Korg Forums

fingertrouble · Joined: 05 Feb 2014 Posts: 3 Location: london

Hi - I've got a Volca Beats and a Volca Keys, and a Bass arriving soon....

All is well, but I eventually want to use them all via MIDI. I own a Roland UM-EX1 which only has 1x MIDI Out, 1x MIDI In and Thru capability.

Now it's been decades since I really messed with MIDI stuff (I have an elderly Korg Poly 800, so some of the Keys filters VERY familiar, LOL) but I remember you can usually 'chain' them - upto 8 or so?

Planning to mod them to have MIDI Out, wondering if anyone here has done this and 'chained' the Volcas? Will MIDI messages be passed 'Thru' to the other Volcas? Or do I need to contact them all directly? EDIT: I googled and apparently you need MIDI Thru on any synth or machine to do that, MIDI In messages are not passed to Out? If that's so then *sigh*.

Any cheap (£35 for a MIDI Thru box? OUCH) solutions to this? I would like to have them all controlled by my Mac if possible.

Tim

roblabs · Posted: Thu Feb 06, 2014 3:02 am Post subject:

There's this:
http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/MIDIthru2?utm_source=Google&utm_medium=PPC&utm_campaign=none&device=c&network=g&matchtype=&gclid=CKaZ47vBtrwCFcY7Ogodlw8Atg

I believe there's also a 4 port version as well, if I am not mistaken.

Discom · Joined: 01 Feb 2014 Posts: 8

You can probably sync the timing using one Volca and a Midi Thru box. Keyboard--> In Master Volca--> In Midi Thru Box--> 3 Outs--> In Volca/s.

I'm no expert, but each Volca probably needs a separate channel, so your keyboard would have to support multiple channels if you want to play notes on all Volcas separately...

I'm pretty sure that if you mod one Volca with MIDI Out, sync/timing/start/stop on all channels can be transmitted (all 16 channels are synced, no?), although I'm not positively sure about this; you can try putting all Volcas on the same channel just to see what happens.

I have yet to mod my Volca Bass, so I don't really know if it will work.

fingertrouble · Joined: 05 Feb 2014 Posts: 3 Location: london

fant0mas · Junior Member Joined: 24 Nov 2009 Posts: 60

I´m using my Volcas together with my Electribe (ES-1) as a master clock, and running it´s MIDI out to a ESI MidiThru Box (1 in, 4 outs).

All in all, a solution like this is probably a lot more versatile than modding MIDI-outs onto all of your Volcas.. .and a lot more safe, and might end up being just as "expensive".

And yes, the Volcas each need their own channel set. Easy enough to do.

fingertrouble · Joined: 05 Feb 2014 Posts: 3 Location: london