My Volca Keys patches

[MeneerJansen]

Here are my Volca Keys patches. I can't believe how many sounds you can get out of this "pocket synth". Especially when you connect it to a big speaker (for example via your stereo amplifier) and play fat ARP like bass.

P.S. Anybody know of a very small Midi keyboard like the AKAI LPK25 or the Korg Nanokey with DIN Midi output?

[Pigdog]

thanks soooo much for the patches dude. ive had my keys a lil over a year and it still stunts me once in a while.powerful lil guy aint it? still very new to the synth world. this kinda stuff really helps out man.

[MeneerJansen]

thanks soooo much for the patches dude. ive had my keys a lil over a year and it still stunts me once in a while.powerful lil guy aint it? still very new to the synth world. this kinda stuff really helps out man.

I'm glad to be have been of any help. I'm no keyboard player, unfortunately. But I like the science behind analog synthesis. Messing around w/ the Volca Keys knobs is so nice. My favourite music is from the seventies: Pink Floyd and I'm getting into 70's Funk. Well, those kinds of music have a Moog and analog synths all over.

I read on Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_Run_(instrumental), and see on Youtube (from 3:43 minutes and on) that 'On the run' by Pink Floyd from the album 'Dark Side Of The Moon' is played on a synth w/ use of a sequencer and the sped up sequence: EG AG - D CDE. I made a little paper ribbon which has the notes from the keyboard on them to put above the keys. I think the chords on the V. Keys are:

F G A B C D E F G A B C D E

Or maybe rather:

F1 G1 A2 B2 C2 D2 E2 F2 G2 A2 B2 C2 D2 E2

Or, according to Wikipedia rather:

F1 G1 A1 B1 C2 D2 E2 F2 G2 A2 B2 C2 D2 E3

I'm no musician, so I'm probably completely wrong... Anyway, when I put the sequence E G A G D C D E in the sequencer and speed it up, but I do not get the feeling that it's exactly 'On the run'. Instead, I use four low chords (i.e. 4x A1) and four high ones (4 x D2) and speed that up. Then I get rather nice 'On the run' effects when I rotate the Cutoff Frequency, the LFO's Cutoff Intensity and the Filter's Peak intensity (i.e. the resonance freq.). Plying w/ Filter's envelope generator's intensity/sensitivity/contour makes the LFO go from a low "bob bob bob" to a higher pitched "woo-woo-woo" effect when a key is re-presed (the EG INT is not applied "on the fly" on the VK but rather re-applied on a new key-stroke).

Good luck messing w/ the V. Keys! It sounds much more "grown up" than it's price and size would suggest.


P.S. One can set the sequencer to the needed higher range of tempo's (i.e. 0 - 600 instead of the default 56 - 240) by holding down the Function button while powering on the Volca Keys. Then make sure the LED from keyboard button 5 is lit and press Rec. The Volca will be restarted w/ the higher tempo range on. It's in the manual.

P.S.2 I've connected my VK to a Blackstar Fly 3 Bass (link 1, link 2) battery operated mini combo. And boy, does that rock! That Blackstar can go looooooowwwww! A hundred times better than the Marshall MS-2 (it's twice the price too I'm afraid).

[MeneerJansen]

Yet another attempt to do a poor mans 'On the run' on the VK. I found here that the sequence probably is: D# F# G# F# C# B C# D# (the Wiki page I referred earlier to is probably wrong).

If these are the notes on the Volca's keys:




Then I think that the 'On the Run' sequence for the VK is: D1# | F1# | G1# | F1# | C2# | B1 | C2# | D2#

I use the single square wave for the best likeness. That's under the Voice knob as "Poly Ring". As you might know the VK has only two wave forms available as a Voice: triangular and square. You can choose to have them play all at once at a single key stroke or you can choose 3 voice "polyphony". Unfortunately 2 of the square waves in polyphony "mode" are feed back (in a ring). This results in a nasty sound if you press more than one key at the time in "Poly Ring" mode. If you press only one key in that mode then it's a "clean" square wave.

It's very important that you program the sequencer to play one of those square wave notes at the time in "Poly Ring" voice mode. If you program the sequencer in Flux mode or if you do not program it in "Active Step" mode then two notes may be played a the same time and you hear some distorted noise instead of a clean square wave.

This is how I programmed the VK step by step:

1. Set the VK to Active Step mode: press "Func + Active step".
2. Set first 8 of the 16 steps on, the rest off.
3. Press "Rec + Play"
4. Play a short note and listen to it being repeated over and over.
5. Repeat this for notes number 2 to 8.
6. Save often.
7. Play only the programmed 8 notes in "Active Step" mode.

I listened in between of the programming if notes 2 and 4 and notes 6 and 8 were equal. Good luck!

You can watch and listen on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XNomklKalqo

[MeneerJansen]

Another attempt a a result of aforementioned Youtube video by SynthMania who has written out some classic sequences. It's 'I feel love' by Giorgio Moroder (& Donna Summer).



The sequence is: C G B#, according to SynthMania.

However, on the synth in the SynthMania video (an Arturia Microbrute) the sequence is triggered by a note from the keyboard. And Microbrute plays the sequence in the key of the note that you press. That's how it was done by Moroder, I think. As we all know the Volca Keys does not playback a sequence in the key of a struck note. So we have to do some sort of "trick" to play the sequence in different key's.

I did it like so: first I programmed the 4 notes "step by step" (i.e. note for note) like I described in my post from 30-12-2016 in the 16' Octave knob (see the picture in my previous post for the notes on the VK's keys): C1 | C1 | G1 | A1#. Note that C1 is played twice.

Now program those notes again in, but higher: F1 | F1 | C2 | D2#. And even higher: (8' Octave): C1 | C1 | G1 | A1#. Now, when you playback the sequence play it in Step Mode (press "Func + Active step" and then "Play"). Activate the higher and lower pitched sequence by selecting and deselecting the proper 4 notes. See youtube on how to achieve this by sliding your finger over the ribbon.

The trick is to get the VK to repeat or "stutter" the notes. I did that by setting the LFO to Sawtooth and 'Trigger Synch'. Turn the LFO's Rate knob very carefully to the desired rate (it's very sensitive!). Crank the Cutoff Intensity all the way up. See patch sheet in this post, and see Youtube for a demonstration.

[Ross De Dome]

Hi! Sorry for my bad english, i'm very noobie and this is my first post on this forum. I was a drummer and i'm very interested about digital music from some years. I buyed a Korg Volca Keys and i'm very satisfied about it. Please does anybody publish one more time the image links of the V.K. patches of this topic? They didn't works more...

[MeneerJansen]

Hi! Sorry for my bad english, i'm very noobie and this is my first post on this forum. I was a drummer and i'm very interested about digital music from some years. I buyed a Korg Volca Keys and i'm very satisfied about it. Please does anybody publish one more time the image links of the V.K. patches of this topic? They didn't works more...

I re-uploaded all images to postimage.org so, for the moment, my posts contain the images again.... Postimage says that you can get permanent links there, well guess not. Hope the pictures are more "permanent" now.

Good luck w/ experimenting w/ your Volca Keys!