Volca Bass Keys

hedgemunkees · Post by **hedgemunkees** » Sun Oct 06, 2013 2:59 pm

which notes on the Volca Bass do they actually correspond to on a scale? I cannot see on the unit or read in the manual exactly what notes I am playing.

joeyluck · Post by **joeyluck** » Mon Oct 07, 2013 5:29 am

This is a bit confusing as the key colors are inverse of piano keys (not sure why they did it this way)... As if it wasn't hard enough already to look at a groovebox keyboard lol.

So, black piano keys are gold on the Volca Bass and white piano keys are black on the Volca Bass.

Starting from the left:

A ( black: M1 )
A# ( gold: M2 )
B ( black: M3 )
C ( black: M4 )
C# ( gold: M5 )
D ( black: M6 )
D# ( gold: M7 )
E ( black:M8 )
F ( black: 9 )
F# ( gold: 10 )
G ( black: 11 )
G# ( gold: 12 )
A ( black: 13 )
A# ( gold: 14 )
B ( black: 15 )
C ( black: 16 )

Hope that helps!

joeyluck · Post by **joeyluck** » Mon Oct 07, 2013 5:35 am

Besides not making the key colors inverse...
Now that I'm looking at the touch strip, it seems there is room to have put the corresponding notes (above the numbers). That would have been a good compromise to having inverse key colors.

Maybe either or on future versions...

el_hombre · Post by **el_hombre** » Wed Jan 15, 2014 8:03 pm

Awesome, thanks heaps for this! Was just about to google to try and find this information...
I"m thinking of getting one of thes eto have in my bass guitar case for gigs where I don't have enough space or time to set up my MS20 mini as well as my bass rig, or when I have to travel light...
I'm tossing up between getting a Volca Bass or an ipad and the MS20 app, but I'd rather stay analog not to mention I don't like the idea of playing an ipad on stage...
My only quibble was note being able to make sense of the keys from the pictures. I'm pretty sure I can get the VOlca to do pretty much every thing I need it to in a pinch.

dswo · Post by **dswo** » Thu Jan 16, 2014 3:09 am

el_hombre wrote:I'm tossing up between getting a Volca Bass or an ipad and the MS20 app, but I'd rather stay analog not to mention I don't like the idea of playing an ipad on stage...

I've had the Volca Bass since October and like it a lot. But there are a LOT of fantastic synth apps for the iPad right now, beyond iMS-20. Check out some YouTube videos of Animoog, Nave, and Sunrizer. And if you do get a Bass, you can use the iPad to record and sequence it.

el_hombre · Post by **el_hombre** » Thu Jan 16, 2014 7:51 pm

Cheers for the tips, I've been getting the feeling that I'm missing out on some pretty sweet software by not having an ipad. Definitely considering it-_-

el_hombre · Post by **el_hombre** » Tue Mar 04, 2014 8:19 pm

Finally pulled the trigger on one of these on Monday, glad I bumped into this thread again, the key layout still kinda confuses me at first which is probably kinda stupid since I should be able to rationalise it out. I think if they'd gone with black and white I'd have been fine.
Gonna fire it up at practice tonight, looking forward to hearing it through a big amp, though I'm expecting some fudged notes due to not being tha tgreat with the key layout yet.

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Volca Bass Keys

Volca Bass Keys

An idea for future versions