KORG volca Keys – Analogue Loop Synthesize

I was bought the KORG Volca beats as a Christmas present from my wife, so I won’t appear as a verified purchaser. I’ve had quite a few months of use out of the Volca – plenty of time to understand it well and understand it’s limitations.

Nevertheless, this is quite a difficult review to write. As much as I like, and want to like the Volca Beats, I find its limitations equally frustrating. I pretty much knew what I was getting into with it, having done considerable research, but I think what it does so well just makes what it doesn’t do more obvious.

First off – the basics: the Beats is an analogue-voiced drum box with a few PCM (digital sample) sounds thrown in. There’s a basic 16 step sequencer (without chaining) with 8 slots of non-volatile memory that also features a ‘stutter’ function, and the ability to record changes to the speed of PCM sounds and the stutter into the sequence.

That’s pretty much it. Although analogue voiced, many aspects of the basic drum sounds are digitally controlled, so although these can’t be recorded into a sequence, they do get saved when you save a sequence to one of the 8 memory slots.

All the analogue sounds can be tuned and tweaked. As others have suggested, the kick sound is very good, with a good range of sounds – whilst the snare is fairly rotten (although mods are available). The rest of the analogue sounds (toms and hats) lie somewhere in the middle. The PCM sounds work best in extremes and are better at creating metallic clicks warbles and bubbles than they are at actually representing anything like an actual crash, agogo or clave. If you’ve always had a soft spot for cheesy handclaps (guilty I’m afraid) those are here too. I’d agree with others in that if it doesn’t sound exactly like an old 808, it certainly captures the spirit of those much desired (and consequently pricey) 80’s and 90’s machines.

The sequencer if VERY basic. Really, I remember playing with an old DR-55 back in the day – that was supposed to have a basic sequencer too, but that had 32 steps, fills and a footswitch trigger, none of which are present here. Neither, of course, is any kind of expression/velocity on the hits.

What is present, is the ‘stutter’ function. This is essentially a re-trigger with a variable speed and decay. It seems strange at first that the stutter controls are the two biggest knobs on the whole device panel, until you realise what the stutter gets you, and exactly how important it is for the Beats’ whole ethos.

Stutter (which can be applied either globally, or to individual drum sounds) basically does three things: Firstly, with the speed up and the decay down – what you get is quite a cool, broken down, squishy techno beat effect that’s awesome and fun to play around with and sounds impressive. With the ‘function’ button held down, the re-trigger rate can be synchronised with the tempo and at lower setting, with a short decay time, this can give some good doubling or echo type effects that add spice to slower tempo stuff so you can emulate Dr. Avalanche a little. With a little less decay, and synced to various fractional beats, the Stutter reveals it’s true purpose – turning a basic flat four instantly into a funky off beat pattern that would make Jason Bonham sweat.

Whilst the settings and features make the Volca Beats absolutely brilliant to play around with, and it’s better than a metronome or click track – as a guitarist myself it’s hard to think of a more serious use case than with the sequencer as it stands. Sure, I could hook it up with some Midi to a DAW – but I hate using DAW’s and really, what’s the point? The fact you can pick it up, clear it, program a fresh rhythm, turn a few dials and get an instant cool sounding 90’s electro beat in under a minute is kind of cool though, and useful for getting some inspiration if you’re into that kind of vibe. But it’s not going to replace a drummer, certainly not for live performances, without an external sequencer or someone coming up with a workaround for the lack of a chain function. I’ve wracked my brains, but I can’t think of anything.

This is all addressing the Volca Beats as someone who is probably not the intended user. I guess the ideal Beats user probably just wants something to put down a basic throb under some layered synth stuff.. most likely in concert with some of the other devices in the Volca line. But unless you’re totally smitten with the idea of analogue sounds, as a musician wanting a backing device for playing rock/pop music there are undoubtedly better options.

I don’t want to end on a total downer. I do kind of love the beats for what it is – a quirky, characterful little beat-box that’s super fun and super quick to get going and can be a great source of inspiration for electro/ambient/dance music.