Easiest Volca MIDI Out Mod

via Cooptrol HG on The MATRIXSYNTH Lounge

"Hi, I want to share my own MIDI out mod, in my case for a Volca Beats.

Instead of buying the expensive Amazing Machines kit, or doing the mod that is shown everywhere, with a female DIN connector in a hole drilled to the box, I figured out a completely inexpensive and non-destructive way of having MIDI out.

I just connected the 3 MIDI terminals on the PCB to the 3 legs of the Sync Out minijack female connector, and then made a minijack-DIN midi cable. MIDI only uses 3 of the 5 DIN pins, so a stereo minijack connector is as good for MIDI data. This way you avoid drilling the volca case, and you don't need a female DIN conector.

Photos

Here a list of the MIDI data the Volca Beats outputs. The note numbers for the parts are weird, and the choice of the knobs that output CCs is even weirder. Maybe someone can shed a light on this. So far I managed to control my Nord Micromodular very well. The Volca outputs incoming MIDI clock too, so it works like a Clock MIDI Thru. This is very useful for daisy chaining.

NOTES:
Kick - C2
Snare- D2
Lo Tom - G2
Hi Tom - D3
Cl Hat - F#2
Op Hat - A#2
Clap - D#2
Claves - D#5
Agogo - G4
Crash - C#3
CCs:
Part 1 Level: cc40
Part 2 Level: cc41
Part 3 Level: cc42
Part 4 Level: cc43
Part 5 Level: cc44
Part 6 Level: cc45
Part 7 Level: cc46
Part 8 Level: cc47
Part 9 Level: cc48
Part 10 Level: cc49
Part 7 PCM Speed: cc50
Part 8 PCM Speed: cc51
Part 9 PCM Speed: cc52
Part 10 PCM Speed: cc53
Stutter Time: cc54
Stutter Depth: cc55
Tom Decay: cc56
Hat Closed Decay: cc57
Hat Open Decay: cc58
Hat Grain: cc59
MIDI Clock Out: Yes (also routed from MIDI In)"