New analog boxes from Korg?

[calaverasgrande]

Sweetwater doesn't appear to make it clear that the units are not really shipping as of yet. Kinda lame if you ask me.

nothing much to add here except kudos for the Gamera avatar.

[atlantida]

Guys, did you see this Volca Keys video, ( a Kraftwerk cover), inspiring stuff:

[madmarkmagee]

Guys, did you see this Volca Keys video, ( a Kraftwerk cover), inspiring stuff:

[calaverasgrande]

Guys, did you see this Volca Keys video, ( a Kraftwerk cover), inspiring stuff:

nice!

[Blue Monster 65]

Here's a couple more:

[atlantida]

Or this:

I love the Volca Keys sound.

[JSRockit]

Any info on US shipping dates?

[StepLogik]

Or this:

I love the Volca Keys sound.

Another great demo vid.

It continues to boggle my mind that a $150 synth can sound like that.

[Kidney05]

So i'm pretty pumped about these, they sound so dang good. And my MF release date is moved up to the 22nd of september. Can't wait to jam!

[mcomeg]

I live in Japan, so I picked up the Beats and Bass last week (my local music store had sold out of Keys, though). I'll give a few of my early impressions of the boxes.

I'm pretty happy with them in general. The Beats doesn't quite have the sound of an 808 or 909, but it is reminiscent of those classic drum machines and nicely carves out its own niche. I pretty overused the drums on the Monotribe, so the additional options are a godsend. Compared to a software or digital drum machine, the Beats doesn't do much, but the stutter effect, 16 steps, additional sounds, and a touch of shaping abilities does well for the analog junkie. One thing I've noticed, though, is that the sound output seems pretty low. I run everything through a tube preamp in my recording chain, and I still had to boost the signal uncomfortably high to get something usable.

The bass is a fun flavor of "not-quite-acid-bass." Again, the machine is not a straight-up recreation of a 303, but it's in the ballpark and has its own, hazy flavor. I've never touched a 303, but I did use (or like the Monotribe, overused) a Future Retro Revolution for a few years. The Volca is less punchy, but has sort of a drifting, gritty quality that I like. It does sound somewhat cheaper than a Revolution, but in a cool, glitchy, Boards of Canada sort of warped way. I wouldn't say I've really gotten the hang of actually programming notes into the thing. Maybe I just spent too much time with the locked notes of the Revolution. The Volca Bass doesn't completely intuitive and so far what I've gotten has been pretty random, although I'm typically fine with that. I suppose a 303 has the same issue.

I'd say my biggest complaint with the Volcas, as well as with most of Korg's recent analog stuff is the 1/8" output. I'd love to jam a 1/4" into the sucker as I sometimes have to shake the plug around to get a firm connection while recording. The Monotron was arguably a toy, but the Volcas really are not, so I wish that Korg would quit treating the output plug as such.

The speaker on the box is also pretty terrible, although this doesn't bother me as much as I run everything through my computer speakers anyway. Still, this means that when you synch the multiple Volcas together, you need to route the output for each one separately or deal with the garbled mess coming out of the tiny rear speaker.

These are still very much works-in-progress, but here's what I've done with help of the Bass and Beats so far.

[shaft9000]

now dig this

just add a looper/delay and the Keys transmogrifies into a droner's delight

[pinksoir]

I (pre)ordered the Keys from Gear4Music in the UK, expected delivery date 1st Oct. For €150 they really seem like no brainers. I'm really excited about getting it. Judging by the videos it sounds gorgeous and I have a bunch of arpeggio type stuff in my tracks that I would love to re record through the VK. I've been using the Korg Legacy PolySix a lot lately and the VK sounds like it'll fit right in its place. Obviously a different sound, though. But vibe wise, a lot closer than what I have already.

Strangely, this'll be my first analog synth with MIDI. I have hooked my CS15 up with Silent Way, and that's cool, but I'm looking forward to tweaking this bad boy.

Does anyone know if it'd be possible to hook up two VKs to make a 6 voice? That'd be super sweet. I guess once they're more ubiquitous we'll start seeing mods appear.

[goldphinga]

Nope you cant make a six voice UNLESS you do a midi out mod...the 'sync' function on the Volca's doesnt transmit note on/off info..only Midi clock

[pflosi]

You certainly can make a (true) two-voice (with 6 oscs) with two of them using some midi sorcery via the Midi Pal or similar stuff...

[jcn7]

I ordered 4 Volca Keys and I already have a Midi pal...so I'm making a Volca "4 Voice" system. These Volca keys really remind me of the old Oberheim OBXa voice boards...(I know not a direct comparison)...Even though, the sound that I've heard coming out of these off a few of the videos, are simply amazing for the price!