Korg Volca Beats MIDI (w/ Ableton)

[CuBulo]

Very simple...

I just picked up a Volca Beats. Fun little box. When I connect it to Live via MIDI, the drum machine IS receiving the clock signal, but is there any way for me to trigger the drums individually through Live/with a keyboard in the same way that you can play the other Volca's externally with a MIDI keyboard? I want to sequence drum lines that are over 2 bars.

Additionally, when it is synced to Live's MIDI clock, it sometimes starts at the wrong time. I plan to use it for live performance so this is a problem. I know this is very basic MIDI stuff...

[meatballfulton]

Ummm, read the manual?

Note numbers and corresponding parts 36: KICK, 38: SNARE, 43: LO TOM, 50: HI TOM, 42: CL HAT, 46: OP HAT, 39: CLAP

That's a subset of the General MIDI drum map.

In ascending order:

36 = lowest C on a 61 key keyboard
38 = D
39 = Eb
42= F#
43 = G
46 = Bb
50 = D

You should be able to quickly find these on Ableton's piano roll and then assign them to a drum rack if you want.

As far as "starting at the wrong time" the Volca Beats does not understand MIDI Start/Stop/Continue messages, although it does understand Song PositionPointer (SPP) which synchronizes the bars in between two sequencers running in parallel.

But if you are just hitting Start on the Volca while Ableton is running, if you're off by just 1/24 of a quarter note (resolution of MIDI clock) the two will be tempo locked but not playing on the same beat, if that makes sense.

Maybe someone who actually owns the Volca can help you further

[megamanx]

I would set the volca to midi chanel 10 and live midi out to 10 and then let nature take its course.

[meatballfulton]

I may have lied about the Beats not understanding Start/Stop/Continue. On the MIDI Implementation chart it just says "Commands".

That means if you have a song loaded into the Volca and you hit Play in Ableton, the Volca should start up in perfect synch. That's also different than trying to start the Volca while Ableton is already running.