Its output is mono, except when you activate the unison mode or chorus. Continuing the Volca tradition for all things miniature, the main audio output (doubling as a headphone socket) is a mini-jack. For connectivity to Electribes, other Volcas or the SQ1 sequencer, you’re supplied with the usual Sync in and out jacks and a suitable lead. Naturally, the Volca FM is fitted with a MIDI Input, but there’s no output I’ll explain later why this feels like an unfortunate omission. A pair of decent-feeling sliders provide global transposition (handier than it sounds) and velocity, the latter switching to a data entry role when in Edit mode. The controls are the same closely packed knob-shaft types seen before, and just one of them (Program/Parameter selection) is an encoder. Volca-sized is familiar-enough - and this one, with its tinkly FM tones and built-in speaker, might be the coolest high-tech musical box yet. Since Korg’s babies are practically ubiquitous now, there’s no need to resort to dated comparisons such as videotape-sized. I don’t know if this model works harder than the rest, but I found its response a tad slower and in need of a firmer touch. The underlying FM-ness is proclaimed by the dark brown panel, the naff beige of the Edit button and the hospital-green paint job of other buttons. Sat amongst its siblings, this Volca most closely matches the Volca Beats, thanks to its smoky black plastic exterior and gold keyboard. The Volca FM puts FM synthesis into a highly portable, accessible format, but is this enough to send cold shivers through the cosy analogue synth world as its illustrious predecessor once did? Externals
#Loading dx7 patches volca fm Patch
Joining the regular Volca step sequencer you’ll find built-in chorus, patch memories, three notes of polyphony and a handful of controls. With only a few minor omissions, the Volca FM is armed with the entire 6 Operator DX7 voice structure - and to prove it, will happily accept patch dumps taken from the original Yamaha machine.
![loading dx7 patches volca fm loading dx7 patches volca fm](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/DxfgHNyiLFM/maxresdefault.jpg)
Of course it seems incredible that the synthesis engine that spawned that Jellinghaus monster could ever be squeezed into a tiny Volca, but that’s exactly what Korg have done. Arguably, Yamaha never did manage to put the fun into FM (coming closest with the DX200 groovebox), so you have to admire their plucky countrymen at Korg for having another crack. If you’ve ever seen a photo of the huge Jellinghaus programmer (with maybe 200 knobs and a bunch of switches), you’ll appreciate how many FM parameters lurked inside that brownish DX7 shell. Thanks partly to the rise of affordable samplers, FM’s reign was relatively brief, but it could have been so different.
![loading dx7 patches volca fm loading dx7 patches volca fm](https://images.reverb.com/image/upload/s--QE09WFio--/a_exif,c_limit,e_unsharp_mask:80,f_auto,fl_progressive,g_south,h_1600,q_80,w_1600/v1478705687/wpvp42te0gwooa42sljf.jpg)
Its impact may be hard to appreciate now, but at the time, frequency modulation (FM) synthesis was an icicle in the heart of fuzzy old analogues that couldn’t deliver a convincing tubular bell to save their lives. This was the year MIDI was launched, but it also marked the appearance of Yamaha’s hugely successful DX7. Their latest contains a surprise blast from the past - specifically, 1983. When it comes to supplying small, affordable and intuitive items to today’s electronic musician, Korg have a firm but friendly grip on the market. When it comes to FM synthesis, Korg’s little Volca is thinking big. At least that way you will have an idea of the time period over which an oscillator has an impact.The Volca FM’s front-panel livery is certainly reminiscent of its Yamaha forebear. I tried several visualisations but never really got to something that did the range of milliseconds to 300s justice! So I stuck with my somewhat linear display, but now calculate the length of each phase and display it. Add to this that the timing of an envelope phase is dependent upon the levels that it is going between and you have very flexible, but incredibly complicated. These envelopes have ludicrous ranges of up to 300s per phase! In fact they have a length of up to 317s when they are acting as a declining rate and 38s when acting as an increasing rate. This means an oscillator can continue forever after the sustain phase, which is particularly useful for ensuring modulators continue modulating during release.įinally, there is the length of the phases.
![loading dx7 patches volca fm loading dx7 patches volca fm](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/Wm9zywJGVPI/maxresdefault.jpg)
Secondly, the start and end value of the envelope can be non-zero. The extra phase is right before sustain, meaning you can have a particularly interesting attack phase. First of all they have 5 phases, not the regular 4 of ADSR.