Korg Volca Drum Digital Percussion Synthesizer

The Korg Volca Drum is a digital percussion synthesizer that is based on simple trigger waveforms and uses wave folders as well as an overdrive to add overtones and distortion, a waveguide resonator effect then brings your beats to life. A newly developed six-part DSP synth engine works on a completely different philosophy than conventional drum machines allowing it to generate a wide variety of new and exciting sounds which you can then play using the volca-style sequencer.

Typically digital drum machines are based upon PCM-sampled drum sounds; however, the Volca Drum uses oscillator waveforms such as sine, sawtooth, and noise. You can then sculpt these waveforms by applying various changes such as envelopes, filters, modulation, and pitch. This allows you to create a wide range of percussion sounds that can sound realistic or idiosyncratic and not only limited to drum sounds. Each six parts are made up of two layers which can be used for any sound; all parts have the same specifications. You can then freely assign your sounds to the six parts without limitations. A kit consists of the six parts you have assigned as well as waveguide resonator effect settings, 16 kits can be stored in the internal memory.

An integrated 16-step sequencer is perfect for improvisation and on-the-fly beat making, you can create patterns using the 16 buttons, each corresponds to one of the 16 steps. Alternatively, the Volca Drum supports real-time recording so you can construct patterns while looping playback. A pattern chain function lets you play multiple sequences successively allowing for desired patterns of consecutive numbers. Up to 16 step sequences can be connected to construct patterns with 256 steps. Using the motion sequence function the Volca Drum can memorise knob movements during real-time recording for modulated effects, a total of 69 parameters can be memorised at once.