first three Volcas were really the pieces of gear that got me into the world of electronic music.
And as I knew nothing about synthesis, I found it was a straightforward tool to understand some of the fundamentals.
I don’t use them that much nowadays, but I won’t sell them, I think.
great video. Not super musical but really interesting sound design opportunities! Bells and chimes always process super well in that kind of setting i find!
Not being able to plug audio in to the sampler is a drawback in the “live” point of view. Seems like the microgranny could be an altenative. But I don’t know that much about any of the devices
Not a volca. BUT the monotribe is amazing. I have it setup with a keyboard and its just a very basic monosynth fodder for my op1 tracks! Double post w/e MONOTRIBE!
The flux feature is great, so you can bypass having just 16 steps on the sequencer.
@wildfrontiers How is that ?
When you are in flux mode, notes you play aren’t quantized to the 16 step sequencer when recording. You’d have to have pretty good timing or could use MIDI, but you can fill the bar with more than 16 steps. It’s definitely “cheating” and not ideal since flux’s main use is for leads that aren’t quantized, but it works 
@wildfrontiers noticed that you said you could bypass the 16 step default sequencer on the keys, does the same apply for the volca bass? Wish it was possible!! Also considering buying a beats or a sample but pretty torn between the two
I don’t think the volca bass has flux, I’m pretty sure the keys is the only one that has it. The sample is so awesome. You can pretty much put any drum sound in there. I haven’t played with the beats, but have been thinking about getting one lately. I found one for $80US on Craiglist, but the seller backed out last minute.