Volca Drum: Episode 1 (Sounds)

UPDATE: Whoops! I got the "choke priority" backwards in the video (see timeline below at 44:09 for more details). This is the first video in a series of four about the Volca Drum. I wasn't really planning on getting a Volca Drum but I'm glad that I did. I like the physical modeling approach of the device. I feel like a portable, 6-part, dual-layer, flexible, digital drum synthesizer with a really nice sequencer is really worth the price of admission. I talk quite a bit up front about the Volca Drum in the context of other Volcas and devices - so please FEEL FREE TO SKIP AHEAD TO THE TUTORIAL PART AT 14:36 if that is your main interest. In the tutorial part I talk about: a general overview of the Volca Drum interface, how to really clear out the sequencer (looking at you, chokes), working from an "init" sound up to a few reasonables sounds (low, middle, high), and putting those sounds into a basic sequence. I'm planning on Episode 2 to be about the Sequencer, Episode 3 to be about hooking the Volca Drum to other gear, and Episode 4 to circle back to using the Volca Drum for various NON-DRUM purposes (like at the end of the video). Make sure to subscribe if this seems like your kind of thing and thanks a lot for watching!


TIMELINE

00:00 Starter - Noisy. Trapping some sounds in the resonator.

00:43 Intro Part 1 - some opening remarks. ps I was trying an experiment with my lav mic; it tended to capture more plosives, but will hopefully fix in the next video.

02:54 Intro Part 2 - thinking out loud about WHY there is a Volca Drum. I discuss some really cool features of the Volca Drum. (Again, do skip to the tutorial part if this sort of discussion is not of interest.)

TUTORIAL
14:36 A Tour of the Volca Drum Interface. Talking about parts, layers, kits, programs, parameters, and the wave guide resonator effect.

23:25 My "Init" Kit (3 sound s). I show how to truly clear out the sequence. Anybody experience this issue with the choke group lingering? Also, some thoughts about using the save/load kit/program storage system on the Drum. It is very nice, but it's also easy to do something like: save your program to a slot, then save your kit to a new slot. The program will target the old kit slot. To be clear, I'm not trying to say there is only one way to do it, but you do need to keep track. The easiest way to say all of this is: Moving a kit (or changing to a different kit entirely) is a change to the program that needs to be saved.

27:47 Making the "Low" sound.

34:48 Making the "Middle" sound.

39:42 Making the "High" sound.

44:09 Putting the sounds in a sequence. I add a few frills like probability on a step and changing a part's active step range. I start using the resonator effect in this. NOTE: THERE ARE QUITE A FEW EDITS in this segment of the video. I'm doing that to try to not have it drag on (too much) or have redundant sections and to share a good variety of the sounds that happened as I did it. BUT. In this sort of shot the edits can be hard to SEE. Just trying to say that if the sound seems to change for no reason here, this is why. UPDATE: I said things backwards about the "choke priority" in the video. The LOWEST part number is given priority in the group, not the highest. I kind of liked the result so maybe it's better I didn't know...

51:02 Outro - roadmap for the Volca Drum videos I'm planning to do.

52:58 Ender - Step Jump scale arpeggios with some additional drum hits. All Volca Drum, no additional effects. This combines several things. I've got one heavy, noisy hit on part 1 with some steps near the front of the sequence: when I press step 1 it repeats (due to step jump), step 2 is a repeat with probability (which gives an unpredictable rhythm). I've got the same clicky percussion on parts 2 and 3, but their sequences are interleaved and and they are also panned opposite one another. Whenever I hold any set of keys I get a unique pattern of these clicks. And then a tonal sound for part 6. I put a scale (not sure, maybe melodic minor?) on steps 8-16 using parameter locking, and so the step jump gives me arpeggiator-style sounds. Using half the available sequencer steps allows me to alternate the drums and tones. This is basically straight from my second Volca NuBass video that describes using Step Jump in this way (i also have a 1-minute tutorial of it down my Instagram timeline @dr_nim2014).

LINKS
http://www.korg.com