Volca FM Day 1 - With Korg Minilogue, Roland TR8 and RE-301

Published on Apr 2, 2016 Earmonkey Music

"Got the Korg Volca FM yesterday. It is extremely musical and easy to approach, even if you don't completely understand what's happening under the hood. I can't say I can make it do what I want, but I can make it do all kinds of things and that may be even better. Sometimes inspiration and order comes from chaos. In this video here's what's going on:

I'm controlling the Volca from the Mopho SE keyboard. The Volca is clock-synced from the Minilogue via the Minilogue's Volca sync output. The TR8 is synced also from the Minilogue via MIDI. Those Korg blokes are so damn smart.... The Volca and Minilogue are both running into the Roland RE-301, and get some chorus from Valhalla Ubermod.

I am only manipulating four different parameter settings on the Volca to get this huge variety is sound. There are two sliders, one for Transpose, which (surprise) transposes the notes up or down octaves, and one for Velocity control. The Velocity gives velocity info to your incoming notes played and can significantly vary the sound. I have not found a way to get the FM to respond to velocity in from the keyboard so if anyone out there knows how to do that please make a comment and let me know.

The other two parameters I'm messing with in the video are the Modulator Attack and Release. As I understand FM, you have a sine wave (operator) that acts as a Carrier, then additional waves (Modulators) that act as, well, modulators. By manipulating the modulator waves, you get a huge variation in the timbre.

Honestly, I'm not really sure what's happening on the technical level, but I do know it sounds totally bitchin.

Finally, the FM has an arpeggiator which I engage at about 3:50. Add some Minilogue lead, and later a beat from the TR8, and this little box is one of the most musical, most inspiring pieces of kit I have bought in a long time. It's just fun. Hope you enjoy."