Retrokits RK-002 Midiator for KORG Volca Sample

Volca sample with Retrokits RK-002 Midiator

Published on Nov 4, 2015 Retrokits

"Just an example what you can do with the RK-002. The RK-002 splits single MIDI channel notes to the 10 MIDI channels required by the Volca Sample.
More info at http://www.retrokits.com/rk002"

"The Volca Sample is a neat little portable sampler. You can sync it's sequencer to other Volca's or modular equipment. It also has a MIDI connector which allows you to control the Volca Sample via a DAW.

However, when you connect the Volca Sample to your DAW you'll quickly notice it takes up 10 MIDI channels(!). Since MIDI only supports up to 16 channels this is a very big chunk of MIDI for such a little device...

Undoubtedly this has been done so you can control a bunch of sample parameters per sample channel but if you want to play the Volca Sample not only by the device itself but from a keyboard or sequencer, 10-channel mapping is a really unconventional way of controlling a sampler.

This is why we put together the RK-002 cable. This is no ordinary MIDI cable but has an embedded microcontroller which maps the note-messages from a single incoming MIDI channel to the ten separate Volca Sample channels.

Not only does it remap the channels, per sample channel it also translates:
note velocity to sample level
pitch bend to sample pitch
modulation to sample filter"