I ordered a Volca FM but immediately felt amount of voices and no multi-timbrality restricting. Checked Preenfm2 which looks great but is not currently available. Ended up buying a used FS1R from ebay and canceled volca. The unit is yet to come, but I’m waiting impatiently to see how frustrating it will be to program! 
Just picked up preen2fm and it’s nice , though I haven’t delved into it
Also got tx81z , mono machine , op1 , evolution evs1 , analog 4 ,nord 2x rack , nord 4r … I think that’s all that do fm in my pile
Ordered volca but delivery date in uk seems to be July.
And iOS apps
I’m greedy.
^^ make shure that your preenfm2 runs the latest firmware update. Xavier added true polyphonie.
A few slightly detuned sine operators panned in the stereo field and a bit of index mod and vibrato applied. Voila! Amazing pad sounds…
I haven’t tried it, but I’ve seen reports that the Volca FM doesn’t respond to velocity at all right now? That’s a bit disappointing, I hope they add that in a future firmware revision.
I totally agree with you about velocity response. I cannot understand manufacturers like Korg and Roland who think it unimportant in modern day synths. We need all of the expressive tools available.
Where were you able to find a Preenfm2?
well, you can with the internal sequencer. it works quite well and is fun as heck. it’s not going to cover all bases, imo it’s firmly in the toy category. which is fine with me… like i said, it’s super fun
I grabbed it off eBay uk last week
160£ plus shipping pre built.
Korg implemented velocity on the Volca FM in a weird way.
It’s true there’s no support for the velocity part of a MIDI Note On message.
It’s also true that you can send a MIDI CC #41 (Velocity) message to it and it should respond.
http://www.korgforums.com/forum/phpbb2/viewtopic.php?t=103611&sid=083ce867c8abd5397d6b81a4a3abee43
That is really weird. I wonder what their motivation for that was.
The speculation on Korg forums is that the MIDI implementation matches the functionality of the “velocity” slider on the unit.
I don’t condone how Korg did it but it sounds plausible to me.
I’ve been already thinking of using MidiFlow on iPad or iPhone with it anyway, so I could control both it and my Volca Keys from Microbrute with a simple keyboard zone split. I think MidiFlow has MIDI remapping functionality to map note-on velocity to the Velocity CC that Volca FM wants to see - if not there are other IOS apps for MIDI processing I can try.
So how does the velocity slider work? Does it change the velocity per sequencer step and record it? or do you change the velocity during playback by moving the slider? or some combination of both?
I suspect the slider works with motion sequencing in typical Korg fashion of late (Volca line, Electribe line, the IOS apps, etc.).
I’m watching this guy’s review right now. At around 9:00 he shows that the velocity slider movement is indeed motion sequence-able.
The velocity implementation with the slider makes sense considering the interface and form factor. It would be way more expensive, and would depart significantly from the established volca aesthetic, to provide velocity sensitive buttons/keys.
One store is bundling the Volca FM with a power adapter, for the same price other stores are selling it WITHOUT the adapter.
Out of stock at the moment but I’ll keep an eye on it.
There would be nothing more expensive about having it respond to MIDI note velocity
There would be nothing more expensive about having it respond to MIDI note velocity[/quote]
But the way it is, the MIDI implementation is more consistent with the panel.
I think korg made the velo like that so peeps would have an “OMG CUTOF” knob onboard the box, to give subtractive etc synth fans something to relate to 
Regardless, based on existing youtube comparison videos, the sound seems to be on point (ie. comparable to an og dx unlike the new reface) so I just bought one from a japanese seller thru evilbay. Paid about 50€ extra but didn’t have the patience to wait until summer to grab one!
volca keys, sample & fm, summed via a belkin rockstar and sequenced by an e2s - gonna need a shedload of rechargeable batteries this summer!
Just got mine from Control Voltage (I’m in France, couldn’t wait).
First impression : this beast can get very wild, thx to LFO + ARP !
These two addition are pretty welcome !
No filter, but somehow I manage to make do. I should try some guitar pedal behind…
One thing boethers me : I noticed a tiny hum.
But after checking my other Volcas, FM is definiteley the quietest (FM noise < Bass < Keys < Sample, don’t have a Beats anymore)
The 16 patterns limitations should be easily overcome by using an external device such as the OT. I like the correspondence between the CC available and OT programmable CC btw
Haven’t tested yet cause I already like how Volcas deal with parameter locking…
The synthesis side is huge IMO, it’s crazy how deep you can go (but I know nothing about DX7). 32 programs can be stored, which is more than enough for me so far. The fact that you can plock the Algorithm makes it easy to instantly change the current program, so you can get from soft to hard in a little turning of a knob.
So even if one cannot control the program parameters from an external device one can already do plenty.
I already had much fun with this little piece of gear !!
A very nice way to learn about FM synthesis as well, that should be said.
A must have !
Kind of torn between the Volca FM and the Preen FM2.
The latter, for the higher price, give you the normal MIDI velocity implementation, more polyphony, more sophisticated mod matrix, 2 FX slots (gate slot, and filter/bass boost/crusher slot), more arp/sequencer functionality, pretty much more everything…
On top of all that it can load Scala tuning files!
OTOH, I like the simplicity of the Volca FM, and the ability to take it to a park on a nice day (w/ batteries) and mess with it in the park.