Volca Sample Realtime Multiple Bars?

[Terence D]

I love my Volca Sample, but I really wish it had was the ability to allow for a sequence to be more than one bar (i.e. 4 beats).

I'd love to have two bars (8 beats, 2 sequences) that are constantly looping while I program them in realtime. I've searched the manual and this forum and as far as I can tell, this is not possible.

As far as I can tell from the manual, the closest I can get to this is to program a song to play two 4 beat sequences back-to-back. However, when in song mode I can't edit the sequences.

So essentially, to loop 2 bars in realtime, I have to manually, continuously hit "memory" and select the sequence at the end of each bar to switch between them.

Am I missing something???

[Yuggs]

Hey Terrence, if all you want to do is loop 8 steps within a single pattern and edit them in real time you can do that using Active Step. Here is a good tutorial on how to utilize Active Step mode:

https://youtu.be/wVB6RGjgd38?t=1289

The rest of that video is also great for learning all the details of the Volca Sample.

[Terence D]

Hi Yuggs, thanks for replying! Sorry, I probably wasn't clear enough. Please let me explain a little further:

I interpret each step in a sequence to be a sixteenth note.

So, each sequence has a maximum of 16 steps, therefore there are 4 quarter notes (aka beats) per sequence. 4 quarter notes equals one measure (aka bar).

I want 32 steps per loop, which is the same as 8 quarter notes (aka beats), which is the same as 2 measures (aka bars).

As far as I can tell, this is not possible.

Active step will only allow me to remove steps from a sequence. I want to the opposite, I want to add steps to a sequence.

Any idea?

[Yuggs]

Ah, yeah, I don't think there is a way to extend pattern length to 32 steps. That option or some semblance of it may be available in the Pajen custom firmware for the Volca Sample (I don't believe that firmware is compatible with the VS2, however).

I know the goal is to edit the patterns in real time but if you actually pre-record your sequences in tempo you could make them as long as you want (within the memory limitations of the Volca Sample). Just make several different variations of the same 32 step sequence and then load them back into your Volca Sample so that each variation takes up 1 step of a single pattern. This would allow you to have 10 variations of 32 step sequences per pattern! That would give you a ton of options to jump between sequences quickly and even alter them in real time. The main exception being that you won't be able to control individual sounds within the pre-recorded sequences but you will be able to make edits to the entire sequence and you'll have a ton of them all on 1 track which should provide a lot of options for shaping the track.

[Terence D]

Hey, thanks Yuggs. That's not a bad suggestion. I'll give it a try!

[Night_Crook]

If you have the pajen update, then there is a work around to simulate multiple bars. This technique will require you to have the same sample on two of the tracks while turning them off and on using the bar filter.

For example let's try this with a bass line. Take a bass pluck sound and have it copied to two sample tracks. Mute one track then program a melody for the first one. Then mute the first one then create a melody for the second one. Then have both tracks unmuted and go to the bar filter (while having the track you want selected hold down func and turn the sample knob). for the first track and turn off bars 2 and 4 while for the second track turn off bars 1 and 3. When you press play, you notice that your first melody will play for a bar then your second melody will play. Whenever you press play, it will always start on bar 1.

This can be also used for any instrument such as the kick drum. I like to have the first kick play the down beats and have it play through all 4 bars while the second kick plays accents which come in on only the second and fourth bar. It can be used to create snare fills also by having first snare play the normal beat while the snare plays fills and comes in only on the fourth bar.

If you're using looped samples then you can use this method while automating the start point and length of the sample to create patterns that feel way past 1 bar but doesn't limit you the way song mode does.

If you want to see an example of this in action, I have a video which demonstrates this method using a loop and the drums. Link posted below.

https://youtu.be/6PjpJ7KHabw