Volca mods

LouisJB · Post by **LouisJB** » Fri Jan 02, 2015 6:06 pm

Made my first go at making some mods to my beats and bass (only got them recently).
Given both midi out. Beats has individual sound outs and the snare mods too.
Pleased with the outcome. All via small 3.5 sockets fitted flush on the back.
Made up 3.5mm to Midi cables to match.
Sound of the bass backed by also sequencing my old Roland Juno keyboard is pretty epic, it can fill in some of the low sub-bass the Volca Bass seems to lack.
Pretty thick, fat sounds. Also makes a neat little sequencer for scratchpad ideas

Maybe keys next, that could sequence another of my analog keyboards, the Sequential Circuits or perhaps Poly 800 (soon also to be modded too, if all goes to plan).
Lots of fun, fun to get the soldering iron out and fun to play around with these little boxes too.

Nice to be free from the laptop from time to time...

todtechno · Post by **todtechno** » Sat Jan 03, 2015 10:40 pm

Nice! I'm looking to do the same to mine. Where did you order the parts for the mods? Particularly for the drum snare. Also, have you had any problems with the midi out on either?

LouisJB · Post by **LouisJB** » Sat Jan 03, 2015 10:53 pm

hey todtechno,

Midi out seems to be all fine on both as far as can tell. It's a very easy mod, 3 wires, clearly marked on the PCB. Biggest issue is fitting the sockets, hence why I used 3.5mm stereo jacks.

For the snare mode, I just ordered some caps from ebay. Any decent electronic supplier should have them also. There's a resistor to mod too, or fit a pot if you want control (I've not done that, not sure controlling it is that important).

hope to do more, some mods on the bass to pep up the sound a bit, some distortion and more control over the oscillators.
I'm thinking to mod my Poly800, it has midi in. The Volca bass sequencing the Poly 800 over Midi might be quite a lot of analog fun. Certainly the juno was making some interesting noises

todtechno · Post by **todtechno** » Sat Jan 03, 2015 11:00 pm

Nice. Those bass mods would be really cool. Thanks for the info. I've always wanted to learn to solder and bought these volcas, in part, for practice.

Keep us posted on future projects (maybe some pics too).

selector97 · Post by **selector97** » Tue Jan 13, 2015 8:31 pm

hi, i also modded my beats with the individual outs, but unfortunately my connectors are a slightly too high. i cannot close the chassis tightly without putting pressure on the board. could you tell me which connectors you used? maybe i´ll replace mine then.

Also, do you know what kind of screws are used for the chassis? "M something" M2??

cheers, s97