I was literally just watching another video by them and getting my mind blown a bit. Such an amazing device. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Io4cAqBeT_M
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Yep thatās a great one as well.
the vd has scratched my machinedrum itch. was probably gonna get an MD again but the volca is so good Im just gonna wait for the mk3 
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My solution is to run it through the inputs of the DN - pinch of overdrive and a smidge of reverb = heaven. It glues everything together nicely.
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Yeah, I tried that, but maybe my gain staging is a bit off, as the master drive seems to destroy any low bass in my kicks. Itād be nice if the overdrive had a mix amount!
Yeah it really makes a difference in what you get when pushing different levels through the overdrive. Try lower volume from the vDrum into the DN? At like 80% volume I only give like such a minuscule amount of overdrive before it radically changes things. I might have just lucked into my staging because I didnāt notice any bass dropoff? More experimentation needed on my side for sure. Might make for some interesting things to sample if it does kill the bass with certain settings? Play time is the funnest part 
Check out my post about the Source Audio Aftershock pedalā¦ dual fuzz/OD/distortion (can be independent right/left) with mix control on both. Itās my special sauce these days.
As I recently ordered a VD that will be delivered tmrw (which will be my first volca) I donāt have the korg power supply thatās needed to run the device without batteries. Instead of buying a new one for 38ā¬ I checked out whatās around and found an interchangeable power supply.
do you think I can make use of it to run the volca? in case itās not enough power, does the device just not start or can I destroy sth internally?
specs of the volca: 9V, 1700mA
specs of my supply: 9V, 600mA
The manual states its current consumption is 344 mA. I use a 500mA power supply and itās fine, yours should be more than enough to power it (just make sure the polarity is correct!)
thank you for the information. checking the manual, the specification section gives me the following
so Iām assuming itās correct to plug the side with identical symbols into the power plug?
yep that looks correct!
perfect, thanks. will try asap when unit arrives tmrw.
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Just as a side note, I used one of these very affordable multi-purpose power supplies for the Volca FM and it introduced this high pitched ringing around 12 kHz into the audio. The ringing went with a cleaner source of power.
Itās highly likely that youāll be totally fine with the supply you got there, but I guess itās a good idea to check the output of the Volca when youāre running on batteries vs. running on power supply.
got my VD today, the power supply is working as expected. thanks @pselodux
first impression of the unit is unfortunately not pretty satisfying.
here are my first thoughts:
form
itās my first volca, so I was surprised that the form factor is bigger than my expectations from youtube videos. yes, the unit is small and the knobs are a little fiddly, but overall I expected an even smaller one. the plastic feels a little cheap but I like the size and that itās portable.
sound
the sound seems somehow too limited for what I was looking for. even with two layer modeling I end up with pretty similar results and canāt leave the cage as I expected/hoped for. the possibilities for tweaking a sound are well represented on the front but I find it hard to remember the settings of a sound (a part) so that I have to tweak a knob in order to get a visual representation on the screen ā resulting in parameter jumps from time to time. is there a workaround to avoid this?
the wave guide is interesting but kind of repetitive even with different sounds running through. the random function is a nice implementation and can create some interesting pattern when triggered several times, but as stated above, even the randomized sounds end up pretty similar to me.
of course Iām just working with the unit for some hours, but right now it feels like that Iāll return the device. Immediately while testing the VD I had the feeling like all of this can be done with a good selection of samples by the OT ā motivates me to get back to the OT and dive deep to gain more experience.
I guess I was looking for adding a special sound with the VD, but now I realized that this wonāt come from another device (Iām not missing a drum machine or synth), but itās sound shaping Iām looking for. thatās why I might have a look at interesting sound processors like pedals (granular/delay) to run my OT through.
No workaround that I know of. Parameter jumps are there because they are not endless encoders and if a sound is at 50 and you reach for the knob that happens to be at 127 the setting will jump. Definitely there are some gotchas and drawbacks.
Try out OscillatorSinkās Synthmata page for easier parameter control and his latest Volca Drum videos. Itās a great sound design tool not just for percussion but for tone generation. There are a lot of sweet spots especially given the price point. The CC implementation is super as well and thatās how Iām using it, slaved to my DT. I really have not been as excited about a piece of gear SINCE the DT until this cam along TBH!
This machine, to me anyways, really is something special but I completely understand having expectations and then not having the machine readily give them. Give it a little time and effort, accept it for what it is and if itās not for you then yeah definitely send it back and try another avenue. It really does reward a deep dive though.
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At least play with it for as long as possible before returning it.
Even if just for samplingā¦
yea, sample the hell out of it before letting it go, itās a good way to feel like you got something positive out of the experience.
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volca drum is fitting in nicely here, i love the sound and the dual layers is a neat concept, finding new nice spots all the time, sequencing and programming it from the elektron digitakt are both smooth as butter, only wish is for midi retrig on the digitakt.
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yes Iāll give it another run today. gonna run it via midi and process the sound through OT.
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some easy, early questions
wave guide
the settings of wave guide are fixed per kit (body, decay, tune), only the send amount of each part is adjustable (but there is no waveguide setting for each part)?
programs (patterns)
the volca has 16 drum kits and 16 programs (patterns), each program is linked to a drumkit when loaded. itās not 16 programs PER kit, right?
step length
per part of each kit? so if part 1 only runs 12 steps, save kit, this will adjust also when kit is swapped for another one?
thanks 