Volca Drum: Episode 3 (Connections)

This video is the third in my series about the Volca Drum and it's all about hooking the Drum to other stuff (even though it's great on its own!). I do this sort of video as a set of demo clips with some discussion to try to tie it all together. HEADPHONES really help on these combo demos - the Volca Drum can go low and the resonator effect can go even lower. Leave a comment with any questions that come up. Thanks for watching!

PS A year ago I remember having more videos than subscribers on here. It's not a big channel, but I'm still happy about the growth and appreciate all of your subscriptions. - Nim
TIMELINE

00:00 STARTER: Volca Drum doesn't need the SQ-1 to tell it what to do...

00:17 INTRO: I go over some of the aspects of MIDI control for the Volca Drum. Maybe the Volca Drum is its own best controller? Let's control it with other stuff anyway.

02:31 USING THE SQ-1 ANYWAY

03:05 DEMO 1 - The randomness of the SQ-1 is very easy to change live. Also, the Drum's resonator timing is keyed to the tempo, so you can glitch stuff up by shutting Drum sequencer off/on while the SQ-1 keeps playing.

03:43 Two midi modes on the Drum. In the (default) SPLIT channel mode an incoming midi note (of any value) triggers the part/track/drum on whatever the note's midi channel is. In the other mode, SINGLE channel mode, you set a channel and use different note values to determine the part number (C3=part 1, D3=part 2, etc. on the white keys). More Drum parameters for each part can be accessed in Split mode (but it ties up 6 midi channels).

04:52 DEMO 2 - Single Channel MIDI mode with the SQ-1. You can use the SQ-1 to send a "monophonic" sequence to the Drum - one drum hit per step, max. I am putting quotes around monophonic because it's not quite right: the SOUNDS can overlap, just not the triggers. Longer decays and using the resonator effect can fill it in pretty nicely.

05:39 USING SYNCHRONIZATION - Synchronization is straightforward and really important. A lot of modern synths/gear are Volca compatible.

06:15 DEMO 3 - Synchronizing the Volca Drum with the Craft Synth 2.0 from Modal Electronics. (For more about the Craft Synth 2.0 see the playlist of my videos about it.)

07:03 DEMO 4 - Synchronizing the Volca Drum with the PO-35 Speak Pocket Operator. First time I've actually used it. It is nice. I want to do a video entirely about Pocket Operators at some point.

07:55 DEMO 5 - Synchronizing the Volca Drum with the Arturia MicroFreak. (For more about the MicroFreak see the playlist of my videos about it.)

09:10 DEMO 6 - Synchronizing the Volca Drum with the Volca Keys. The concept of this demo is to really, really spread the tempos of the two Volcas - even though they are synced. The Keys can be slowed down, and you can really do it with the Drum by using SLICING.

10:52 DEMO 7 - SQ-1 as the conductor, controlling the Drum by a sync connection and the Bastl Instruments SoftPop Synth via control voltage (CV). This sort of "cross-platform" control is really nice.

11:40 SOME BETTER MIDI - At this point I am getting into sending MIDI CC signals.

14:23 DEMO 8 - The Volca Drum doesn't USE any MIDI note data for pitch (so playing a C6 sounds like a E2, just a drum hit), BUT it does respond to a MIDI CC signal for pitch. I am using the SQ-1 to send a note sequence to the computer, and then using the Processing language (see link below) the computer is relaying a midi CC pitch change to the Volca Drum via a midi 2x2 box. I'm running a native Volca Drum sequence that just pings part 1 on every step.

17:53 DEMO 9 - BeatStep Pro. First of all, this setup was kind of hard to fully control without some outlandish FM shrieks - so I edited those out and made sure to choose some parts that I liked (I think I played with it for about 20 minutes in all). To do any of this you have GOT to program your BeatStep Pro with the Arturia MIDI Control Center on your computer. It was fun to play and seemed pretty intuitive.

20:33 OUTRO - I discuss using Ableton Live to control the Volca Drum.

22:04 ENDER - This is DEMO 10, using Ableton Live to control the Volca Drum. Some of the smooth pitch changes SOUND like the built-in FM modulation of the Drum (going slow), but it's not that, just pitches getting automated. Some of the best sounds in this demo come from the resonator TUNE setting getting automated: some of the sounds are so low that I can only hear them in my decent headphones. It's all going through a stable setting on the Nux Atlantic reverb+delay combo pedal - kind of dreamy.

Видео Volca Drum: Episode 3 (Connections) канала Undulations