Snare Mod!: Korg Volca Beats

The Korg Volca Beats is well known for the sound of it's kick drum and it's easy of use. But unfortunately, it's also known for how lack luster and "burnt" the snare sounds. I found a tutorial online on how to fix this. This is my adventure in trying to get my beloved "Beats" into a even better sounding machine.
Also, probably best to leave this to professionals. Including this one: etsy.me/2M3nuk5

[@eurokush171]

Hey what is the best korg volca for hip hop beats??? By the way Great video

[@BasementArcade]

Volca Drum.

[@balintbuda3017]

imo volca sample is better for hiphop

[@gr3y_eminence]

I'm currently cutting my teeth on some basic soldering. My project is this: The four way selector pot on my Minibrute, for the filter modes, commonly has issues as I've discovered and it's making it so there's been no sound except the filter self oscillating. It's a bit odd. I started to mess around with CV thanks to my MS-20 reissue. The pitch cv out from the Minibrute was able to control the MS-20's parameters; signs of life in there after all. I've found desoldering the pot in question very hard. I too melted some plastic knobs, haha. It definitely takes practice and good tools i.e. better ones that I have now. Thankfully I have a friend who is better than me by far, like in your case, I hope my friend can help me take it out and replace it. I need to find an enjoyable mod to hone my skills. If you or anyone out there has done any others feel free to suggest something. Something like old cheap digital pianos seems like a place to mess around.

[@BasementArcade]

For sure! My next project is the Akai Tomcat. At it's basics, it's an ok analog drum machine. But there are quite a few mods out there for them as well as individual outs for each voice.

[@keus7453]

Where can I find this capacitor?

[@BasementArcade]

it's a bit excessive, but I got this one from a friend who buys his stuff in bulk. I was being silly using something this big. I think any 100nf capacitor would work just fine.

[@abigailclough9394]

Pull apart somethin its a pretty common value. Its kinda hard finding components offline these days

[@Maulleygxxx]

Can I retain/commission you to do this for me? I'm not mechanically inclined, and don't trust that I won't break anything. I'll pay 💰

[@BasementArcade]

Honestly, I don't trust myself to do it right the second time around. I didn't have the right tools. I'm sure you could find someone much more competent than me to help.

[@QrchackOfficial]

Where are you based? I could do the mod but I'm in Europe and I doubt shipping overseas would be worth it

[@zpurpz]

Or just add that 'bite' in your daw after recording:)

[@HazeAnderson]

garbage in ... garbage out

[@QrchackOfficial]

Why for the god's sake did you choose a cap rated for 1kV? That's 1000V and obviously you don't such a beefy one for the Volca. If you picked a lower rating it'd be *much* smaller - no need to bend legs and easier soldering.

[@BasementArcade]

Because I had it.

[@QrchackOfficial]

Next time just go to your closest electronics store and grab a smaller one, should be way easier to fit it in and you don't risk damaging your equipment

[@BasementArcade]

yes sir!

[@donallfinn]

I did EXACTLY what you did, I tried to be a hero and fucked the whole thing up, so I got a pro to fix it. People don't understand unless you are a pro level soldering guy whole knows micro surface mount components, STAY AWAY FROM THE VOLCA, the good thing is, its really simple so just get a pro to do it.

[@BasementArcade]

I luckily didn't mess anything up, it just didn't work until my buddy got a-hold of it. I've heard of that happening though. You're right, better to leave things like this to people who are very capable of soldering.

[@donallfinn]

I'm sure the exact same thing happened from what you described, right next to the points in the board where the cap goes there are a whole bunch of nearly microscopic resistors, if your soldering iron even comes close you can melt a bunch off the board without even trying, its hard NOT to, no it didn't kill the machine, but it sure made the snare sound even WORSE, that's what happened to you no? Personally, I'm a bit pissed at 1. Korg for not doing the proper recall and lieing about the missing cap, 2. At all the people on the internet who talked about the mod but never gave you that last crucial detail about what the install would be like. Still, 10 years down the road, you and i are the only ones I've even seen talking about how this thing REALLY goes down on the internet.

[@BasementArcade]

ha, no mine ended up sound fine in the end, it just wasn't working when I tried to do the mod myself. I think Korg made a huge misstep with the cover up of this problem, but I imagine they just looked at their bottom line and what they were selling these for and just thought that it wasn't worth the millions of dollars in a recall for something the "technically" still works.

[@donallfinn]

No, mine ended up fine too, once the new cap was in and the damage I had done repaired by someone who was experienced with surface mount components as I'm sure your friend is, that's what people need to understand, they may have put together all kinds of electronics on their own and think "Solder in a cap? NO PROBLEM!" Well, be warned, everyone, SMC's are a whole other ball game. Yeah, It's just hard to believe they didn't QC as manufacturing was going on, I mean, whoever and however that cap was left off the board, they should have been monitoring their production of units the whole time, at any point if this had been picked up it would have been quite easy to fix the problem, even on units that had already been completed, obviously, their initial run was probably record-breaking in size as they expected every man woman and child to get one, and they were right. Also, even with this problem, I WOULD STILL RECOMMEND THE VOLCA BEATS TO ANYONE, the performance controls are top of the line, this is one drum machine you can pick up start jamming and before you notice an hour has passed, it really is one of the most FUN drum machines ever made. I would recommend to anyone: Buy it, take it to someone to have the snare mod and individual outs put in (You can put a MIDI thru in too) and you will have an awesome drum box.

[@BasementArcade]

totally! It was my first analog drum machine. It really taught me the appreciation behind analog drums capabilities and limitations. I also started noticing the analog drum sound more often in records I liked because of it. Now I've moved up to other more advanced machined, I still think the kick on the Beats is one of the best out there.

[@avecesdigolaverdad]

sorry bro but it still sound like shit ... take a look to the other mods around youtube

[@BasementArcade]

Will do.

[@andresnatalino584]

it sound great imo ....way better than the original

[@skipper6528]

Clown

[@darkmaninperth]

Aren't you a ray of fucking sunshine?