Why's that? Just keep the level low and you should be good to go, right?

Yes that works. The whole reamping di method is for guitars and basses. Keyboards and other line level gear don't really need this. And pedals that don't end up working by just plugging straight thru them won't be much better with reamping and a di. I've gone thru it before with a boutique pedal. It just would not work with much of anything except a guitar and amp.

They're only pre-orders as well - have mid July as shipping date though, so that's a good thing I guess.

But yeah, the prices are a tad ridiculous. I think i'll wait.

Someone else wrote this on another site about Roland...

Roland,

I know the last time we parted ways it was messy. You wanted me to love you for the crystal clarity of your 16bit/44.1K samples and I was happier when you were grungier and less sophisticated. I know you tried to meet me halfway, and for a while I was onboard during your “Groove box” phase (I know, I can’t look at the pictures either). But let’s face it, you’ve been spinning your wheels since I left you. The last time I cared, you were in that sexy black number with the Super-Saw, but you still had the D-beams. You don’t need all that fake stuff.

Whenever I happen to see you in public, I hope that maybe you’ve gotten your act together. Maybe you’ve gone analog or you come up with some new style of synthesis. But I’m always disappointed. You’re still trying to impress the church music and home organ crowd.

When are you gonna realize you’re funkier than that? When are you gonna stop trying to please the P&W crowd and let your keys down? Let a few knobs show! Stop hiding behind your menus! Let me see that sexy bitch that could pack the club floors back in the 80s! Come on. It’s time.

Any idea which button changes the osc wave forms on the Volca keys.

Looks like 8/9/10 on the touchstrip.
Only saw or square.

that's for the volca bass. on the volca keys, from what i understand from the few videos that talk about it, the first 4 modes (poly, unison, octave, fifth) are saws. the last two (poly ring and unison ring) are square.

Yes, that was a very sleepy day :D

The Pigtronix Keymaster was designed for this, but it's $250.

Any good audio demos around? All I can hear are thin blips, blops etc...?
Looking for audio demos maybe showing low end in the bass, fatness in the keys, more about character palette in the bass.
Unless of course these are very niche in character and simply very good for a narrow 'type' of sound.

Interesting not quite as flexible as I thought.

I've always liked bass pedals on the 303. I bet this would sound killer with the Volca Bass:

Another demo
????????????????MS-20??????????Korg????VOLCA-KEYS?VOLCA-BEATS?VOLCA-BA - YouTube

so this song came out awhile ago so it's obviously not the volca keys, but doesn't it sound like the volca keys right after 2:26?

I wish I spoke Japanese. Even with the language barrier this video makes all of these instruments look really, really fun.

I'm wondering how people are planning on connecting to the audio outs of the Volcas. The reason I ask is that I'm designing a set of cases for Volcas which will include integrated power supplies and custom audio cables. I'm setting up a small home-based business and will start making these shortly after the Volcas become available in the US.

I could envision a few different ways of handling the audio cable situation, but it's not clear which way would be the most popular.

Here are the options I see:

OPTION 1
End 1: 1/8" stereo mini plug
End 2: 1/8" stereo mini plug
Length = 6, 12, or 18 feet

OPTION 2
End 1: 1/8" stereo mini plug
End 2: Two 1/4" male plugs
Length = 6, 12, or 18 feet

OPTION 3
End 1: 1/8" mini plug (mono)
End 2: A single 1/4" male plug (mono)
Length = 6, 12, or 18 feet

OPTION 4 (a splitter)
End 1: 1/8" stereo mini plug
End 2: Two 1/4" female receptacles
Length = less than 1 foot

OPTION 5
End 1: 1/8" stereo mini plug
End 2: Two 1/4" jacks mounted to panel on the case

Which do you prefer????

I had just always assumed the volca bass would be mono. Apparently the documentation doesn't agree with me. Here's the links to the docs in case anyone missed them:

http://www.korg.com/uploads/Support/...OM_EFGSCJ1.pdf
http://www.korg.com/uploads/Support/...OM_EFGSCJ1.pdf
http://www.korg.com/uploads/Support/...OM_EFGSCJ1.pdf

And already an errata:
http://www.korg.com/uploads/Support/...rrataSheet.pdf

Thanks! this answers the MIDI channel question and others.

YES! YES! YES!

Thanks for sending those manuals. Maybe I missed the post earlier, but they answered the most troubling question I've been having regarding the MIDI channels which they operate on.

All three units have this feature...

Setting the MIDI channel
1. While holding down the MEMORY button, turn on the
volca (bass, keys, beats)

2. Step buttons 1 to 16 correspond to the MIDI channels 1 to 16.
Press the button that corresponds to the desired channel, and
the LED below the step button will light up

This means I'll be able to add these into my entire gear rig and drive them from my main sequencer. Anyone calling these things toys from this point on deserves a kick in the butt.

I too was assuming Bass and Beats would be mono. I could see how Keys would maybe be stereo if they had stereo panning out of the delay. The text specs published on the Korg site when they announced the Volcas showed stereo outs for all three. Maybe the headphone outs are simply two identical mono signals.

Cheers!
So 3 melody lines and slide for bass, assignable midi everywhere.
Good news

All one needs now is just a Yamaha QY20 and a MIDI splitter. You could program an entire set of analog jams with everything sitting in a suitcase!

Ten hour battery life, not bad

What what now?

I have a QY20 sitting on the shelf being bored! Tell me more! (I don't think in midi, I know nothing about midi splitters)

The devices have 8 memories so I figure you can switch between,but yeah, not enough for a whole set.

Ok next question:
If you can assign midi channels does that mean you can attach a Q25 alesis din midi keyboard, and split it to do bass and keys in different areas?

And lastly to the guy designing cases, it all sounds good but I'm visual so your descriptions aren't helping me figure out what your on about, sorry!

I like what I see!

With the motion sequencing on the Keys it seems like you can almost do Elektron-type parameter locks, with values changing abruptly from step to step.



edit: no mention of a way to chain patterns together though, or if it's possible to manually change sequence during playback (putting one in queue etc). I hope Korg does something about that in an update.

edit #2 (comment to edit): It would be nice if you could enter some sort of Memory Playback Mode at startup. Hold the memory button while powering on, then press memory locations 1-8 in the order you want them played back. Once you have made a sequence (example: 1, 1, 2, 5, 2, 8, 7, 7, 8) you press the record button to temporarily store it (it will be erased once you turn off the unit), and then the unit is in operational mode. Then, when you press the play button, it will play back memory locations in that sequence.

Since sync is by timing only, you'd make these sequences separately per unit (which is most flexible anyway), or could leave other units in normal mode.

If in the normal mode you pressed the memory button and a memory location while playing back, that next sequence would start playing once the current one ended.

I've completed the designs for a series of wooden cases for studio and stage use. These will work on tables, desks or keyboard stands. I'll try to post CAD renderings this weekend.

I'm almost finished with my design for a carrying case. I'll post a CAD rendering of it in a few days.

The only hole in my design is the audio cables. I'm tempted to assume that the signals coming out of the Volcas are actually two mono feeds going to L and R. Do we have anybody here who's used a Volca in person who might know?

Basically you'll need something like this guy:
MIDI Solutions Quadra Thru | Sweetwater.com

What you do is route MIDI OUT from the QY20 into the MIDI splitter's IN, then connect each of the Volcas to those THRU ports and set them on different MIDI channels. Since the QY20 operates on 16 MIDI channel tracks, you could use three of those to sequence each of the Volca units.

I'm not familiar with that MIDI keyboard, but basically if you have any keyboard that allows you divide it's keys onto separate channels, than it should work.

The term "MIDI splitter" might be kind of confusing. It doesn't actually split the data signal, it duplicates the signal and sends it through multiple outputs so you could connect more devices together. It's basically like adding several MIDI OUT ports to any one piece of gear.

Thanks!
Yeah I'm not sure which midi keyboards have split either but I think a keyboard old be a great addition.

The qy22 is a cool idea for a portable sequencer but it is a bit tedious to sequence compared to the volcas. Starting to wish I hadn't sold my electribe now.

Hmmm

Cool. Where is the midi implementation chart?