Korg

L
eaked images of the
Volca Modular hit the
internet several days
before it was officially
unveiled by Korg.
Reaction was, perhaps
understandably,
sceptical; a Buchla-inspired modular
packed in a Volca frame – surely that
couldn’t be anything more than the
stuff of fanboy Photoshop fantasies?
The Volca Modular is real though,
and fully lives up to that promise. It’s
a mostly analogue, fully-patchable
synthesiser built into a compact and
pretty much every element, as well as
several utilities for splitting,
combining and attenuating signals.
The real triumph of the Volca
Modular, however, lies in Korg’s
decision to use a selection of synth
elements influenced by ‘West Coast’
instrument design. West Coast
synthesis is generally linked to the
early synth designs of Don Buchla
and Serge Tcherepnin, two California-
based – hence the name – synth
pioneers, who were creating modular
and semi-modular instruments in the
late-’60s and early-’70s. As opposed
to more common ‘East Coast’
subtractive synths like the Moog
modulars, West Coast synths tend to
make use of complex oscillator
modulation, as well as distinctive
features such as function generators
and low-pass gates. Sonically, West
Coast synths tend to lean more
towards experimental, metallic and
atonal sounds, but can also be great
for timbres that feel more natural and
‘real instrument’-like than their East
Coast counterparts.
In the case of the Volca Modular,
the West Coast influence begins in
portable frame. As with all other
instruments in the range, it’s powered
by AA batteries (or an optional DC
adapter), packs a built-in speaker and
can be controlled by its onboard
touchstrip keyboard-come-sequencer.
Technically speaking, this is a
semi-modular instrument, since there
is a pre-routed signal path and it can
generate sound from the keyboard
without the need to patch individual
modules together. The level of
patchablity here is more extensive
than most semi-modulars though,
with multiple inputs and outputs for
THE PROS & CONS
+
An analogue West
Coast synth for
under £200!
Creative,
experimental
sequencing tools
Endless fun to patch
and experiment with
-
Can get very fiddly
More complex and
less intuitive than
other Volcas
Korg Volca Modular | Reviews
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FMU342.rev_korg.indd 87 20/02/2019 15:44