Korg Volca Beats 3-stars Reviews

solid hardware

solid piece of hardware, a bit limiting when it somes to sound creating, but good overall. i think volca drums would be a better option

Decent little beat box

I got this for the sound. I always loved the very early analog beatboxes so I got what I asked for.

Pros:

- The sound.

- Easy of use.

- Super portable.

- The sounds sit into the mix really well.

Cons:

- This should cost way less for what it is.

- The snare sound. It sounds really ugly. Even mini-pops had a way better snare sound.

- Mono output. Don't expect any panning options. This is really unacceptable.

- The firmware update method is simply ridiculous.

- The sequencer steps are rather limited.

- The structure looks weak.

- No usb connection.

I bought it, sampled it because I couldn't pan individual sounds and barely use it since. The samples produced are great though.

It's a cool and fun simple analog drum machine, but the snare... The snare doesn't sound good at all. It can be fixed by fiddling with the electronics, but that's no excuse, it should have come fixed already.

Volca Beats

I have Three Volca's and really enjoy working with all of them. The Beats unit is good fun and for the price there is are very few other products which compare well. The kick drum sound is excellent, as are the toms (albeit with a rather narrow tuning range). The snare however is pretty bad, there are lots of rumours on line as to why this is the case and plently of simple mods which can change the sound but ultimately it's just a bit...distorted. If you want your snare to sound a little wonky then it's an interesting option but don't expect a nice sounding 808 snare, because this is much more like a slightly odd Korg Minipops.

Ultimately you get way more than you pay for, this is a great little drum machine.