volca FM

Mr NOYJ · Post by **Mr NOYJ** » Fri Mar 11, 2016 6:49 am

Hurrah!

http://www.korg.com/uk/products/dj/volca_fm/

Available in the UK in May I think. Part of me isn't as excited by this as I was about the analogue volcas - physical (digital) embodiment of tonnes of VST stuff already out there that this is - but it's a volca at the end of the day, and the improvements even over the volca sample in sequencing capabilities look really exciting.

I'm a thickie though: despite some basic research (trying to ignore all the mathematical equations), I just don't understand what FM is - it's a sine wave (not analogue-generated?) that's shaped by other sine waves? Is an operator like an oscillator? And what on earth is SysEx if you're not a coder, and would SysEx files be loadable into the volca via the same screechy-'audio-encoded'-file-transfer-through-the-sync-in-socket method I use Caustic to load up my volca sample?

Thank you for listening - those are my questions - any answers in layman's language would be welcome

Spheric El · Post by **Spheric El** » Fri Mar 11, 2016 9:58 am

FM is audio rate modulation.
An LFO is low frequency .Its slow. We dont hear it as a constant tone ,but hear its effects as it changes, say, pitch (vibrato).
If an LFO speeds up really fast we get audio rate mod as the LFO hits constant tone speeds ie anything faster than 20 cycles a sec ,up into 100s and 1000s of Hz.
Old school synths would use one oscillator to "cross modulate" the other , so pitch mod by an osc at audio rate. (ie Osc 2 mods osc 1).
This is FM ,so yes an operator is an oscillator sinewave that is heard (carrier) or is a modulator. 6 0f these can be set up in different config ,where we may hear some ,while others modulate.

System ex is midi, but not general midi or basic midi ..so not CCs or note info, but exclusive voice information ,or whatever that company wants to set up for that machine.We can have total set up of our devices stored as a burst of midi sys ex at the beginning of a midi file, in order to set up our external machines as required for that song.
This will travel down the midi cable I guess.

Spheric El · Post by **Spheric El** » Fri Mar 11, 2016 10:02 am

BTW to my ears this is sounding really nice.Digital, whatever, a unique sound source in this price range/form factor.

Bertotti · Post by **Bertotti** » Fri Mar 11, 2016 12:56 pm

I haven't been to drawn to any volga but this FM one is really pushing some buttons. I wonder when it will actually become available!

Mr NOYJ · Post by **Mr NOYJ** » Fri Mar 11, 2016 4:16 pm

Thanks Spheric El - I appreciate your time.

Just a quick question: in the description of this volca, it proclaims '3 voices; 6 operators' - does that mean there are 5 'oscillators' blending / shaping / morphing / 'modulating' the carrier operator - or 2? What's the difference between a voice and an operator in this sense?

Spheric El · Post by **Spheric El** » Fri Mar 11, 2016 6:23 pm

A voice number is how many keys will sound at once, so 3 note chords.
Each note has 6 operators forming its tone.The algorithm sets how many are carriers or mods and also their routing shapes.
There are 32 different algorithms to choose from.