Korg Volca Keys Tutorial and Patches

Walkthrough on the Korg Volca Keys, including 15 patches you can try on your own here:
imgur.com/gallery/TocvnXt
If you want to skip the tutorial and just check out the patches, they start around 51 minutes within the video.
Thank you to reddit users:
U/gzintz & u/we_are_vigilant for your patches, futurismus(gzintz), sawish Lead, daft punk, ambient (we_are_vigilant)
& korg fourm user ManeerJasen for fat low arp
Further demos of the patches via can be found here:
Sad Lead - • Jamuary 2020 #10 - Vol...
WTF - • Jamuary 2020 #9 - Stra...
Sawish Lead - • Jamuary 2020 #7 - Volc...
Daft Punk - • Jamuary 2020 #6 - Volc...
Jamuary Rains(forgot to add to the vid) - • Jamuary 2020 #4 - Volc...
Volca Guitar - • The Volca Key Guitar

[@wiidlbeetle3857]

0:00 intro and overview 2:30 tempo 4:05 VCO 6:58 LFO wave 7:53 octave 8:45 delay 10:35 crafting sounds/patches 26:40 basic sequencing 32:45 motion sequencing 42:38 Using Arturia Keystep with Volca Keys 48:04 changing Keystep settings to fix sequencer start on Keys 51:10 Patches!!!

[@chine9328]

Dude, thank you so much for putting this together!! I've been trying to expand beyond guitar/vocals and recently purchased a volcano keys and and this demo helped me understand the device A LOT more.. I also just got a keystep and when you busted that out I was SUPER pumped. Seeing as the whole world's on lockdown right now I'm gonna re visit this video a bunch as well as scope out your other tutorials. Very much appreciated!

[@NickCapron]

Thanks man, this made me smile today, and with this global shitstorm going on right now, I appreciate it. Stay well, and all the best.

[@ruboxcube]

I just got my Volca Keys. This video was an excellent tutorial and well explained. Thank you, Nick!

[@Wunderkammerdandy]

Thank you so much Nick for all your videos!! I had so many setup issues with just the Keys and the Keystep, was already in touch with both the Korg and Arturia helpdesk and your videos solved the issue! Doing a great job! 👊🏻🙏🏻

[@NickCapron]

=) Thanks Igor, that's super kind of you to say!

[@paultyrrell8060]

“Oscar llators” love it.

[@jennifermax2927]

Medolic

[@NickCapron]

images.app.goo.gl/tEkoaXUWeoDhw6kJ9

[@jakobleeson]

bruh, thanks for putting in the time to make this

[@NickCapron]

No problem Jakob, gives me a good excuse to get comfortable with the fundamentals of these instruments myself, and making videos is good practice for my presentation skills for my real job =) Thx for the comment!

[@Jux925]

Super nice that you visualize the graph of sound wave that explains what role the attack, decay, release, sustain have.

[@irt1971]

I've been struggling with getting anything out of this synth, only learning about programming, so thanks for this, very helful.

[@dormaettu302]

Receive a Volca for Christmas, this the video i needed thanks a lot

[@aaronc1080]

This is a lifesaver. Really made me feel like someone sat down with me and walked me through turning squelching into music. The tempo/flux trick was great. I also thought my keys was broken because tri and saw sounded the same. I have an NTS1 and changing them is immediate so I thought something was off. I haven't finished the tutorial but it's helped so much already

[@NickCapron]

Awesome, thanks for the comment Aaron, glad to know my silly videos are helping people out!

[@mykimayhem9477]

God mode tutorial. Helped me get started on my circuit tracks. Thanks for the patches!

[@NickCapron]

No problem, thanks for the awesome feedback!

[@SiMPbeats]

The easiest way to think of a cutoff is essentially when it's turned right up it's letting everything through, as you turn it down it's filtering every out above the value youve set. The peak is the same as resonance. If you have a look online there's plenty of videos that explain it really well and it's wayyyy easier than it sounds. Great video thanks, picked a keys and bass up this week so can't wait to have a proper play!

[@nocheastral8219]

Awesome work! Nice video thanks for your effort explaining this beautiful analog synth. Hope to see more videos! Greetings from Mexico 🇲🇽😁😊,🙂👍

[@Myuzak]

Dude, I like you patches and demos, specially wtf.

[@NickCapron]

Thanks Pee Dee, happy new years!

[@1heUndertaker]

Hi Nick, "oscillator" is usually pronounced as "osilator" ... but we can choose to pronounce it as we wish ! Hey, thanks for taking the time to sharing this vid, helped me a lot. Best regards from the UK sir!

[@NickCapron]

Thank you, I was pretty sure I was messing that up, and thanks for the kind comment, glad to hear it was useful for you.

[@octoechos]

Thanks so much for making this. Edot: i love your pronunciations. "Arcipelligator" and "oskillator" are gold.

[@NickCapron]

Haha, I got oscillator nailed down now, still struggle with Arpeggiator. But I think my worst offence so far with making these vids for KZbin is calling resonance "the renaissance"

[@octoechos]

@@NickCapron hahaha that's hilarious! I swear I'm not laughing at you, i have been mispronouncimg words since i learned to speak. For your edification; Arpeggiator, phonetically: ar-pedge-e-ater

[@christopherfarrell-artist3557]

I love this! keep the mistakes as it is more authentic and relates to a learning process!! :)

[@NickCapron]

Thanks Christopher, I definitely made a couple in the vid =) thx for the comment!

[@sat1241]

​@@NickCapron thanks for the video. I don't understand sequencers much. My basic question is in this Korg can I select any scale and have it sequence? Can you have something like a diminished scale or whole tone scale on this? Also if you cut off steps would it work in odd time lie 5/4 ot 7/4? And is it a different situation on the Vulca sample? Thanks

[@nadgewhacker]

Really helpful, thanks. MUCH more understanding of the little thing as a result.......

[@NickCapron]

Awesome, it's a great little instrument

[@darkforestzero]

To stop the keystep from starting the sequence on the keys, check out the "global parameter settings" at the bottom of your manual. hold down func while turning on device, then press 6 tot set midi clock src to internal (i know this seems dumb), then press rec to save the setting. This is how I the volca keys to NOT start playing its sequence when I pressed Start on my novation circuit

[@dmkrugermusic]

Thank you so much for this! 10/10

[@helakuism]

really entertaining to watch and remind my head of how the Volca Keys works. and your jokes weren't dad jokes either =) thank you

[@Kadam_]

What I understand at 13:59 : voooo 😂 I haven’t finished the video yet but it’s really nice, great tutorial dude ! Can’t wait to get one of these ! Greetings from France

[@NickCapron]

Awesome! Thank you!

[@faperito2389]

Thanks a lot man, really really helpful tutorial.

[@NickCapron]

Thank you Faperito, glad to hear it was useful for you!

[@Westhomasmusic]

Great video mate, i've had the Volca sitting in my studio for about 12 months. This has helped me to finally get to grips with it

[@NickCapron]

Glad to hear you enjoyed it, thanks for the nice comment!

[@dtrsrg]

Thank You! Helped a lot

[@benena21]

Awesome video mate 👍 definitely the missing tutorial on the Volca keys. I get onto the bass pretty easy, the beats still finding lots of cool sounds, but the keys I played a few hours with it and still didn't get why it did not sound good like on the KZbin demo. But yes you made it very clear ! Many thanks

[@NickCapron]

Thank you benena! Glad it helped you out.

[@showrob2000]

Same here! Started thinking got a dud unit

[@PandazHub]

I’m 5 mins in and this video is hilarious 😂

[@JustPassingByBaby]

Thank you a lot!

[@pantherpeepers2453]

thanks so much, really perfectly done for a beginner which can be hard to find for synths.

[@NickCapron]

Thx Panther for the kind feedback! Hope you enjoy the Keys

[@scotttascarella2951]

I really enjoyed this. Great tutorial! Very easy to watch! Subscribed I sold my volca keys last year and was thinking of getting another. Cheap small and simple but AMAZING 😉

[@NickCapron]

Thanks Scott, glad to hear you enjoyed it. It is a nice piece of gear for relatively low cost. Keep your eye on the used market, I managed to get mine for around 90 CAD which was a steal of a deal.

[@mickypoo4622]

I also have a Volca Keys (I just left a comment about your Volca Sample tutorial!) but I know my way around this one far better. It really is a great little analogue 3 voice (in "Poly mode"!) synth and with lots of other fantastic features and endless effects. I have also added a MIDI OUT socket mod to mine. Well done for making this very helpful, thoughtful and easy to understand vid about it. There is a saying "We teach best what we most need to learn". Please keep up the good work. Also, please stay safe for the foreseeable future. Best wishes from the UK, where I am "self-isolated", but, with the Volca Keys, maybe "self-oscillated" ;)

[@NickCapron]

Thank you, super kind of you to say. Wishing you well, the world is going to have one hell of a party when this is all over.

[@mickypoo4622]

@@NickCapron YES, and maybe we all should collaborate on a conjoined composition to celebrate that, when it finally happens ;)

[@NickCapron]

Absolutely, stay safe!

What a great tutorial. Just one question - not sure if I missed this: you can store sequences in memory (8 slots). Can you also easily switch between sequences? i.e. you playe M1 8 times and then switch over to M2 or does that take too much time to work within a single piece of music?

[@NickCapron]

Thank you! And yes, your idea should work just fine. The only thing I'm unsure on without firing up the keys, is if the sequencer will finish the steps before jumping to the next one, so your timing on switching sequences may need to be on point.

[@virtueisdead]

I'm pretty sure the cutoff controls the lowpass cutoff

[@TRACK8REMIX]

thanks great video and subscribed

[@NickCapron]

Thanks David!

[@Ullish1989]

The active step "arp trick" means you wouldn't really be able to sync it with the sampler/drum machine etc because it would sync to the other tempo and be all out of whack right?

[@wiidlbeetle3857]

Good video!

[@NickCapron]

Thanks, glad to hear you enjoyed it!

[@dlinnoedlinnoe]

Ha, Keystep's STOP kills CraftSynth2.0 too. I fixed that by changing CC in Keystep. Maybe could change transport mode too. And thank you for the video! Very informative!

[@NickCapron]

Thanks! I eventually figured it out with the Volcas by disabling global setting #6, but I'll keep that in mind for my other gear, thx!

[@sergiocabrera424]

Great video man, was hoping to put some of this into use today but for some reason mine wont turn on? My roommate had it in a drawer for a while, finally picked it up and put batteries in it. When i power on the unit stays flashing red lights and wont actually turn on? I've left it running for about an hour+ thinking that it was just booting up but nothing. Any chance you know about this?

[@NickCapron]

Ah that doesn't sound great... Have you tried different batteries, or AC power if you have an adapter. Factory reset next, if that doesn't work, maybe try to push a firmware update to see if that gets it unstuck. If none of that works, I'd assume it will need repairs or be replaced,

[@adamosulpizi4116]

Hi! awesome video! I'm having trouble connecting my Volca keys with my novation launchkey mk3 (midi out is a 3.5mm minijack). I'm sure that both devices are on channel 1... do you have any hint? amazing tutorial though

[@NickCapron]

Hey Adamo, at least for the Volca Keys, you can confirm the midi ch by holding down memory when turning it on. The led that lights up on the ribbon keyboard will confirm what channel it is listening on.

[@Unknown-gg4vq]

Nice video, thank you very much, got my volca keys today.

[@NickCapron]

Thanks Jahrayson, happy to hear that you enjoyed it!

[@Unknown-gg4vq]

Deciding which midi to get due to my akai key 25 is USB,

[@NickCapron]

@@Unknown-gg4vq I love my Arturia keystep, it's not too expensive, well built, can serve as an Arp/Sequencer for devices that don't have them, works great with the Volca Line. The pro version just came out, much more expensive than the basic version, but much more powerful. So check it out before pulling the trigger on the base model if you go that way.

[@Unknown-gg4vq]

Okay thank you, I check it out I now have enough leads which I wasn't sure of, I have the volca sample, nu bass, keys and teenage engineering tonic, been using a four channel denon mixer. To connect them up too.once more confident I put a video up on KZbin. Many thanks

[@Unknown-gg4vq]

I have looked at the arturia keystep Pro, looks very nice piece of equipment, due to I'm not advanced I'm not sure if I would use it to full potential. Many thanks

[@GenThalz]

Nice 🎉

[@Unknown-gg4vq]

Hello I managed to get a cheap £20 casio keyboard which connects to my korg volca keys through midi, (can use my casio keys to play the korg volca) is their any way I can get the sounds from my keyboard to go into the korg volca keys even if means modding it, many thanks

[@NickCapron]

Cool, not a bad price at all. If I understand correctly, you want what the sounds the casio makes to come through the Volca? If so, I don't think that is possible. Anything with an external in, like the Behringer model D, should allow you to do this. I don't think anyone has moded a Volca Keys with an external in, but if possible, would be cool.

[@Unknown-gg4vq]

It's a casio lk-110 to learn on, has light up keys, , has 100 different sounds, okay to learn on.

[@briite1]

At 2:20 --> that is why i have a Volca Mix. I can change the tempo of three volcas and know exactly what tempo it is. Also, on the Mix, i can power those 3 Volcas with the mix. (No a/c adapters needed z except for the Mix.) So cool.

[@steveedwards4495]

Silent C in oscillators mate 😁 great vid, cheers from UK

[@NickCapron]

TY Steve!

[@PartyOnDude_]

Thanks, this is a great video!

[@BarrySPeas]

Pretty interested in getting one of these since they sound dirty & midrangy which would fit perfectly with a 2 piece I'm doing. Just wondering if you can save patches without any note information or automation? Literally just the tone. Interested in skipping between the square wave ring voice & normal saw too within a saved setting if that's possible too. Basically using a Midi drum machine as a controller for drum samples, and using some pretty rubbish internal synth sounds from it at the moment. So want to be able to program note info on that, and then use the presets to flick between different preset sounds, if it's possible without sending a load of extra MIDI info? Playing bass at the same time means I'm a bit limited with messing with controls! Thanks for any help!

[@NickCapron]

Hey Barry, on the Volca itself, you can not save patches or settings, but if you look up the Volca Keys midi implementation pdf you can set the following settings using midi cc: PORTAMENTO EXPRESSION VOICE OCTAVE DETUNE VCO EG INT CUTOFF VCF EG INT LFO RATE LFO PITCH INT LFO CUTOFF INT EG ATTACK EG DECAY/RELEASE EG SUSTAIN DELAY TIME DELAY FEEDBACK If you want me to shoot a quick demo just let me know!

[@BarrySPeas]

@@NickCapron Ah man that's a shame, so literally everything disappears after you power it off? Can you save different sound presets while it's powered on at least? Might be able to live with that if I write some settings down, already have enough gear going on as it is! Cheers for the reply!

[@NickCapron]

@@BarrySPeas So while it's on, you can't save anything, basically it's a "knob per function" device, so however you got them dialed in, is what sound you are going to get. So you can do patch sheets to help you remember sounds you like, and manually dial them in, but you can't save a bunch of presets anyway, and load them up on the fly. Volca FM, can, but it's FM, not a subtractive analog synth like the keys!

[@WolfShadowheart]

Hey, sorry to ask but how do I use/apply patches to volca keys? I didn't see it covered in the video or the description

[@NickCapron]

No worries, m.imgur.com/gallery/TocvnXt Unlike some other synths, you can't save patches to the keys, so you have to manually Dial them in from patch sheets like these

[@WolfShadowheart]

@@NickCapron ah I see, awesome! Thank you so much. Great video :)

[@erksp7961]

Can the Volca Keys make a decent bass sound? Considering buying it instead of Volca Bass.

[@NickCapron]

I think so! I'll give it a go and maybe make a quick video when I get a chance.

[@NickCapron]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/m5CpYaeEfqiBp80 Here's me attempting to dial in some bass on the keys.

[@darkforestzero]

Great video man! For future vids, it's pronounced: oss-i-lay-ter

[@NickCapron]

Haha thanks, I think I have it down now, but took me a couple of vids to get it down straight =)

[@Bythelightofthecressickmoon]

That arcade bass jam is fucking fire!!!!!!!!!

[@NickCapron]

Thanks Cyrus!

[@recap_after_use]

Also looking for a way to prevent the volca sequencer from starting with the keystep play button... I am starting to think we will have to wait for a Firmware update :(

[@recap_after_use]

Great video btw!

[@NickCapron]

@@recap_after_use Thanks Nestor, haha it bugs me too, but I've been too lazy to figure it out. I'll give it another try and see if it is possible, or find a work around.

[@recap_after_use]

@@NickCapron you'd make me a happy man :D

[@recap_after_use]

(my lazy workaround is having an empty memory slot)

[@flrn84791]

Absolutely love your pronunciation of "oscillator" :D and great video, learned a ton! Maybe the same for the FM? :D

[@NickCapron]

Yeah, I think I can mostly say it right now, I am absolutely awful at pronunciation =) For the FM, I didn't bother with a full tutorial, as I thought Cuckoo has a pretty damn decent one, but I may cycle back to it one day! Nice thing about the volcas though, if you figure one out, you will understand 70% of the base functionality of all the others for the most part!

[@ahmetyasirsakall77]

How ı connect my reverb pedal

[@NickCapron]

Hey Ahmet, for my pedals, I use a 3.5mm to 1/4 inch cable.

[@koskey06]

Oz. Ca laters.... 3 of em

[@derekscholten5035]

oscillator like osprey then later. ospreylater

[@bakerbakerbaker305]

I cannot for the love of spicy mchickens get this thing to make light sounds it's to harsh(to scratchy) maybe I'm a noob I can make it sound good with an effect processor but that's a little cheating :/

[@NickCapron]

Hmm yeah when farting around trying to make cool sounds I find the same for sure.

[@bakerbakerbaker305]

@@NickCapron ok im glad im not alone im looking for a more ambient sounding synth i suppose

[@NickCapron]

@@bakerbakerbaker305 haha Np I'm was just playing around with it now trying to tame it and failed.

[@bakerbakerbaker305]

Nick Capron it's alright we are learning I appreciate any information I can get on these instruments

[@NickCapron]

Hey, I played around with it some more, and I find you really need to go light with the filter Cutoff to tame down the harshness. Here's a video of me playing around a bit with it: kzbin.info/www/bejne/m5CpYaeEfqiBp80

[@robj144]

Cool video, but the c is silent in oscillator. Like a pendulum, oscillating. ;)

[@NickCapron]

Haha thanks Rob, I think I got it nailed down now, but should of looked it up before filming =)

[@American_Made]

get you a midi keyboard for that. much easier to play.

[@OmenAhead]

36:46 How to make the most annoying sound in world's history, while people trying to understand a tutorial 😆 Best speech in noise comprehension test ever! Jokes aside, great and highly detailed overview of this awesome synth, but man... talking over the sequences was horrible and could hardly understand what you were saying... Especially with that disharmonic thing you created underneath.

[@WalterGiroldi]

Muy buen video, aquí un tutorial en español: kzbin.info/www/bejne/inTXnmt_g6ull7M

[@WalterGiroldi]

Hola muy buen video, aquí un tutorial en español: kzbin.info/www/bejne/inTXnmt_g6ull7M