Geek Out & Design Your Own Sounds With Korg’s New Volca Boxes

Korg just announced two new additions to its Volca line of hardware synthesisers and samplers: Volca Drum and Volca Modular. Volca Drum is for creating drum and percussion sounds, and then sequencing them into patterns. You can adjust parameters like tempo, swing, attack and release, as well as modulation controls and overdrive for saturating and making those drum sounds crunchy.

Volca Modular is a semi-modular synthesiser that steps into more experimental territory. It’s got analogue synth modules, effects and a sequencer crammed into its frame, and it comes with tiny pin cables for routing signals to different patch points – just like what you’d expect from a modular synth.

As with all Volca synths, both models come with 1/8″ headphone output jacks, 1/8″ sync inputs and outputs for connecting to other Volca gear, as well as a power socket and a battery compartment for on-the-go use.

While they may not look beginner-friendly, the Volcas are known to be good starting points for those who want a deeper understanding of how dance music sounds are made. Korg says that the Volca Modular, in particular, makes the complex and at times snooty world of modular synthesis “more accessible and understandable than ever before”. We’ll hold judgment until we try it out, but it does seem more accessible compared to a wall of modular synth gear with “cable pasta” hanging (which, admittedly, is one of our greater curiosities here at the DDJT production lab).

Both units seem like great additions to a Volca set-up, as well as to a home studio if you’d like to add some hardware to tweak and mess around with. They’re both meant for designing unique sounds, and we’re willing to bet that they’d make awesome live performance instruments too. We can’t wait to try them out and give you a full review.

Check out the promo videos and photo galleries below.

Volca Modular Promo Video

Volca Modular Photo Gallery

Volca Drum Promo Video

Volca Drum Photo Gallery

• The Korg Volca Modular will retail for US$200 and the Volca Drum for US$170. Both are coming in early 2019. Check the Korg site for more details.

What are your thoughts on these new Volca synths? Want them, or think they’re too complicated? Let us know in the comments.