Korg Volca Bass – ‘Dominating’ Bass Line Synth For $150

This video, via KORG, takes a look at the Korg Volca Bass, a three VCO analogue bass synthesizer.

Presented by its hardware designer and chief engineer, Tatsuya Takahashi, the video shows some of the sequencing features that are specially tuned for creating floor ‘dominating bass lines’.

The Volca Bass will be available in July 2013 for a U.S. street price of $149.99 each. Additional product information is available at Korg.com

23 thoughts on “Korg Volca Bass – ‘Dominating’ Bass Line Synth For $150”

  2. Cool device! Multiple simultaneous sequences. No word on how much acid it does, does it have accept per step? Slide per step? Does it scream?

  4. Well he designed it, if he wants to call it Slur, who are we to say?

    This is probably the function that makes me hate the 303. In the brief moment he turns it off, it sounds about 500% better.

      1. Sorry guys! I remember when the 303 was becoming fashionable and I could have owned one for 300 quid. I got a loan of one to try out and i FARKING HATED it. Without a doubt my least favorite synth of all time. As for the ‘Slide/Slur’ effect, dont get me started, the most overused gimmick in electronic music history.

        1. It’s your taste, so can’t argue. Personally, I love the slide. Other than that, the 303 isn’t really that remarkable. In fact, the Volca Bass is much more powerful: 3 Oscillators, ADSR envelope and an LFO. The sequencer even seems more feature-rich on this baby.

          The slide was meant to mimic a fretless bass guitar. When I hear a bass guitarist slide all over the place, it does get distracting, like “Look at me, I’m playing a fretless bass!”. Just like 303 lines can get too rubbery for my taste.

  5. Love love love love love! And please post the keys video, it’s way awesome too!
    Tatsuya is a hottie AND analogue nut. Watch out ladies!

    1. To be honest, it makes little difference to me. I don’t listen to music that utilises the 303 sound and I’ll never own a 303, but i know lots of people love it. The fact is the slide effect doesn’t have to be used, so I’d still be interested in this as a 3 osc synth. It’s seems mad not to buy all 3 Volca at that price. But the Keys is the winner. It’s not trying to be an alternative to anything. It just is what it is and it sounds great. I’d live to see it expanded and housed as a proper synth with proper keys.

  6. sweet! did not know it had automation!! great demos!
    not the cure for cancer or anything, but it is just brilliant engineering
    and marketing. Korg will sell a ton of these.
    who could say “VolcaNo”? VolcaYes!

  10. I love the “Slur” effect, and I love the acid sound too. Granted, I started listening to dance music right around the whole acid house phase, so maybe it takes me back to my youth.

    1. I was a teenager when Acid House appeared on the scene and I despised it. It was a celebration of drugs and being an idiot, and as a 19 year old it was utterly alien to me. I never saw any correlation between acid house/90’s dance music and pure electronic music. They used the same instruments, but I never felt acid house etc were interested in the exploration of electronic music, it was all about the cultural/social aspect and creating music that was great when you were off your head. In fact, I’ve felt electronic music entered a black hole then, which it has only come out of recently. However I do think as a result of 20 years of shite dance music we now have a more evolved form of electronic music, which is great.

      I’m guessing i’m going to get about 20 ‘dislikes’ for this!

      1. I’ve never done any mind altering drugs, but if you have been on a dance floor full of people while acid house is pumping at ungodly levels, you don’t need any fucking drugs to enjoy it. Having fun at a club does not involve snobby commentary about the quality of the music and anyone who tried to convince you otherwise has completely missed the point of the endeavor. If the music moves the masses to shake their bodies, it has succeeded. End of story. Acid House was and is wonderful in that respect, musicologists and snobs be damned. They are not needed in the realms of fun anyway.

        1. I was clubbing from the age of 15 in 1986 right up until the early 90’s. I spent many hours on dance floors trying to enjoy house, acid house and all that came from it. It was occasionally brilliant, but for the most part it was about the experience of jumping around off your head to incredibly monotonous music. If you were one of the few who enjoyed it without taking drugs, well done. There have been many bands and movements that’s got people dancing en masse, it didn’t start with Acid House, and there’ll be many more. Not liking Acid House does not equal a misunderstanding of the joy of jumping around to music with a crowd of people, it’s just a personal dislike if the musical genre that was fuelled by drugs taken en masse and designed to compliment a drug induced trance. Some people didn’t take drugs, but most did, particularly the people making it.

          1. I was the first to like your reply Brian. It’s obvious we have different opinions, though we have clearly enjoyed some of the same activities (I was a heavy clubber for 15 years). I didn’t mean to suggest Acid House was the first or only thing to make people dance, I was saying people dancing (high or not) is the sign of success when it comes to dance music. I too have been in clubs and scenes when lots of people were loving the music and dancing when I was not. Like you, my assessment was that it was monotonous (often hardcore techno would bring about this response in me). And, even though I didn’t take drugs, the fact that lots of people around me took drugs, probably increased my enjoyment (I nipped that idea from the Summer of Rave 1989 doco on YouTube that I just watched). Probably as a result of our little exchange, I was, last night ripping high res audio of my Acid House vinyl collection and I discovered there is a lot of dry stuff there and I was imagining this was the stuff you were talking about. Cheers and thanks for a lively conversation.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *