2 volca keys questions...

[Boom-Q]

looking to get a keys, i have 2 important questions though, to see if it will work for my purpose. hope someone can help.

1) can the VK make something like church organ-like chords? and what mode would you use for this? poly, unison etc?

is it different from the volca bass in sound? can you get a sound like the memorymoog from it for example?

i am worried it will sound like the VB, which is not good for melody...

2) if you held down one note (or one chord) for the entire 16 steps, can you get a perfect seamless unbroken loop that does not 'skip' at the start of the first step again? (i certainly cannot achieve this with the volca bass!)

thanks!

[Frenzies]

looking to get a keys, i have 2 important questions though, to see if it will work for my purpose. hope someone can help.

1) can the VK make something like church organ-like chords? and what mode would you use for this? poly, unison etc?

is it different from the volca bass in sound? can you get a sound like the memorymoog from it for example?

i am worried it will sound like the VB, which is not good for melody...

2) if you held down one note (or one chord) for the entire 16 steps, can you get a perfect seamless unbroken loop that does not 'skip' at the start of the first step again? (i certainly cannot achieve this with the volca bass!)

thanks!

With reference to point 2, you can easily achieve this on the bass, just make sure the slide is on for all 16 steps. I can't make it happen repeatably on the keys. It either re triggers of stays on even if I stop the loop.
It is very different to the bass, to see if you can get the sounds you want I'd play with it.
With regards to the organ sound, I'm no expert in organs but they don't sound like a very sawtoothy wave to me, and that's the only wave you have on the keys.

[Frenzies]

You can actually make a drone on the keys, by making a loop with 2 notes, which always seems to loop seamlessly, and then using active step to get rid of the second note.

[Butterfingersbeck]

Let's see. You want a £120 synth to sound like a Memorymoog? Not just a Minimoog (it can get close) but a three-oscillator-per-voice, eight-note-polyphonic vintage Moog synth? It's about as likely as a £20 ukulele is to sound like a Gibson Les Paul Custom.

However... the Volca Keys is a powerful little machine. You can play chords on it (up to three notes), but because of the limitation of only having one VCA and filter for all three oscillators, you will be limited to simple stabs or pads as the entire chord will re-trigger with each new note played.

The strength of the Volca Keys is as a purely monophonic synth, where the depth of sound of the three oscillators (most classic monosynths apart from the Minimoog and the VCS3 only have two) and the warmth of the filter really bring the sound to life. The portamento, which only applies when you play legato, is a fantastically expressive feature. Play it via MIDI from a full-size keyboard (at least three octaves) and it's up there with some of the greats.

Take advantage of its strengths - for the price there is no better all-purpose monosynth - and consider getting something else (e.g. Waldorf's Streichfett) for chords.

[chris-korg]

And not to forget "FLUX"-mode which allows further possibilities not available on Volca Bass...