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Aggressive sounds that stand up to the drums; fat sounds that support the rhythm; funky sounds that generate a groove - the Korg volca bass is an analog bassline groove box that has what you need for a wide range of bass lines. Although simple in structure, the analog sound engine has an unmistakable presence with subtle nuances that cannot be reproduced by a digital simulation; it's a great choice for acid house and many other styles of music. The step sequencer distilled from the Electribe is not only visually intuitive; it's also a powerful way to generate "free form" bass loops that will stimulate your inspiration.
Generating the thick and modulated sounds that you expect from an analog synthesizer, the three oscillators can be used in a variety of ways from one-part unison to three-part chords, giving you an incredible diversity of bass sounds. By creating a sequence that uses each oscillator individually, you can create a complex pattern in which three different phrases are woven together. Using the oscillators in a 2+1 combination lets you place one set of oscillators at a low pitch and the other at a higher pitch, producing a bass line and melody simultaneously. When using the three oscillators together, you can slightly detune their pitch to generate thick unison sounds; alternatively, setting their pitch to 0, +3, and +7 will produce a chord. The analog filter has been fine-tuned specifically for the volca bass. Turning the Cutoff knob to open the filter will make the sound brighter and more expansive; closing the filter produces a rounder and milder sound. Using the Peak knob to raise the resonance will initially produce a clean peak, and further increases will create great-sounding distortion. The resonance distortion that's so important for acid music has been tuned especially to accommodate bass sounds. In addition to the three VCOs, the volca bass provides a carefully selected parameter structure consisting of a single VCF, VCA, LFO, and EG, ensuring that the sound that you want can be created intuitively. This is also the standard structure of a synthesizer, making the volca bass an ideal introductory instrument for learning the fundamentals of synthesizers - the enjoyment of creating your own sounds.
This step sequencer is designed to make editing easy and to let you add or remove parts in an improvisational way. You can use the 16 step keys to intuitively enter notes while visually monitoring the timing of the notes within the measure. You can also enter completely different phrases for each of the three oscillators, and play the touch panel keyboard to record in real time, and to eight sequence patterns can be stored in internal memory. With its distinctively "sticky” sounding pitch and filter, acid bass is an indispensable type of sound for an analog synthesizer. The volca bass provides a Slide function that creates the impression of connected steps, making it easy for anyone to produce acid sounds. The slide can be specified for each step.Active Step is a function that lets you skip a step during sequence playback. It can create effects similar to a short loop or unexpectedly irregular rhythms, allowing dynamic performances just as though you were performing the sequence itself.
The Korg Volca Bass is a fun but very limited analog semi-mono synth. I say semi-mono because each voice can have its own lane for sequence information. And the coolest part of this is that each lane can have its own step length. So with three sequences playing at once, paraphonicly (single filter for all three oscillators), you can get some very evolving sequences. I would say each iteration of the dynamic loop isn't always as useful as the previous or the next. To remedy this, I record the sequencer playing itself into my DAW and just chop up my favorite combinations of the odd sequence alignments. The sound of the Volca Bass is not fat by any means. It can do bass but with the octave knob can be dialed into higher registers as well. Three note minor chords are particularly welcome. I bought this specifically for adding three tunable oscillators to my Korg Monotribe, which has a filter in. Since I have a modded MIDI out on my Monotribe, I can drive the Volca Bass with the sequencer of the Montribe and tune each oscillator for slight detuning around the pitch center of the Monotribe or I can tune three intervals above and/or below the Monotribe. In this setup with the filter all the way open and the volume at 50% on the Volca Bass, I now have essentially a four oscillator MS20 with a sequencer and the oscillators of the Volca Bass sound identical to the Mobotribe's to my ears. One drawback of the Volca Bass is its inability to store every function parameter as part of the memory location. The VCO Group type is naturally saved, as that dictates how many lanes of sequence there are, but all the rest of the parameters - LFO Target, LFO Wave, VCO Wave, Sustain On, and Amp EG On - don't get stored within memory. Indeed they will remain the same from memory to memory when you change a setting. I see this as a limitation especially for live performance because there can be no recall of contrasting settings upon loading a new memory. It seems that the Volca Bass is best suited for studio recording with maybe all eight memories thoughtfully programmed and then performed. Just be sure you have your settings set as you actually intend to have them. The only other drawback of the Volca Bass, and this is a matter of personal preference, is that, above 3 o'clock on the LFO Rate, it seems a bit unusable for the filter and the amp. Above that modifying pitch can get some very aggressive analog-FM tones but I would honestly prefer the LFO to go even faster for heightened analog-FM. All in all a decently cool synth but very limited. Great for adding oscillators to something with a filter in and, honestly, that might be what it's best suited for.
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