Integrating & Syncing KORG Volcas with an iPad

More Volca Arps Published on Aug 13, 2014

"I learned some things from the last video. The most important was: how to get the Beats synced! The trick is that both Volcas have to be playing. In this case, the Volca Bass is getting its notes from the iPad arpeggiator, but to send the correct sync signal to the Beats, it needs to be playing. Won't this interfere with your live arp? Not if you clear out the sequence first (function + 16).

Boring details: Volca Bass is getting MIDI clock and notes from Yamaha Synth Arp & Drum Pad, running on the iPad 2. Volca Beats is taking its timing information from the Bass. Both channels of audio are also being processed by the iPad. The right channel, Bass, is going through AUFX:Dub for stereo delay. The left channel, Beats, is going through Audio Mastering for stereo widening and a bit of equalizing (which you can see during the performance; I'm lifting the snare a bit). The Novation Bass Station II on the right is a delicious analogue synth, but this morning I'm just using it as a MIDI controller for the Yamaha app. Audio is coming into the iPad via a Behringer UCA222. The iPad's MIDI interface is the Xmidi Tab from E-mu. (This is a nice USB/MIDI interface, by the way: unlike the super-cheap ones, it doesn't introduce noise into your audio signal.) It and the Behringer audio interface are both plugged into a powered USB hub, which is what you see plugged into the iPad via the Camera Connection Kit (CCK). The whole thing is being filmed with an iPod Touch, which is getting its audio from a similar Behringer unit.

One more technical note: the Volca Bass has three oscillators, but I'm using just one of them here. Less isn't always more, but it can be refreshing, and there's something sinewy about the single osc that brings it closer to the Roland sound that the two Volca cases are obviously hoping to remind you of."

Volcas and StepPolyArp: Proof of Concept

Published on Aug 12, 2014 David Wilson-Okamura

"This is a proof of concept, not a finished song. There are three main components: an iPad 2 running Laurent Colson's marvelous arpeggiator app StepPolyArp, a Korg Volca Beats (for drums), and a Korg Volca Bass, which is getting notes from the arpeggiator."