volca sample — who is it for?

palsen · Post by **palsen** » Fri Apr 03, 2015 6:30 pm

I'm thinking of getting a volca sample tomorrow but wonder for whom is it for?

I mean, I can already do all the tricks and then some, in my DAW. At the same time I get the tactile aspect of hardware, I really do. But will it change my workflow? Maybe. If so, it'd be both good and bad.

Earlier I got the volca bass and keys modules, also to complement my mainly digital bedroom studio as true analog sources. With sample, this function isn't the same.

Spheric El · Post by **Spheric El** » Fri Apr 03, 2015 10:05 pm

It depends how much of your jams you input to your computer.If your happy all in the box,programming your beats,driving a mouse and comp keyboard-with occassional analogue flavour recorded live,then you may have enough.But if you want more beats and flavours to jam with,consider it.Just coz its digital its still capable of giving you a different,organic vibre to work with.

zobbo · Post by **zobbo** » Sat Apr 04, 2015 8:14 am

The hardware form factor is the thing. The limitations of the form factor makes you more focussed I think. You put your samples on at the beginning but it's a PITA to keep uploading new ones whilst using the box so you work with what you have. You're constrained more than a DAW with what you can do with those samples and that forces you to be creative in different ways. Maybe more musical ways than just doing odd stuff to the sample.

Then it's a Volca. Active step, flashing lights, twiddly knobs, constrained memory slots. It's tactile and fun. I've got an octatrack behind me plus Ableton Suite and logic but I'm loving the sampler for having fun

In short ... It's for you

palsen · Post by **palsen** » Sat Apr 04, 2015 5:17 pm

Thanks for the input guys. I went to two stores today but the module was out of stock at both places. Will get one on Tuesday though. Yes I think/hope the volca sample is for me.

chris-korg · Post by **chris-korg** » Tue Apr 07, 2015 3:34 pm

In my setup

VBeats is for "Drum-beats" and VSample is for "Percussion" (I´ve sampled small Percussions, African drums, Latin American drums, etc.)

therefor in my opinion both compliment each other very well.

Mr NOYJ · Post by **Mr NOYJ** » Mon Apr 13, 2015 5:58 am

Did you pick one up yet Palsen? I'm with Zobbo re: the positive creative features of the Sample's constraints and the instant fun you can have.

I was already very into my Keys and Bass, and very disappointed with the Beats's snare, so being a Volca fan, initially I thought - even with no iPhone (and therefore no Audiopocket), using the presets alone on the Sample would give me a half-decent physical drum machine.

Then the Caustic-for-Volca-Sample app arrived (yay!) and promised total iPhone-wielding usability (double yay!) and I was totally prepared to hunt a Sample down.

But then I looked at the main Caustic app itself, and then my DAW, and then Ableton, and I thought - well, the Sample does nothing I can't already do on stuff I already use.

But I kept coming back to Youtube videos of people messing about with the Sample... Basically, it already had me hooked from Day 1 and there was ultimately no way I wasn't going to get one.

And it's so great: I'm not into posting live jams or half-baked ideas, but I find it very useful / portable / fun / enlightening, and I'm stacking up a pile of recorded ideas, some of which will work their way into tracks. Experimenting / pushing the limit is the key - you really can come up with stuff that you could approximate with software, but only after the event (and so if you didn't have the Sample, perhaps you wouldn't have stumbled across the ideas in the first place!) E.g. one of my favourite things in my pile so far is a nice ambient, rhythmic loop reminiscent of early Aphex Twin, comprised entirely of a voicemail of my girlfriend singing happy birthday

And I wouldn't have had the inclination at the time to load up ten PCM synths on Caustic or stack up tracks on my DAW etc in order to create it: it wouldn't have been as fun...

Redmond Barry · Post by **Redmond Barry** » Tue Apr 21, 2015 3:51 pm

I love the Volca Sample. It's got lots of hands on fun, all the controls right in front of you, motion sequencing, useful analogue isolator. It's a very creative little machine. It also has a bit of grit to it as well.