I absolutely LOVE that you talked about the FM 2 with beginners in mind. I actually purchased an original Volca FM right before starting my channel, when I was a complete newcomer to electronic music, and returned it the next day, due to most of the reasons you mentioned. While I'm sure other channels have covered the issues before, I don't think that any of them have the pull that you do. I truly appreciate your words Jeremy!
what would you recommend instead? i love the sounds you can make with fm synthesis, want something i can just pull out with knobs and want buttons (instead of dexed) to get me there.
@@illegalgiant_ I think the usual FM synth recommendations often include the Digitone (which includes a sequencer many people enjoy) and the Opsix for more in depth FM synthesis. I'd recommend the Opsix if you're looking for straight FM and not so much a groovebox type of device. They're both great tho.
@@janissaryJames I second this. There are plenty of amazing presets that TH-camrs and other reface users have shared online, all available to download and install
I appreciate this video and your content very much. From honest reviews to teaching synthesis, youre great! I woke up this morning to every TH-camr making a video on this thing. It's great to hear your opinions and I hope korg listens
The FM2 is the first synth i ever purchased. Totally confused by it but intrigued by the sounds. I rely on diving through the algorithms to find cool sounds. Maybe I don't even know what the purpose of the unit is? Wildly frustrated by the midi tho. I ended up having to order 2 different adapters till i got it right.
I'm a big fan of FM, my first synth was an FM synth and one thing I knew before getting into it is that they can be a pain to program (the DX7 being a very famous example). I went for the Yamaha Reface DX which I think does a great job of making the parameter tweaking a lot more accessible (haven't looked too much into the OPSIX, but it looks to be an even better option in that regard, but for twice the price). If I was going to be using one of these, it'd likely end up being just a preset player for patches I've made in Dexed. Which seems like a bit of a solution in search of a problem.
Synth guy who doesn't like adapters, allrighty. As a beginner, if you can't figure this out, maybe hardware synths aren't for you. Get a MacBook. A freaking 6 voice fm synth in a tiny box that can be battery powered, and all you have to do is figure out how to hook up a midi keyboard of your size and quality choice and power the damn thing...
Great, frank video. I only have two minor things to bring up other than appreciative agreement: 1. MIDI over USB is nice but I can't say it's always worked that well for me, and it especially complicates trying to control/combine gear without using a computer. Plus it seems like an increasing recipe for manufacturers to de-standardize, which they'll take seemingly any opportunity to do (as the minijack MIDI implementations show). Admittedly starts to be a bit more reasonable of a tradeoff with tiny instruments like the Volcas, but having full-size standard MIDI on instruments is really nice for establishing and keeping up a baseline of interoperability. 2. Am I wrong or did you mention Dexed but not mention that it's quite easy to just send the patches or full carts to the Volca FM via it? At least that's certainly what I've done with my Volca FM 1, whose default patches were mostly unusable. It's as simple as a few button presses, although at least for me it was really NOT obvious (right-clicking on patches in the loading interface and choosing "send to DX7"). Of course getting Dexed set up in a DAW is a very non-zero bar to clear before being able to copy presets onto the device, and there's more than a little irony of having to use an FM synth program running on a computer to put anything onto one's ostensibly-standalone physical FM synth! So your overall points on the matter definitely still stand.
I remember when the first volca fm came out, and some people were saying “it’s fm but easy to use”, so I bought it thinking it would be cool to learn fm. It was actually incredibly difficult and, between the cryptic screen that does not display Latin characters and the tiny knobs and data slider that skipped values straight out of the box, I ended up not wanting to learn anymore. About a year later my interest in fm had resurfaced and i bought a vintage DX7. Guess what? It was easier to understand than the volca, and I grew to enjoy programming it rather quickly. That was five years ago. I still have my DX7. Don’t remember what happened to the volca.
Hm, I feel like most people who said it was easier probably used a dx7 first and then got a volca? Maybe going the other way around gave you just a little more experience and maybe that, not which synth you're using, is what makes the next FM synth you use seem easier? Just an interesting question to me in terms of how we learn things.
Most of this is all perspective. My perspective is a beginner doesn’t even know what a DX7 is and isn’t looking to start out on a FM synthesizer. Most people who buy Roland boutiques and these small Korg synthesizers have a specific itch they are trying to scratch. I think most people who are looking at this unit know what this is supposed to be and should be capable of figuring this out power and MIDI connections.
Totally agree. I had one of these as a beginner and some other Volcas. I just didn't have the time to make my own patches. I tried a couple of times and made whistles. I used Synthmata too, but just couldn't get to the cool tones I know it can make. I do love FM though and have gone to software for it for now. I do want either a Digitone or Opsix (Or maybe an Akemies Castle??) but the UX has to be right, I can't spend an hour making something without good payoff. Nothing wrong with an honest review, a lot of demo guys tend to gloss over a devices limitations. Btw, other Volcas were great for a beginner, I loved the Sample and the Bass in particular.
Go OpSix and be able to use the extensive library of Free DX7 patches and much easier Patch editing abilities or the PreenFM2/3 , Digitone is only a 4 operator FM Synth but fabulous sequencer but for same $$$ I’d get a Digitakt instead for 16 tracks and just use the FREE Dexed VST for FM to save on $$ PreenFM2 is $199 but you’ll be waiting for it to arrive from Former Soviet Union
@@Madmohawkfilms thanks for the heads up, ive never heard of the Preen FM2, I will check it out. I have the Digitakt already, so the Digitone is appealing, plus ive seen enough demos - especially Jeremy's! - to get that it has a lot of sweet spots. Opsix, dont know, Im lacking real estate!
@@MrBenski my pleasure I know the feeling, apartments in Brooklyn don’t get bigger the more gear I want to stuff in it :) PreenFM2 made more sense for me than the Reface DX from Yamaha tho been looking at Workstation Keyboards recently :)
Appreciate the honesty, but I have to say I disagree completely. The volca fm IS a synth for beginners, or at least for musicians who don't care about sound designing and just want to be able to quickly and meaningfully tweak preset sounds. The simplification that it brings to the table is just amazing. Carrier Attack + Decay + Modulator Attack + Decay are four magic buttons that I have not seen on any other FM synthesizer and give the user so much power over the sound. I would definitely recommend the volca fm 1, even despite the 3 voice limitation, because it sounds so unique, and is so easy to modulate, compared to a "regular" FM synth. Congrats to KORG. I think the volca fm is amazing. Will most probably buy the rev2.
I owned a DX7 and had to program it from the front panel. No, deep FM synthesis is not for beginners.. or wusses that can't do anything without using a computer. If you can't tell your carriers from your modulators jn an algorithm, send it back to Korg and get a Casio! :P :P
Really glad you took the time to make this video the way you did. Not saying I agree or disagree, it's just that so many music channels just promote the pros of a device and push aside the cons. I think what you did is so important for the developers to hear. It also allows your audience to get a clearer picture of what you do and don't value in a music device. Over time this lets us make more informed decisions, and I really appreciate your honesty in this one. Nice work dude!
I own the opsix, and I remember looking at the volca fm 1 and thinking, "how would anyone ever use that???" disappointing to see that they updated it without updating ... any of the patch editing whatsoever, but thanks for your transparency :)
well for the price of it, i deleted all patches and use it a nice fm bass machine. the bass patches i made dont really need too much editing as i use the silder and carrier/modulator decay knobs for most of the performance. is the FM2 live editable with the modified yamaha sysex commands like with pajen firmware?
I have the original Volca FM and I'm thinking to get the FM2 and sell the first one. For me the only major limitation of the FM1 is 3 note polyphony. As for making my own sound, not too interested. DX7 has 1000s of patches made, and you can find them everywhere. As far as loading patches, I use Commodore Amiga with a Sysex program and MIDI interface. Works great!
agree with you on the OPsix comparison and the frustrations of programming it. I enjoy the randomizer but totally wouldn't try and edit a sound on it. But like you say, at 170 bucks its hard to beat sound wise
I hate those fold out manuals. What is up with that? Roland does that crap all the time. I just cannot read that stuff. It reminds me of the junk I put together for my kids. If you want to find yourself in absolute frustration, put together children's equipment. I enjoy the honesty. DEXED is awesome, never was personally into the volca series... and I'm sure the OPsix is cool, but I recall watching some videos thinking it didn't seem to really do FM the way my brain works... so I'm over here with my SY77. Partly, the SY77 (and 99) seem like the Jupiter 8's of the FM world. I just love how the synth feels, the keys are amazing... I'm sure people would say the DX1 is the Jupiter 8, but I think the DX1 is more like the CS80 of the FM world. Anyway, obvious side rant... I love the SY77 and it's still probably one of the top 5 synths I have ever come across. Yeah - editing is kinda odd, but I'll take that over something that has a mediocre build quality but easier UI.
Eh, I gotta disagree to a certain extent. When I first got into synths, I got a volca beats, and a bastl kastle, along with some cheap keyboards from thrift shops. And I got months and months of love out that setup, without ever using midi. Beginners don't really need that, but the availability of having it gave me something to work up to, leading to me going deeper down the rabbit hole. Just my experience, but not giving folks a midi adaptor doesn't write this device off for me, it's a stand-alone piece of hardware. BUT I do agree the things gotta come with a power cord god damn.
yeah I’ve got a volca drum and an nts-1 and for what they are I’ve had a lot of fun, just that the volca fm in particular has a pretty lame ux that spoils the whole thing. volca itself is fine, but fm demands more ux real estate, imo.
Especially when the adapter is propietary and costs around 1/4~1/5th of the device itself. I put in new batteries in my Volca drum and they were already low after 4 sessions...
It seems like Korg really wanted to cap both the beginner and experienced market and managed to miss both. But I’m still getting one because my biggest gripe with the MKI was the 3 voice polyphony. Idgaf about patches cause my favorite way to do sound design is to take pre-existing sounds and chain effect pedals and SP 404 effects so that won’t be a problem for me.
After listening to all the cons, I think you are right. Many of these things can be improved and should be. There are workarounds for some of the issues, but in 2022 they shouldn’t be needed.
I totally disagree, I'm ex-DX7 owner and love this thing. I find it easy to tweak the excellent built in presets, if you really wanna go deep just use Dexed or another DX7 softsynth. This thing is fun af and sounds really great!
To be honest, this is how I feel about all of the Volcas. I had three (the original FM, Sample, and Bass) and sold them because it became cumbersome working around their limitations. For the FM, I used Dexed to handle any patching that needed done, and used an RK-002 Smart MIDI Cable from Rektrokits for velocity and MIDI CC mapping. Sometime after I sold them, Pajen created an unofficial firmware for it for sending Sysex from Dexed to it. For the Sample, I again used the RK-002 to add single MIDI channel sample triggering, velocity, polyphonic play capabilities , etc. to my Keystep. Sadly there's no getting around its 4mb sample memory (?!) and it made you transfer sounds by playing a screeching digital noise to it via your phone or computer, which had to be just the right volume level or it would result in an error. Oddly enough, the Pocket Operators PO-32 and PO-33 use similar tech, but I've had a much higher success rate with it. The Volca Bass had the least wrong with it, I just couldn't jive with the sound. I think it made better patches for keys than bass patches. I also had a MyVolts 5-way Volca power splitter so I could stop using three outlets for power OR devoting 18 AA batteries to the three of them. It was my first jump from years of VSTs to analog and almost made me write off analog completely.
Jeremy. I couldn’t agree more. FM and sample were my first synths and were immediately frustrating for a beginner. Not to mention the “modem” style sample upload tool for the sample. I love Korg but Elektron and Roland get it better.
As a beginner, FM is hard to wrap my head around. Love the sound, but it can get weird REALLY quick and it’s hard to recover. I really like the Digitone because they made it so approachable. Thanks for talking through the usability of this. I agree that the Volca line is “My first ” and that seems to not be the case here. I always appreciate the humor and honesty. If Korg won’t marry you, I heard that Elektron was single again.
Yo... All of your grievances I agree ONE HUNDRED PERCENT! I have the original and could not believe some decisions they made. No usb??? You want me to program on that little ass lcd screen with all the abbreviations?? What is this a test?? Lol. You hit the nail on the head
I would’ve preferred to keep the single midi in 5 din, instead of the 3.5mm midi in/out 😢. I have the first Volca and it works well as a utility synth. Plug in a midi cable and use it as an extra voice, or just have it arp, or play bass. Adding the 3.5mm and then having to grab another cable just kills the work flow, this is why I never use my NTS-1.
I have the original volca FM and I love it, it’s the perfect synth module to bring to small gigs for various reason. I’m very tempted to get the new one because it is so much more powerful. Also even though it takes a while to dial in, I wouldn’t say programming it is hard exactly. I would agree it’s definitely not for beginners though
The only thing I agree with on this video is fold out manuals suck. - sorry Jeremy (❤U) but music in the bag OTG at a cheap price is volca, some of us are peasants without freebies from korg. Love my volca FM v1 - and I own a Digitone! Peace ✌
i disagree: i feel you, i understand that you went through some nerve-wrecking trouble with this thing, but the argument doesn't make sense at all to me: a real beginner wouldn't try and bother to hook the volca fm to their ableton push over MIDI and edit patches over some 300$ 3rd-party-programs. they'd be sitting on their couch with a completely functional in-the-box keyboard on their battery-powered little power-synth, headphones hooked up and ready to having some fun with the randomization function. so the causal chain of arguments in this video does not add up at all here. as you say - you are the seasoned professional, and you're trying to treat this "beginner-synth" with the same level of detail you're used to in your own workflow, but that is indeed a very professional approach. i love you bro, your shit is dope, but this video - i'd delete it..
A lot of the (non FM related) complaints you have here are common across all the volcas. I can't speak to the FM stuff, I don't own a volca FM or have access to a FM 2. But I do own a volca sample 2 and a drum. Even before buying the drum (my first volca) I was aware of oscillator syncs synthmata editor for it. Being a web programmer myself I thought it sounded cool and useful. But despite owning all the required cables and trying it once, I don't use it. To me the volcas I have are great when I pick them up and play with them on the couch with headphones on. Learning all the functions hidden in them is fun. My point is, I think you're approaching volcas from a direction they weren't created for. That's why you're frustrated with it.
What if I just want to play the sounds with the ability to mess with them a bit if I want? I might want to just play it, without learning something I'm not interested in learning. I thought that was reasonably typical of the volcas target market. Seems like this achieves that.
Simply put, I hate the volca and boutique stuff, for me the size is a joke and interaction painful. Never again. The compromises are way beyond acceptable for me.
You missed the point of this device and produced a misleading review. Nowhere did Korg say this was a synth for beginners. (Neither did they market the original Volca FM that way.) It's a synth for devotees. So your criticisms about needing a MIDI adapter and power adapter are pretty strange. For the original FM you needed a MIDI DIN cable... also something an absolute beginner would not have. Is that worthy of critique? Um, no. Beginners must learn beginner stuff. Getting cables is pretty basic, right? Should everything be USB? No. I bought the (original) FM to work with other synth hardware. USB is irrelevant to that task. Would it be nice if the Volca also had USB MIDI and power? Sure. But it was built to a (very low) price point. I don't expect it to have every feature. You may as well complain that it doesn't have CV out. Of course the Korg OPSIX is more capable: it's very much larger and THREE TIMES the price. Korg makes both devices, so that we consumers have a choice. Yet you think their attitude is "It's just a Volca who cares?" At that point you're trolling for views with extreme comments. (As for "existential crisis", I somehow doubt you are about to die simply because you found a synth you don't like. Yes, your clickbait worked on me, for shame. I have learned my lesson.) You say that it's "really, really" difficult to get patches into the Volca FM. Simply untrue! All you do is right-click on a Dexed patch and send it across MIDI! It could only be easier if the Korg came with a magic wand. Once on the Volca, the simplified parameter interface makes modifying a sound in performance a breeze. Sure the deep editing is a PITA. Perhaps they shouldn't even have included this feature. But it's a testament to their attitude that they did. Just as their intentions are clear with the labelled mod points on the circuit board. "You want to hack this... we bestow our blessings. You want to use this as a tiny FM preset player with handy performance features? Go ahead. You want a keyboard and full interface? Buy the OpSix."
Wrestling with sysex should be required hazing for n00bs. I had to endure this trauma and it didn't do me any harm, 'cept wanting to repeat the cycle of abuse.
While I agree with things you say ie no midi adaptors and crap manual I think you have high expectations for a cheap entry point synth made at a very reasonable price .....buy the opsix instead and dont complain :)
I'm such a big fan of your down-to-earth honesty RMR. Seen a few vids of it and yeah, it sounds good but that kinda seems like that's it. The original Volca FM was one of the first bits of synth gear I ever owned, had it for a couple of months, until I acquired the Reface DX. I realised that the Volca was just a harder-to-use version of that (comparing the keybeds is unfair, but the Reface had much better MIDI sequencing, onboard effects and sound design controls). It actually put me off the entire Volca line, oop. Great vid as always. I'm sure Korg still loves u.
I don't aggree. In fact I sold my opsix and bought fm2. Who cares about the midi adapter or power that you can buy yourself. Korg editor? when you have dexed... For me the volca fm2 is a Jewell, smallest size FM power
Midi doesn't require a computer to be able to play your instruments. I'm immediately uninterested in your opinion if you think usb midi is better in any way.
While I appreciate real MIDI even though 1/8" jacks, I think it's a weird step backwards that the Sample2 had USB and the FM2 does not. MIDI-OX is still the best (and free) way for Windows PCs to send SysEx files to MIDI devices.
LOL at "I don't have time for that". I just got the first volca fm, use it kinda as a preset player alongside my circuits. Might have to trade for the new one just for the added polyphony and effects.
You got to admit, it's still a great deal if you like FM sounds. They just doubled the polyphony, added reverb, added midi out, and only raised the street price about $20 and that is really amazing. If they had changed much more on the hardware side it would probably have gone up in price a lot more and its true you can't please everyone. I think FM synthesis is complicated and therefore any menu is going to be a problem. Even Synthmata or Dexed is a bit overwhelming. I don't like menu diving but really don't think the Volca FM is all that hard to navigate. Digitone did a great job, I might be misusing the term, but it feels more like your are editing with macros that were finely calibrated and thoughtfully programmed, as it always seems that it's harder to find sounds outside the sweetspot than within when using the Digitone. I'm sure it would still not be welcomed by everyone but I sort of wish they had broken away from the Volca FM2 being a DX7 compatible synth. Clone it's sound but a refresh on how to program it would have been very welcome even if it meant losing patch compatibility. We know Korg can do this because the opsix proves it and if someone, Korg, released a software editor then patch compatibility would not even matter to like 95% of the users because you could just recreate them.
Korg has a software editor directly on their web page. Besides this, Dexed is free and works perfectly. The "problems" mentioned in this video simply don't exist.
There is a lot said in this video with which I agree. I agree that they could have added USB MIDI. And most companies are writing manuals that are horrible to read and not particularly useful in learning how to use the instrument. But look at the reality of the situation. You have the Volca form factor. It is small and does not have every feature they might be able to add. That is how they make it affordable. Once you figure out how to send DX7 patches to the FM using Dexed, it becomes quite easy. And there is your editor, Dexed. FM synthesis is not easy to use to start with. It sounds easy to understand but the ramifications of modulating carriers and modulating modulators at the same time makes it difficult to understand how the sound will turn out unless you hve the proper education. Subtractive synthesis is far more intuitive, in my opinion, and I think many others share that opinion. But there is at least one very good book on how to program a DX7 available for free now: "The Complete DX7." Download it, download the Yamaha information brochure for the DX7 so you can reference the top panel, and use Dexed or another VST with similar features - like the Arturia DX7 V.. Then go about learning how to program the Volca FM2 or FM. Another book on fm synthesis is "FM Theory and Applications," by John Chowning and David Bristow. If you are still complaining about the lack of features, make a list of all the features you would want on your Volca FM. Make a cardboard cutout on a 1:1 scale of the Volca FM. Now start adding all the knobs and sliders and whatever else you think should be there. When you are done, how easy do you think your physical interface will be to operate? Remember, most, not all but, most people buying a Volca FM or FM2 actually already have another Volca or two or three. They know how the form factor works already even if they have not thought much about it. And you also have another reference for comparison, another Volca. Once you design and build something like that on your own, you start to understand some of the choices manufacturers make. I am not saying do not provide feedback. Just give some consideration to the issue. There you have my rant.
1. I respect those who respect their integrity to speak honestly in this space when it comes to having a relationship with a company and their audience. Thank you for what you do. 2. I do enough detailed research in my 9-5 job figuring out how to do something. When it comes to the music space, I just want to plug in and jam. 3. I currently in GAS therapy, so no realistic need for this in my toolbox based on what I have.
They seem to put the same amount of effort into the SQ-64, which had (past tense because they seem to not give AF about it anymore) the potential to be an absolutely killer piece of gear. I guess what, $600 is the threshold then?
I don't think it is aimed at beginners. Here me out: much like TE Pocket Operators and other low price but powerful devices, these are aimed at users of synthesisers who have a bit too much spare change hanging around. Enough to shell out £120-odd just to 'have' FM synth in their set up, or just to have a volca beats. The kinda people who are like "wish I had bought a Dx7 10 years ago!"... They're trinkets to sell to people who own elektron etc as much as they are an introduction to beginners and the reason they're not a good intro is because they're actually expecting to sell more of them to people who already own all the peripherals. It's just consumerism for people with GAS.
I agree. The use case IMO is someone with a desktop setup who wants an FM synth module for live jams that they can dump patches into. The sequencer/arp and the little bit of knob tweaking you can do are bonuses. The added polyphony and reverb are good upgrades in that context.
Agree with ya on the midi thing.. Korg Milogue XD midi driver darn near killed my computer! ( I admit that I was involved quite a bit too along with my trusty ol' Windows 10 smh ) but the way Korg has their drivers setup is pretty ludicrous .. and it seems like they just release the one driver then forget about it and move on to the next product. Try to make things a little more user friendly for the beginners/new customers to keep em aboard. This Volca FM2 could be pretty amazing if not for the confusion. I'm sure they had some returns.. Gotta hire a few ppl @Korg to sort these kind of things out. I will admit the Minilogue XD sound great. The user oscillator could be less confusing also and I have yet to get it going. smh sry for the rant
"It's just a Volca, who cares?" is so spot on. So many decisions where seemingly made on this statement. E.g. the OG Sample file transfer was honestly a joke lol!
Totally! I'm so frustrated any time I borrow one of my brother's volcas. The keys is good, the bass is great, all the others come so close to being great and it's that closeness that is so frustrating. Especially the FM is exceptional on paper until you open up dexed or operator and realize FM doesn't have to suck to program or manage presets on.
@@HansyPants184 do you mean that dexed & operator actually make it easy like it should be? (I'm asking for real as I've never tried using either of them before.)
@@doctorauxiliary yeah I'm not being sarcastic. FM is pretty complex and needs way more of an interface than the volca gives to edit patches without wanting to take up smoking ha. Dexed is free and operator is Ableton's stock FM synth. I use operator for basically all of my FM stuff. Fun fact: you can use dexed to make patches for the volca FM (or dx7 if you happen to have one) but it's just so needlessly difficult to transfer them that I ended up not touching the volca again before giving it back to my brother and doing everything in the PC. YMMV and it's a still a great little synth but Jeremy really hit the nail on the head with exactly how I felt about using the volca FM.
It's easy to transfer. Choose a patch on the Volca. Right-click on a patch in Dexed and send it out your MIDI cable to the Volca. If you like it, hit SAVE on the Volca. Done!
That's my experience with the volca fm......may i suggest to korg to take all the great things from the nts-1 and incorporate this into the next volca.
Good video...thanks! I'm an old synth vet, and bought a DX-7 when they came out. But before that, I bought the DX-9 and brought it back...I didn't realize how important velocity response was to the FM sound. When I found out the Volca FM2 had velocity AND six voices, I ordered it straight away. The reverb is also a nice touch! Adding that FM sound to my mostly analog setup will be very useful indeed. And my space is limited, so I dig the small size...mostly. That said, I do have a Volca Drum, but it was the only Volca that appealed to me. It's capable of some amazing stuff, and I run it alongside my Roland TR-6S. But the form factor does irritate me at times...especially those jumpy knobs. But for the money, it's worth it's weight in gold. And it's FUN. I'm excited to add the FM2 to my growing arsenal of sound-making tools...even with the crap you mentioned. (Power supplies and MIDI adapters don't take away from the experience for me.) Hell... I never figured out programming the DX-7 way back then, so I'm expecting nothing more than that anyway. Except now, I'm paying $160.00 instead of $2000.00. Sounds great to me!
I just got into this hobby and totally agree with midi over usb and I would go further than that and say all modern synths need audio over usb as well, it super frustrating to manage all the extra cables and a mixer not to mention multitrack recording and the cost of all of these extra stuff. Usb should be able to provide power as well unless it's an ancient design.
oh snap! i love when successful youtubespeople do some shots fired, non ass kissing critiques! youtubeworld is too nice! i agree with the critiques, but also that the FM2 is an amazing mindblowing goldmine for $170 if you’re *not* a beginner and can use dexed and synthmata and have a little time to put in to learn how to get patches on there etc. I got the first FM when I didn’t know what I was doing, and sure it was annoying, but I learned a good amount and figured it out and it was worth it. This is 2x worth it with the reverb and 6 voices!
I have felt this about most of the Volcas. The NTS, I had found to be pretty well thought out for a cheap synth. I guess there is sacrifices for the sequencer.
Oh, Korg, you beautiful mess. I have the same sort of feeling about the SQ-64. The UI is frustrating, the USB MIDI implementation is crap, lacking simple features that I think they should have included (NOTE TIES!), the manual is hot garbage, and it didn't even support all the features it was advertised with upon release! (Had to wait a year for the editor app to come out to let you remap the buttons for controller mode). All that being said, I'm still really enjoying the SQ-64, I still
Yeah, that has a traditional manual but it's just as garbage as the fold out ones in terms of content. So disappointing because it has so much potential. I still use it as well for certain things, hoping that one day they will bring it up to par. But I seriously have my doubts.
Honesty is appreciated. I bought one of the first generation Volca FMs, and as much as I loved how it sounded, I just couldn't get past how much of a headache editing on it is. I'd rather just use Dexed if it's not going to have a fun, easy interface. I'd love to get an Opsix but I just don't have the space for it, and I wish Korg had done something even a little bigger for the FM2, with a better interface. Like you said, even good companies fuck up sometimes. It's refreshing to know you're honest about it rather than trying to gloss over the cons.
Please drop a hint to Korg that we would buy modules for the OpSix, Wavestate and Modwave. We know they can do it since they made one for the Minilogue.
The best and honest opinion of the product. Quite simply a great product packaged miserably just taking the customer for granted. Korg has to get their act correct. Imagine buying and a product and not being able to use it. Learning fromApple. Buy the Mac air and run for accessories just to get your act going. Maybe the carona virus has affected their thinking. 😜 Quite a shame 😭
Appreciate the video and especially critisizing the process of sending sysex data to the device. It should be done via usb and software editor or even wirelessly via mobile device
How dare you slander the almighty MIDI gods! USB MIDI would be lovely if it weren’t so prone to noise. Maybe that’s just my 90’s technology based studio giving me guff. I’ve had to move things around recently and go DIN. Here’s hoping for MIDI2 soon! I’m choosing to think of this like a modern TX module that’s battery powered. I’m a big stoopid Korg fanboi who loves the Volca series, but I can’t help but agree with your assessments. I kinda want one just to see how terrible it is to program just on its UI. Sounds like FM programming purgatory. Might make me appreciate my SY77s UI more lol.
Personally, I’d prefer having 5 pin din MIDI but I’m okay with TRS as a compromise on a small device and to make it cheaper. Only AFTER that would I also want USB MIDI. Now if it also had USB host, I’d be fine without TRS or 5 pin MIDI I suppose, but that would cost even more, so I totally understand the choice they made. I get what you are saying about a newbie buying it and not knowing what to do but I’m not sure if newbies are buying these. Most who I know who like these are synth nuts. 🤷🏼♂️ I could be wrong though. 😬
Mega FM is a great synth,IMO, a bit more pricey than the Volca FM 2 tough.Soft synts, FM 8 or Operator will do the job, you can get amazing tones out of it if you take the time to learn FM synthesis.If you take the time to learn FM it really doesn’t matter what tool you’ll use, but it will be worth it.
The FM2 is my favorite volca. I didn’t find it nearly as frustrating to deal with as is presented in this video, but your mileage my vary. The MIDI CC chart is available as a separate download. There is also a guide to understanding DX7/FM2 programming from Korg that you should get, if you need it. I agree the primary volca doc format sucks.
Jeremy I usually enjoy watching your videos, but have to say I'm a bit bemused by your critique about it not being for beginners because there were no 5pin midi adapters included: in 2022 if you are a beginner, chances are you have a midi controller like the a launchkey mini mk3 which uses a trs midi socket or a korg electribe 2 which has a trs midi socket or a korg nts-1 which has trs socket, etc. Sure there is still other gear that doesn't use trs midi, so much *modern* lower-end gear does that even "beginners" would already have trs-din midi adapters.
I too am bemused. It's not like you can please everybody. Some want USB, some want DIN, some want minijack (A or B... sheesh!). Expecting a device retailing for under 200 clams to do everything is ridiculous.
Really appreciate the honesty and can totally see where you're coming from. I even ended up finally splurging on the Digitakt after watching all your videos. That being said, as someone that has been collecting synths for years, but doesn't want to spend $$$, this still seems like a home run to me. I bought the keys when it came out BECAUSE it had the Univox K1 filter, even if it's a very limiting, sometimes badly designed machine for professional use. Volcas are great because if they're used right, they offer you very expensive sounds for next to nothing. Getting a 6 op synth for this price nowadays is unheard of, and even if the Dx7 were still cheap, I still found the original Volca FM to be miles more fun to play with. There may be UI problems with this one, but it's worth jumping through the hoops for the price.
Haven't Korg manuals always been shite? NO CC LIST? They must really have budget at their highest priority. They should've at least made a fold-out poster with a colored infographic to replace what you showed. I hope they see your criticism as valuable information for the future because it just seems like common sense. And ffs, it'd be nice to see them value customer satisfaction over budget. They could've charged extra if they nailed the experience and I don't think there'd be complaints.
I'm sorry, your argument is that the hardware synthesizer should be only... computer controllable? For the piece of hardware that plays DX7 patches. That thing that you can get a free VST host to run a free plugin to play.
The candor, honesty, and humor is what we have come to expect from you, Jeremy. Reminds me of the Push video where you are open about the initial challenges. How have you been incorporating the Push into your setup?
I watched loopops video and it was top quality as usual, but it struck me that most of it seemed to be a dexed tutorial (which ive already loved for years), and the device interface looked - to put it mildly - obscure, even to someone who's been using that exact synthesis algorithm for years. So your frustrations aren't all that surprising.
All very valid arguments towards the entire Volca line in general, and that’s coming from someone who has owned at least 6 different ones (but only owns the Modular currently)… those manuals are terrible.
I loved my OG volca fm , but this is too late to the party, I’m already on VSTs and I have my machine for FM8 , I’m waiting and hoping for an FM for the MPC one , the synths they offer are shit , I can make my own using the sampler engine much better , the electric piano is the only one I think sounds good , the Mellotron sounds like shit and I’d rather make my own
You should check out the Volca Modular and Volca Drum. Those get the balance between complexity and depth right. I never understood the popularity of the FM because it is, as you said, essentially a box for Dexed presets.
![[TH] FS vs BME - VCT Ascension Pacific - Lower Bracket Final](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/wnygqsR2Fig/mqdefault.jpg)
I absolutely LOVE that you talked about the FM 2 with beginners in mind. I actually purchased an original Volca FM right before starting my channel, when I was a complete newcomer to electronic music, and returned it the next day, due to most of the reasons you mentioned. While I'm sure other channels have covered the issues before, I don't think that any of them have the pull that you do. I truly appreciate your words Jeremy!
what would you recommend instead? i love the sounds you can make with fm synthesis, want something i can just pull out with knobs and want buttons (instead of dexed) to get me there.
@@illegalgiant_ I think the usual FM synth recommendations often include the Digitone (which includes a sequencer many people enjoy) and the Opsix for more in depth FM synthesis.
I'd recommend the Opsix if you're looking for straight FM and not so much a groovebox type of device. They're both great tho.
@@illegalgiant_ try the yamaha reface dx instead. so much more accessible than the volca.
@@illegalgiant_ Elektron Model:Cycles seems like a good beginner fm groovebox, I have the Model:Samples and it's great.
@@janissaryJames I second this. There are plenty of amazing presets that TH-camrs and other reface users have shared online, all available to download and install
I appreciate this video and your content very much. From honest reviews to teaching synthesis, youre great! I woke up this morning to every TH-camr making a video on this thing. It's great to hear your opinions and I hope korg listens
The FM2 is the first synth i ever purchased. Totally confused by it but intrigued by the sounds. I rely on diving through the algorithms to find cool sounds. Maybe I don't even know what the purpose of the unit is? Wildly frustrated by the midi tho. I ended up having to order 2 different adapters till i got it right.
I'm a big fan of FM, my first synth was an FM synth and one thing I knew before getting into it is that they can be a pain to program (the DX7 being a very famous example). I went for the Yamaha Reface DX which I think does a great job of making the parameter tweaking a lot more accessible (haven't looked too much into the OPSIX, but it looks to be an even better option in that regard, but for twice the price).
If I was going to be using one of these, it'd likely end up being just a preset player for patches I've made in Dexed. Which seems like a bit of a solution in search of a problem.
Your honesty is a huge reason why I watch your channel, just sayin’
Synth guy who doesn't like adapters, allrighty. As a beginner, if you can't figure this out, maybe hardware synths aren't for you. Get a MacBook. A freaking 6 voice fm synth in a tiny box that can be battery powered, and all you have to do is figure out how to hook up a midi keyboard of your size and quality choice and power the damn thing...
Great, frank video. I only have two minor things to bring up other than appreciative agreement:
1. MIDI over USB is nice but I can't say it's always worked that well for me, and it especially complicates trying to control/combine gear without using a computer. Plus it seems like an increasing recipe for manufacturers to de-standardize, which they'll take seemingly any opportunity to do (as the minijack MIDI implementations show). Admittedly starts to be a bit more reasonable of a tradeoff with tiny instruments like the Volcas, but having full-size standard MIDI on instruments is really nice for establishing and keeping up a baseline of interoperability.
2. Am I wrong or did you mention Dexed but not mention that it's quite easy to just send the patches or full carts to the Volca FM via it? At least that's certainly what I've done with my Volca FM 1, whose default patches were mostly unusable. It's as simple as a few button presses, although at least for me it was really NOT obvious (right-clicking on patches in the loading interface and choosing "send to DX7"). Of course getting Dexed set up in a DAW is a very non-zero bar to clear before being able to copy presets onto the device, and there's more than a little irony of having to use an FM synth program running on a computer to put anything onto one's ostensibly-standalone physical FM synth! So your overall points on the matter definitely still stand.
I appreciate that you were honest about it's shortcomings, a lot of people's reviews are just commercials
I remember when the first volca fm came out, and some people were saying “it’s fm but easy to use”, so I bought it thinking it would be cool to learn fm. It was actually incredibly difficult and, between the cryptic screen that does not display Latin characters and the tiny knobs and data slider that skipped values straight out of the box, I ended up not wanting to learn anymore. About a year later my interest in fm had resurfaced and i bought a vintage DX7. Guess what? It was easier to understand than the volca, and I grew to enjoy programming it rather quickly. That was five years ago. I still have my DX7. Don’t remember what happened to the volca.
Hm, I feel like most people who said it was easier probably used a dx7 first and then got a volca? Maybe going the other way around gave you just a little more experience and maybe that, not which synth you're using, is what makes the next FM synth you use seem easier? Just an interesting question to me in terms of how we learn things.
Most of this is all perspective. My perspective is a beginner doesn’t even know what a DX7 is and isn’t looking to start out on a FM synthesizer. Most people who buy Roland boutiques and these small Korg synthesizers have a specific itch they are trying to scratch. I think most people who are looking at this unit know what this is supposed to be and should be capable of figuring this out power and MIDI connections.
Totally agree. I had one of these as a beginner and some other Volcas. I just didn't have the time to make my own patches. I tried a couple of times and made whistles. I used Synthmata too, but just couldn't get to the cool tones I know it can make. I do love FM though and have gone to software for it for now. I do want either a Digitone or Opsix (Or maybe an Akemies Castle??) but the UX has to be right, I can't spend an hour making something without good payoff. Nothing wrong with an honest review, a lot of demo guys tend to gloss over a devices limitations. Btw, other Volcas were great for a beginner, I loved the Sample and the Bass in particular.
Go OpSix and be able to use the extensive library of Free DX7 patches and much easier Patch editing abilities or the PreenFM2/3 , Digitone is only a 4 operator FM Synth but fabulous sequencer but for same $$$ I’d get a Digitakt instead for 16 tracks and just use the FREE Dexed VST for FM to save on $$
PreenFM2 is $199 but you’ll be waiting for it to arrive from Former Soviet Union
@@Madmohawkfilms thanks for the heads up, ive never heard of the Preen FM2, I will check it out. I have the Digitakt already, so the Digitone is appealing, plus ive seen enough demos - especially Jeremy's! - to get that it has a lot of sweet spots. Opsix, dont know, Im lacking real estate!
@@MrBenski my pleasure I know the feeling, apartments in Brooklyn don’t get bigger the more gear I want to stuff in it :) PreenFM2 made more sense for me than the Reface DX from Yamaha tho been looking at Workstation Keyboards recently :)
Appreciate the honesty, but I have to say I disagree completely. The volca fm IS a synth for beginners, or at least for musicians who don't care about sound designing and just want to be able to quickly and meaningfully tweak preset sounds. The simplification that it brings to the table is just amazing. Carrier Attack + Decay + Modulator Attack + Decay are four magic buttons that I have not seen on any other FM synthesizer and give the user so much power over the sound. I would definitely recommend the volca fm 1, even despite the 3 voice limitation, because it sounds so unique, and is so easy to modulate, compared to a "regular" FM synth.
Congrats to KORG. I think the volca fm is amazing. Will most probably buy the rev2.
I owned a DX7 and had to program it from the front panel. No, deep FM synthesis is not for beginners.. or wusses that can't do anything without using a computer. If you can't tell your carriers from your modulators jn an algorithm, send it back to Korg and get a Casio! :P :P
great review, however....
MIDI 5 pin will live forever, and it should. MID over USB is frustrating as hell if you want to be dawless.
Really glad you took the time to make this video the way you did. Not saying I agree or disagree, it's just that so many music channels just promote the pros of a device and push aside the cons. I think what you did is so important for the developers to hear. It also allows your audience to get a clearer picture of what you do and don't value in a music device. Over time this lets us make more informed decisions, and I really appreciate your honesty in this one. Nice work dude!
I own the opsix, and I remember looking at the volca fm 1 and thinking, "how would anyone ever use that???"
disappointing to see that they updated it without updating ... any of the patch editing whatsoever, but thanks for your transparency :)
well for the price of it, i deleted all patches and use it a nice fm bass machine. the bass patches i made dont really need too much editing as i use the silder and carrier/modulator decay knobs for most of the performance. is the FM2 live editable with the modified yamaha sysex commands like with pajen firmware?
Apparently you can connect the volca FM2 midi out to a Makenoise 0-Coast using a TRS minijack cable. Which seems pretty cool.
I have the original Volca FM and I'm thinking to get the FM2 and sell the first one. For me the only major limitation of the FM1 is 3 note polyphony. As for making my own sound, not too interested. DX7 has 1000s of patches made, and you can find them everywhere.
As far as loading patches, I use Commodore Amiga with a Sysex program and MIDI interface. Works great!
agree with you on the OPsix comparison and the frustrations of programming it. I enjoy the randomizer but totally wouldn't try and edit a sound on it. But like you say, at 170 bucks its hard to beat sound wise
hard to bo beat it sound wise, imo
Liven XFM beats it hands down when it comes to diving into messing about with FM and editing patches. The Volca sounds way better though
I hate those fold out manuals. What is up with that? Roland does that crap all the time. I just cannot read that stuff. It reminds me of the junk I put together for my kids. If you want to find yourself in absolute frustration, put together children's equipment.
I enjoy the honesty. DEXED is awesome, never was personally into the volca series... and I'm sure the OPsix is cool, but I recall watching some videos thinking it didn't seem to really do FM the way my brain works... so I'm over here with my SY77. Partly, the SY77 (and 99) seem like the Jupiter 8's of the FM world. I just love how the synth feels, the keys are amazing... I'm sure people would say the DX1 is the Jupiter 8, but I think the DX1 is more like the CS80 of the FM world. Anyway, obvious side rant... I love the SY77 and it's still probably one of the top 5 synths I have ever come across. Yeah - editing is kinda odd, but I'll take that over something that has a mediocre build quality but easier UI.
Eh, I gotta disagree to a certain extent. When I first got into synths, I got a volca beats, and a bastl kastle, along with some cheap keyboards from thrift shops. And I got months and months of love out that setup, without ever using midi. Beginners don't really need that, but the availability of having it gave me something to work up to, leading to me going deeper down the rabbit hole.
Just my experience, but not giving folks a midi adaptor doesn't write this device off for me, it's a stand-alone piece of hardware. BUT I do agree the things gotta come with a power cord god damn.
yeah I’ve got a volca drum and an nts-1 and for what they are I’ve had a lot of fun, just that the volca fm in particular has a pretty lame ux that spoils the whole thing. volca itself is fine, but fm demands more ux real estate, imo.
Especially when the adapter is propietary and costs around 1/4~1/5th of the device itself. I put in new batteries in my Volca drum and they were already low after 4 sessions...
It seems like Korg really wanted to cap both the beginner and experienced market and managed to miss both. But I’m still getting one because my biggest gripe with the MKI was the 3 voice polyphony. Idgaf about patches cause my favorite way to do sound design is to take pre-existing sounds and chain effect pedals and SP 404 effects so that won’t be a problem for me.
Thank you for being real with us. Totally agree, looks like ass to actually program which takes me out of the music creation process.
After listening to all the cons, I think you are right. Many of these things can be improved and should be. There are workarounds for some of the issues, but in 2022 they shouldn’t be needed.
@ghost mall what you said!
I totally disagree, I'm ex-DX7 owner and love this thing. I find it easy to tweak the excellent built in presets, if you really wanna go deep just use Dexed or another DX7 softsynth.
This thing is fun af and sounds really great!
To be honest, this is how I feel about all of the Volcas. I had three (the original FM, Sample, and Bass) and sold them because it became cumbersome working around their limitations.
For the FM, I used Dexed to handle any patching that needed done, and used an RK-002 Smart MIDI Cable from Rektrokits for velocity and MIDI CC mapping. Sometime after I sold them, Pajen created an unofficial firmware for it for sending Sysex from Dexed to it. For the Sample, I again used the RK-002 to add single MIDI channel sample triggering, velocity, polyphonic play capabilities , etc. to my Keystep. Sadly there's no getting around its 4mb sample memory (?!) and it made you transfer sounds by playing a screeching digital noise to it via your phone or computer, which had to be just the right volume level or it would result in an error. Oddly enough, the Pocket Operators PO-32 and PO-33 use similar tech, but I've had a much higher success rate with it. The Volca Bass had the least wrong with it, I just couldn't jive with the sound. I think it made better patches for keys than bass patches.
I also had a MyVolts 5-way Volca power splitter so I could stop using three outlets for power OR devoting 18 AA batteries to the three of them. It was my first jump from years of VSTs to analog and almost made me write off analog completely.
Jeremy. I couldn’t agree more. FM and sample were my first synths and were immediately frustrating for a beginner. Not to mention the “modem” style sample upload tool for the sample.
I love Korg but Elektron and Roland get it better.
Korg, I love you... Please, no... Ouch, NO, OUCH, Please don't hit me again, Noooooooo, Pleaaaaaaaase... Ouch....
As a beginner, FM is hard to wrap my head around. Love the sound, but it can get weird REALLY quick and it’s hard to recover. I really like the Digitone because they made it so approachable. Thanks for talking through the usability of this. I agree that the Volca line is “My first ” and that seems to not be the case here. I always appreciate the humor and honesty.
If Korg won’t marry you, I heard that Elektron was single again.
Yo... All of your grievances I agree ONE HUNDRED PERCENT! I have the original and could not believe some decisions they made. No usb??? You want me to program on that little ass lcd screen with all the abbreviations?? What is this a test?? Lol. You hit the nail on the head
I would’ve preferred to keep the single midi in 5 din, instead of the 3.5mm midi in/out 😢. I have the first Volca and it works well as a utility synth. Plug in a midi cable and use it as an extra voice, or just have it arp, or play bass. Adding the 3.5mm and then having to grab another cable just kills the work flow, this is why I never use my NTS-1.
I have the original volca FM and I love it, it’s the perfect synth module to bring to small gigs for various reason. I’m very tempted to get the new one because it is so much more powerful. Also even though it takes a while to dial in, I wouldn’t say programming it is hard exactly. I would agree it’s definitely not for beginners though
The only thing I agree with on this video is fold out manuals suck. - sorry Jeremy (❤U) but music in the bag OTG at a cheap price is volca, some of us are peasants without freebies from korg.
Love my volca FM v1 - and I own a Digitone!
Peace ✌
i disagree: i feel you, i understand that you went through some nerve-wrecking trouble with this thing, but the argument doesn't make sense at all to me: a real beginner wouldn't try and bother to hook the volca fm to their ableton push over MIDI and edit patches over some 300$ 3rd-party-programs. they'd be sitting on their couch with a completely functional in-the-box keyboard on their battery-powered little power-synth, headphones hooked up and ready to having some fun with the randomization function. so the causal chain of arguments in this video does not add up at all here. as you say - you are the seasoned professional, and you're trying to treat this "beginner-synth" with the same level of detail you're used to in your own workflow, but that is indeed a very professional approach. i love you bro, your shit is dope, but this video - i'd delete it..
A lot of the (non FM related) complaints you have here are common across all the volcas. I can't speak to the FM stuff, I don't own a volca FM or have access to a FM 2. But I do own a volca sample 2 and a drum. Even before buying the drum (my first volca) I was aware of oscillator syncs synthmata editor for it. Being a web programmer myself I thought it sounded cool and useful. But despite owning all the required cables and trying it once, I don't use it. To me the volcas I have are great when I pick them up and play with them on the couch with headphones on. Learning all the functions hidden in them is fun.
My point is, I think you're approaching volcas from a direction they weren't created for. That's why you're frustrated with it.
What if I just want to play the sounds with the ability to mess with them a bit if I want?
I might want to just play it, without learning something I'm not interested in learning. I thought that was reasonably typical of the volcas target market.
Seems like this achieves that.
Simply put, I hate the volca and boutique stuff, for me the size is a joke and interaction painful. Never again.
The compromises are way beyond acceptable for me.
You missed the point of this device and produced a misleading review. Nowhere did Korg say this was a synth for beginners. (Neither did they market the original Volca FM that way.) It's a synth for devotees. So your criticisms about needing a MIDI adapter and power adapter are pretty strange. For the original FM you needed a MIDI DIN cable... also something an absolute beginner would not have. Is that worthy of critique? Um, no. Beginners must learn beginner stuff. Getting cables is pretty basic, right?
Should everything be USB? No. I bought the (original) FM to work with other synth hardware. USB is irrelevant to that task. Would it be nice if the Volca also had USB MIDI and power? Sure. But it was built to a (very low) price point. I don't expect it to have every feature. You may as well complain that it doesn't have CV out.
Of course the Korg OPSIX is more capable: it's very much larger and THREE TIMES the price. Korg makes both devices, so that we consumers have a choice. Yet you think their attitude is "It's just a Volca who cares?" At that point you're trolling for views with extreme comments. (As for "existential crisis", I somehow doubt you are about to die simply because you found a synth you don't like. Yes, your clickbait worked on me, for shame. I have learned my lesson.)
You say that it's "really, really" difficult to get patches into the Volca FM. Simply untrue! All you do is right-click on a Dexed patch and send it across MIDI! It could only be easier if the Korg came with a magic wand.
Once on the Volca, the simplified parameter interface makes modifying a sound in performance a breeze. Sure the deep editing is a PITA. Perhaps they shouldn't even have included this feature. But it's a testament to their attitude that they did. Just as their intentions are clear with the labelled mod points on the circuit board. "You want to hack this... we bestow our blessings. You want to use this as a tiny FM preset player with handy performance features? Go ahead. You want a keyboard and full interface? Buy the OpSix."
Wrestling with sysex should be required hazing for n00bs. I had to endure this trauma and it didn't do me any harm, 'cept wanting to repeat the cycle of abuse.
While I agree with things you say ie no midi adaptors and crap manual I think you have high expectations for a cheap entry point synth made at a very reasonable price .....buy the opsix instead and dont complain :)
I'm such a big fan of your down-to-earth honesty RMR. Seen a few vids of it and yeah, it sounds good but that kinda seems like that's it.
The original Volca FM was one of the first bits of synth gear I ever owned, had it for a couple of months, until I acquired the Reface DX. I realised that the Volca was just a harder-to-use version of that (comparing the keybeds is unfair, but the Reface had much better MIDI sequencing, onboard effects and sound design controls). It actually put me off the entire Volca line, oop.
Great vid as always. I'm sure Korg still loves u.
I don't aggree. In fact I sold my opsix and bought fm2. Who cares about the midi adapter or power that you can buy yourself. Korg editor? when you have dexed... For me the volca fm2 is a Jewell, smallest size FM power
Midi doesn't require a computer to be able to play your instruments. I'm immediately uninterested in your opinion if you think usb midi is better in any way.
Skip to 3:02 to actually see why it caused Jeremy to have an existential crisis.
While I appreciate real MIDI even though 1/8" jacks, I think it's a weird step backwards that the Sample2 had USB and the FM2 does not.
MIDI-OX is still the best (and free) way for Windows PCs to send SysEx files to MIDI devices.
Midi over USB requires a PC no? I cant plug My Arturia keylab essential into My Peak desk top Sythersizor via USB?
LOL at "I don't have time for that". I just got the first volca fm, use it kinda as a preset player alongside my circuits. Might have to trade for the new one just for the added polyphony and effects.
Hate USB midi. Just means more money to eliminate noise and make your live gigs worry-free. I am that minority who will always want 5 pin.
You got to admit, it's still a great deal if you like FM sounds. They just doubled the polyphony, added reverb, added midi out, and only raised the street price about $20 and that is really amazing. If they had changed much more on the hardware side it would probably have gone up in price a lot more and its true you can't please everyone. I think FM synthesis is complicated and therefore any menu is going to be a problem. Even Synthmata or Dexed is a bit overwhelming. I don't like menu diving but really don't think the Volca FM is all that hard to navigate. Digitone did a great job, I might be misusing the term, but it feels more like your are editing with macros that were finely calibrated and thoughtfully programmed, as it always seems that it's harder to find sounds outside the sweetspot than within when using the Digitone. I'm sure it would still not be welcomed by everyone but I sort of wish they had broken away from the Volca FM2 being a DX7 compatible synth. Clone it's sound but a refresh on how to program it would have been very welcome even if it meant losing patch compatibility. We know Korg can do this because the opsix proves it and if someone, Korg, released a software editor then patch compatibility would not even matter to like 95% of the users because you could just recreate them.
Korg has a software editor directly on their web page. Besides this, Dexed is free and works perfectly. The "problems" mentioned in this video simply don't exist.
There is a lot said in this video with which I agree. I agree that they could have added USB MIDI. And most companies are writing manuals that are horrible to read and not particularly useful in learning how to use the instrument.
But look at the reality of the situation. You have the Volca form factor. It is small and does not have every feature they might be able to add. That is how they make it affordable.
Once you figure out how to send DX7 patches to the FM using Dexed, it becomes quite easy. And there is your editor, Dexed.
FM synthesis is not easy to use to start with. It sounds easy to understand but the ramifications of modulating carriers and modulating modulators at the same time makes it difficult to understand how the sound will turn out unless you hve the proper education. Subtractive synthesis is far more intuitive, in my opinion, and I think many others share that opinion.
But there is at least one very good book on how to program a DX7 available for free now: "The Complete DX7." Download it, download the Yamaha information brochure for the DX7 so you can reference the top panel, and use Dexed or another VST with similar features - like the Arturia DX7 V.. Then go about learning how to program the Volca FM2 or FM. Another book on fm synthesis is "FM Theory and Applications," by John Chowning and David Bristow.
If you are still complaining about the lack of features, make a list of all the features you would want on your Volca FM. Make a cardboard cutout on a 1:1 scale of the Volca FM. Now start adding all the knobs and sliders and whatever else you think should be there. When you are done, how easy do you think your physical interface will be to operate?
Remember, most, not all but, most people buying a Volca FM or FM2 actually already have another Volca or two or three. They know how the form factor works already even if they have not thought much about it. And you also have another reference for comparison, another Volca.
Once you design and build something like that on your own, you start to understand some of the choices manufacturers make. I am not saying do not provide feedback. Just give some consideration to the issue.
There you have my rant.
Was watching till your take on midi, then I laughed and left.
1. I respect those who respect their integrity to speak honestly in this space when it comes to having a relationship with a company and their audience. Thank you for what you do.
2. I do enough detailed research in my 9-5 job figuring out how to do something. When it comes to the music space, I just want to plug in and jam.
3. I currently in GAS therapy, so no realistic need for this in my toolbox based on what I have.
They seem to put the same amount of effort into the SQ-64, which had (past tense because they seem to not give AF about it anymore) the potential to be an absolutely killer piece of gear. I guess what, $600 is the threshold then?
Jeremy for President.
I don't think it is aimed at beginners. Here me out: much like TE Pocket Operators and other low price but powerful devices, these are aimed at users of synthesisers who have a bit too much spare change hanging around. Enough to shell out £120-odd just to 'have' FM synth in their set up, or just to have a volca beats. The kinda people who are like "wish I had bought a Dx7 10 years ago!"... They're trinkets to sell to people who own elektron etc as much as they are an introduction to beginners and the reason they're not a good intro is because they're actually expecting to sell more of them to people who already own all the peripherals. It's just consumerism for people with GAS.
I agree. The use case IMO is someone with a desktop setup who wants an FM synth module for live jams that they can dump patches into. The sequencer/arp and the little bit of knob tweaking you can do are bonuses. The added polyphony and reverb are good upgrades in that context.
Nice shirt 😏😏😏
came here to say that. 😊
If you have an iPad, a USB MIDI host, and Patch Base, editing and saving patches is perfect.
Agree with ya on the midi thing.. Korg Milogue XD midi driver darn near killed my computer! ( I admit that I was involved quite a bit too along with my trusty ol' Windows 10 smh ) but the way Korg has their drivers setup is pretty ludicrous .. and it seems like they just release the one driver then forget about it and move on to the next product. Try to make things a little more user friendly for the beginners/new customers to keep em aboard. This Volca FM2 could be pretty amazing if not for the confusion. I'm sure they had some returns.. Gotta hire a few ppl @Korg to sort these kind of things out. I will admit the Minilogue XD sound great. The user oscillator could be less confusing also and I have yet to get it going. smh sry for the rant
The real question here is .. what is that delicious looking dark beer in the background!??!?!?
Coffee
"It's just a Volca, who cares?" is so spot on. So many decisions where seemingly made on this statement. E.g. the OG Sample file transfer was honestly a joke lol!
Totally! I'm so frustrated any time I borrow one of my brother's volcas. The keys is good, the bass is great, all the others come so close to being great and it's that closeness that is so frustrating. Especially the FM is exceptional on paper until you open up dexed or operator and realize FM doesn't have to suck to program or manage presets on.
@@HansyPants184 do you mean that dexed & operator actually make it easy like it should be? (I'm asking for real as I've never tried using either of them before.)
@@doctorauxiliary yeah I'm not being sarcastic. FM is pretty complex and needs way more of an interface than the volca gives to edit patches without wanting to take up smoking ha. Dexed is free and operator is Ableton's stock FM synth. I use operator for basically all of my FM stuff. Fun fact: you can use dexed to make patches for the volca FM (or dx7 if you happen to have one) but it's just so needlessly difficult to transfer them that I ended up not touching the volca again before giving it back to my brother and doing everything in the PC. YMMV and it's a still a great little synth but Jeremy really hit the nail on the head with exactly how I felt about using the volca FM.
It's easy to transfer. Choose a patch on the Volca. Right-click on a patch in Dexed and send it out your MIDI cable to the Volca. If you like it, hit SAVE on the Volca. Done!
@@RobinParmar I'll have to borrow it again to try this. I had no idea it was that easy!
Thanks for being honest! Probably a lot of hard-earned dolares goes unspent (or better spent) thanks to you.
That's my experience with the volca fm......may i suggest to korg to take all the great things from the nts-1 and incorporate this into the next volca.
Good video...thanks!
I'm an old synth vet, and bought a DX-7 when they came out. But before that, I bought the DX-9 and brought it back...I didn't realize how important velocity response was to the FM sound. When I found out the Volca FM2 had velocity AND six voices, I ordered it straight away. The reverb is also a nice touch! Adding that FM sound to my mostly analog setup will be very useful indeed. And my space is limited, so I dig the small size...mostly.
That said, I do have a Volca Drum, but it was the only Volca that appealed to me. It's capable of some amazing stuff, and I run it alongside my Roland TR-6S. But the form factor does irritate me at times...especially those jumpy knobs. But for the money, it's worth it's weight in gold. And it's FUN.
I'm excited to add the FM2 to my growing arsenal of sound-making tools...even with the crap you mentioned. (Power supplies and MIDI adapters don't take away from the experience for me.) Hell... I never figured out programming the DX-7 way back then, so I'm expecting nothing more than that anyway. Except now, I'm paying $160.00 instead of $2000.00. Sounds great to me!
I love the green LEDs 🤤
I just got into this hobby and totally agree with midi over usb and I would go further than that and say all modern synths need audio over usb as well, it super frustrating to manage all the extra cables and a mixer not to mention multitrack recording and the cost of all of these extra stuff. Usb should be able to provide power as well unless it's an ancient design.
oh snap! i love when successful youtubespeople do some shots fired, non ass kissing critiques! youtubeworld is too nice! i agree with the critiques, but also that the FM2 is an amazing mindblowing goldmine for $170 if you’re *not* a beginner and can use dexed and synthmata and have a little time to put in to learn how to get patches on there etc. I got the first FM when I didn’t know what I was doing, and sure it was annoying, but I learned a good amount and figured it out and it was worth it. This is 2x worth it with the reverb and 6 voices!
Where can i buy it?, I can´t find it.
So give it to me, I do want to investigate it!
mine game with batterys?
I have felt this about most of the Volcas. The NTS, I had found to be pretty well thought out for a cheap synth. I guess there is sacrifices for the sequencer.
Why get rid of MIDI?
Oh, Korg, you beautiful mess. I have the same sort of feeling about the SQ-64. The UI is frustrating, the USB MIDI implementation is crap, lacking simple features that I think they should have included (NOTE TIES!), the manual is hot garbage, and it didn't even support all the features it was advertised with upon release! (Had to wait a year for the editor app to come out to let you remap the buttons for controller mode). All that being said, I'm still really enjoying the SQ-64, I still
Yeah, that has a traditional manual but it's just as garbage as the fold out ones in terms of content. So disappointing because it has so much potential. I still use it as well for certain things, hoping that one day they will bring it up to par. But I seriously have my doubts.
Honesty is appreciated. I bought one of the first generation Volca FMs, and as much as I loved how it sounded, I just couldn't get past how much of a headache editing on it is. I'd rather just use Dexed if it's not going to have a fun, easy interface. I'd love to get an Opsix but I just don't have the space for it, and I wish Korg had done something even a little bigger for the FM2, with a better interface.
Like you said, even good companies fuck up sometimes. It's refreshing to know you're honest about it rather than trying to gloss over the cons.
Please drop a hint to Korg that we would buy modules for the OpSix, Wavestate and Modwave. We know they can do it since they made one for the Minilogue.
PLEASE. I don't have the space for keyboard versions of every single synth
God seriously
The best and honest opinion of the product. Quite simply a great product packaged miserably just taking the customer for granted.
Korg has to get their act correct.
Imagine buying and a product and not being able to use it.
Learning fromApple. Buy the Mac air and run for accessories just to get your act going.
Maybe the carona virus has affected their thinking. 😜
Quite a shame 😭
This will rank with “19th Nervous Breakdown” as one of the greatest titles of all time!
Excellent take on it. You and Loopop always have my respect for saying things as they are and not kissing ass. And still making products sexy as fuck.
Any alternatives? I love FM sound, already have Volca Keys and wanted to buy this one to use them together. But I am a newbie in music.
Opsix is amazing. So is digitone
@@RedMeansRecording I meant in the same price range :)
Appreciate the video and especially critisizing the process of sending sysex data to the device. It should be done via usb and software editor or even wirelessly via mobile device
MIDI over USB is cool but seems to run the risk of creating ground noise if you record back into the computer that outputs the MIDI...
How dare you slander the almighty MIDI gods! USB MIDI would be lovely if it weren’t so prone to noise. Maybe that’s just my 90’s technology based studio giving me guff. I’ve had to move things around recently and go DIN.
Here’s hoping for MIDI2 soon!
I’m choosing to think of this like a modern TX module that’s battery powered. I’m a big stoopid Korg fanboi who loves the Volca series, but I can’t help but agree with your assessments.
I kinda want one just to see how terrible it is to program just on its UI. Sounds like FM programming purgatory. Might make me appreciate my SY77s UI more lol.
Good you are Honest
Loving the Winterbloom shirt! I wear mine all the time.
Personally, I’d prefer having 5 pin din MIDI but I’m okay with TRS as a compromise on a small device and to make it cheaper. Only AFTER that would I also want USB MIDI. Now if it also had USB host, I’d be fine without TRS or 5 pin MIDI I suppose, but that would cost even more, so I totally understand the choice they made. I get what you are saying about a newbie buying it and not knowing what to do but I’m not sure if newbies are buying these. Most who I know who like these are synth nuts. 🤷🏼♂️ I could be wrong though. 😬
thx for the heads up, I would have missed the update. I tend to never program mine directly so much as load patches via dexed.
Pajen did great work with OG FM that is comp with Dexed and velocity on keys. Midi CC are also extended.
Mega FM is a great synth,IMO, a bit more pricey than the Volca FM 2 tough.Soft synts, FM 8 or Operator will do the job, you can get amazing tones out of it if you take the time to learn FM synthesis.If you take the time to learn FM it really doesn’t matter what tool you’ll use, but it will be worth it.
The FM2 is my favorite volca. I didn’t find it nearly as frustrating to deal with as is presented in this video, but your mileage my vary. The MIDI CC chart is available as a separate download. There is also a guide to understanding DX7/FM2 programming from Korg that you should get, if you need it. I agree the primary volca doc format sucks.
Jeremy I usually enjoy watching your videos, but have to say I'm a bit bemused by your critique about it not being for beginners because there were no 5pin midi adapters included: in 2022 if you are a beginner, chances are you have a midi controller like the a launchkey mini mk3 which uses a trs midi socket or a korg electribe 2 which has a trs midi socket or a korg nts-1 which has trs socket, etc. Sure there is still other gear that doesn't use trs midi, so much *modern* lower-end gear does that even "beginners" would already have trs-din midi adapters.
I too am bemused. It's not like you can please everybody. Some want USB, some want DIN, some want minijack (A or B... sheesh!). Expecting a device retailing for under 200 clams to do everything is ridiculous.
Nice to hear the other aspects of the synth too. Maybe we can hooe for a software (update) that will fix some of the issues?
Really appreciate the honesty and can totally see where you're coming from. I even ended up finally splurging on the Digitakt after watching all your videos.
That being said, as someone that has been collecting synths for years, but doesn't want to spend $$$, this still seems like a home run to me. I bought the keys when it came out BECAUSE it had the Univox K1 filter, even if it's a very limiting, sometimes badly designed machine for professional use. Volcas are great because if they're used right, they offer you very expensive sounds for next to nothing.
Getting a 6 op synth for this price nowadays is unheard of, and even if the Dx7 were still cheap, I still found the original Volca FM to be miles more fun to play with. There may be UI problems with this one, but it's worth jumping through the hoops for the price.
Haven't Korg manuals always been shite? NO CC LIST? They must really have budget at their highest priority. They should've at least made a fold-out poster with a colored infographic to replace what you showed. I hope they see your criticism as valuable information for the future because it just seems like common sense. And ffs, it'd be nice to see them value customer satisfaction over budget. They could've charged extra if they nailed the experience and I don't think there'd be complaints.
I'm sorry, your argument is that the hardware synthesizer should be only... computer controllable?
For the piece of hardware that plays DX7 patches. That thing that you can get a free VST host to run a free plugin to play.
I don't think the volca line is for beginners, I think it is for volca people. Volca is it's own world.
I don't think your in the Volca world.
The candor, honesty, and humor is what we have come to expect from you, Jeremy.
Reminds me of the Push video where you are open about the initial challenges. How have you been incorporating the Push into your setup?
I thought about the Push 2 video as soon as I saw it in the beginning of this video. I surprised to see it.
I watched loopops video and it was top quality as usual, but it struck me that most of it seemed to be a dexed tutorial (which ive already loved for years), and the device interface looked - to put it mildly - obscure, even to someone who's been using that exact synthesis algorithm for years. So your frustrations aren't all that surprising.
All very valid arguments towards the entire Volca line in general, and that’s coming from someone who has owned at least 6 different ones (but only owns the Modular currently)… those manuals are terrible.
I loved my OG volca fm , but this is too late to the party, I’m already on VSTs and I have my machine for FM8 , I’m waiting and hoping for an FM for the MPC one , the synths they offer are shit , I can make my own using the sampler engine much better , the electric piano is the only one I think sounds good , the Mellotron sounds like shit and I’d rather make my own
You should check out the Volca Modular and Volca Drum. Those get the balance between complexity and depth right. I never understood the popularity of the FM because it is, as you said, essentially a box for Dexed presets.
what would be better for busking......that device or the yamaha pss 50?