Volca Drum Physical Modeling Drum Synthesizer

Not a standout for composition, but fun for practice or jamming. It has a few limitations which stand out to me. The compact interface is always usable, but often awkward. Creating sounds is easy but adjusting them is tedious. Liberal use must be made of a hash in the LCD which marks the saved position of a setting, which is not trivial when using micro-potentiometers assigned to a resolution of 255 in a nested interface. This also obligates you to operate the controls deftly and save a kit after each adjustment to prevent your settings from drifting widely and mysteriously. You get 16 triggers/steps per pattern and 16 pattern slots, which feels claustrophobic. Patterns can be chained to create more complex progressions but with only 16 sets of 16 triggers and no data I/O, memory management is an issue. For instance, creating a 4-bar drum line with 16th-note resolution and a consistent fill on the 4th bar would generally use a quarter of the memory and require you to select the 4 bars sequentially each time you turn on the unit. Then, that memory is consumed until you delete the progression forever. Kits and patterns are marked only by their slot number. The gold-side "Send" physical modeling controls are impressive but are adjustable only per full kit, which in practice limits them to either trippy delays/reverbs and performance effects or to use on only one or a few drums. Time signature can be fudged, but only within extreme limits. This unit is mostly practical for us because it allows us to avoid computers in a few situations during jamming or practice. Far superior performance in every respect can be had from free or trivially cheap software on any phone, tablet, or PC; judged as a component of a modular setup and especially in the context of Volca as a system, I find it useful and likeable, but unwieldy. The sound generator is excellent only in its simplicity, and the sequencer is inflexible. Integrating this unit's stark limitations into a multi-hundred-dollar instrument could be fun but does not seem efficient or practical. However, we are very happy with it. We are not using it as a musical instrument, but as a configurable metronome / backing track. It feels more personal, predictable and charismatic than an automatic drummer, and less sterile than a metronome. The sound generator is a minimalist masterpiece, with only enough moving parts to create a wide array of convincing or pleasing drum sounds and effects. Probability and slicing controls push this Korg over the finish line between toy and tool, but no further.

Alles bestens

Increíble sintetizador de batería. Muy fácil de usar. No tiene instrucciones pero existen muchos totorales en YouTube para aprenderlo a usar en menos de 10 minutos. Quizá podría mejorar que sólo tiene 16 pasos el secuenciador. Sólo se pueden guardar 16 secuencias diferentes y 16 kits de batería. Pero cada kit y cada sonido de batería se puede modificar infinitamente y la edición en vivo está increíble con efectos y simulador de bulbos.

Volca Beatsがアナログ感に拘った四つ打ちテクノ向けのドラムマシンであるのに対し、 今回のVolca Drumはデジタルのドラムシンセということで、音作りの幅がかなり広いです。 またシーケンサーがかなり進化していて、各パートごとのActive Stepやスライス機能など トリッキーなフレーズも作りやすいです。IDM系の音楽にはかなり向いてそうですね。 見た目は小さいですが、使える機能が多く奥が深いマシンだと思いますね。 すでにBeatsを持ってる人にもおすすめです。 追記（2019年4月20日） あれからYoutubeにアップされてる様々なデモや演奏動画を見て Volca Drumに搭載されている様々な機能を勉強してみましたよ。 （公式のマニュアルがもう少しわかりやすいといいんですが…） 使い倒してみてわかりましたが、このマシンのポテンシャルは本当にすごいです。 STEPJUMP機能や音色のレイヤー/ステップパターンのランダマイズ機能。 ただ適当に打ち込んで音色やパターンに変化を与えて遊んでいるだけで 本当に楽しすぎてあっという間に時間が過ぎてしまいます。 ただ、いくら楽しいからといって無茶苦茶にFuncボタンを押しまくるのは フリーズを引き起こすことがあるので辞めましょう。（２回ほどやらかした）

I love it big thanks