Korg Volca Sample 2 Digital Sample Sequencer Reviews

Yes it's the fun machine.

Ok, here's my deal. I'm a long time retired Recording Engineer, Recording Studio Owner, Drummer, Synth Owner and Programmer since 1972. After being away from it for so many years, I recently decided to build a nice small Music/Sound Production Workstation Studio in our home's Music Room. I began this in January 2022 starting out small but it has really grown over the past 18 months. OK, for me Synthesizers are an addiction, especially now, that so many lower cost, quality options are available like never before.

I already own the Korg Volca FM 2, mainly because of it's Yamaha DX7 Heritage and the ability to not only download and install all of the Original DX7 sounds but also the slew of other available presets and it''s small form factor.

I've been looking at the Volca Samples for a while and when I saw that the Volca Sample now had version 2 with a USB Interface and complimentary Sample Librarian to let me manage the samples and patterns loaded on the Volca Sample2 I was intrigued.
Did I need one, NO, did I want one, well yes, so it was an impulse purchase. Was it worth it YES!

Very simply stated, it's just a fun machine, full of features, quality sounds and a blast to program and just play with. The overall build quality and sound on all of the Korg Volcas is decent, especially for the low cost, (I'm not carrying it around all over the place, it just sits nicely on a stand on my workstation). There's just so much this little Sample Box/Sequencer can do. It's fairly straightforward to program and if you need some help there are a few very good Videos out there on YouTube. It's a great addition to my "Synth Arsenal"

Probably the most versatile of the volcas, great for first dive. the addition of the USB port makes sampling easy.

Great samples and sounds great the second you turn it on. I haven't uploaded any new samples yet, but it's so nice to quickly change and modify each sample. I love this thing.

I seriously love this machine just get it if ya thinking

Listen...All i needed was a metronome to practice playing guitar. Somehow i ended up with a Volca BEATS and Sample a few Roland Boutiques,and P.O.s. and NOW i have a sample 2. WHAT A RUSH!! Now that understand more about drum machines and synths. The Sample 2 is MORE Fun than imagined. YES. It's small , but if ya tear apart ya larger gear. Its all the same size on the inside. So' now MIDI makes sense. Its all about controller and sound. DO NOT UNDERESTIMATE these lil Volcas. Everything i own is small and portable. Imagine being on a 4 to 13hr flight with a Sample 2 or any other Volca. You will be entertained. ANNNDD the BEST part is... Bcus its so easy to learn. YOU CAN APPLY ALL THE KNOWLEDGE to every other Musical Equipment. Electronic or otherwise. Music School. ijs

There's so much flexibility in this little box. It takes a little effort to upload your samples to it, but once they're in, the process of using them and building beats live is smooth and intuitive - even for a beginner. I run mine into my Korg monologue and work beautifully together. I use it as a drum machine / sound generator. I've never once wished for a different drum machine. I love this little guy.

I am in love with my Volca Sample 2, it's very easy to learn, and has so many options for sequencing and sculpting samples! This thing is an absolute STEAL for $150, stop hesitating and buy it rn!! Mh on ly complaint is I wish Korg had an app for Android to be able to upload samples via Android phones. Why the IOS exclusivity?

Pre-ordered this through Sweetwater and was surprised to get a phone call just out of courtesy letting me know that it should be coming in a couple weeks. Beyond that, after it arrived all I can say is this thing is amazing. After about 5 hours of tinkering and loading some samples I had got together (via USB on PC no longer is iOS needed) I was creating and learning very intuitively. This thing is overall the upgrade the line needed and I don't have any gripes other than Korg didn't make the software download all that easy, rather than showing up in the software bundle page I had to go to the product page to get the driver and library software.

I am owner of the other Volcas and appreciate how the instruments got better with each series. The first Volca Sample was a late choice for me because it lacked on-the-fly sampling, PC or Android support application, and I have more powerful samplers in my home studio. Eventually, I capitulated for the hands-on performance controls and the third party applications that came soon after initial release.
The new Volca Sample ditches the song feature for more sample memory, adds a USB port for computer connectivity, and a librarian application for PC or MAC. The classic MPC visual aesthetic is more pronounced in the Sample 2.
Sample and pattern manipulation is the same as the previous edition Volca Sample and there are still 10 parts per memory location. Since the song mode is gone, the song storage locations on the touch surface are replaced with pattern memory locations. Up to all 16 pattern memory locations may be sequentially chained for patterns greater than 16 steps. But, chaining patterns prevents on-the-fly sample manipulation during playback.
Also like its predecessor, the sampling rate is less than 44.1 kHz (31.25 kHz). The librarian software will down-sample when importing samples of a higher fidelity. The lower sampling rate is part of the Volca Sample's charm.
MIDI implementation is fairly robust for the features this little box offers which makes it useful in the studio.
But, it is the Volca simplicity that allowed me to make a groove with the factory sample set in about 10 minutes.

Got the Volca Sample 2 several months ago and wasn't immediately drawn to it. I loaded a bunch of custom one shot synth samples into it and it was cool but only recently have I discovered what I believe to be the full potential of this little & powerful machine. First off, any sample you like is perfect fodder for this machine. However while standard sequenced sample playback is an obvious use for this machine and with pattern chaining you can get loops of up to 16 bars, the real joy I have found for this comes from radically modifying samples using the start point, sample length, sample looping, and pitch & amp envelope functions and making one bar loops. By way of the pitch envelope literally every source can become a totally unique drum sound when used in conjunction with the speed (starting pitch) knob. I've only just started making lofi techno beats on this but I already see a never ending world of possibilities in this little machine. The machine converts all samples to mono and also down samples them. The down sampling is pretty cool for adding character and, with the non-resonant low pass filter knob option for each sample, harsh artifacts can completely be tamed. The internal reverb is very useful for creating tails to your samples and creating a stereo image. Each sample also has a panning function for placement in the stereo field. I have used this for creating width between many samples playing, creating a sort of heavy motion to the stereo field. Recently too, I double tracked guitar and hard ones each performance of the sample for a completely wide four-bar loop. The only drawback I have found is that the saving of pattern memories is not consistent. When powering off and on, often times levels or selected samples will not be as they were before. This renders the machine completely useless for live use but for writing in the studio this just reinforces committing within one recording session. Sample transfer from the computer with the Volca editor is definitely a little slow and the slow update of the progress bar does make it seem sometimes that transfer has stalled but I think this is not the case. I completely intend on keeping this unit forever barring the release of future Volca Samples that will make me surely want to upgrade. Truly a unique and very creative sample player/sequencer and a very unique machine for making lofi beats on for any electronic genre. I hope to explore every genre with this.

BUYER BEWARE! If you think you'll be using the Korg software to manage samples on the device, Google 'volca sample 2 not connected'. The software flat-out WILL NOT WORK on many Windows 10 systems. You're basically buying a cheap, limited ROMpler with a sequencer.

If you're fine with just using the onboard sounds, it's good enough. But the software is poorly written trash and Korg, while aware of the issue, has done NOTHING to address it.

If you have a Mac, few Mac users have issues, so Mac users are good to go. Lucky you!