MS-20 Resonator filter for aggressive sound shaping

Korg has gotten a lot of mileage out of their MS-20 filter circuit, and for good reason: producers around the world love it for its aggressive character and wide resonance range. You’ll find it in the Volca Kick, and it can sound as subtle or extreme as you’d like. It’s common to use pitch and filter modulation when crafting kick drum sounds, and the Volca Kick simplifies this down to three knobs in the Resonator section: Pitch, Bend, and Time. Once you’ve dialed in the Amp Envelope and Pulse settings to get your sound started, start playing with the Resonator section to really make it something special.

A smart tool for stage or studio

Instead of searching through sample libraries or presets for the “right” kick drum sound, why not just craft your own? It’s not a new concept, but the Korg Volca Kick makes it easy to generate a huge range of kick and bass sounds, and also sounds undeniably fat. Electronic producers agree that nothing beats the sound of real analog kick and bass. If you’re performing live, people will definitely notice that your set punches through the speakers. And in your studio, MIDI input makes it easy to trigger the Volca Kick from a track you’re working on, and record as many variations of kicks and basses as you want as audio tracks.

Equally equipped for kicks and bass

You can morph the Volca Kick from a punchy, overdriven kick sound to a smooth, booming bassline just by turning a few knobs. It’s got a ton of sonic range is what we’re saying, and it’s equally suited for percussion sounds and bass sounds. When you’re generating kick sounds, experiment with the Motion Sequence to add subtle (or extreme!) variations to parameters like Pulse Color and Level for dynamic effects. When you’re creating bass sounds, play around with the Accent and Slide functions on the sequencer to create 303-style patterns.

Power options provide portable creativity

Like the rest of the Volca series, Korg’s Volca Kick is designed to run for hours off six AA batteries. That makes it ideal for laying down beats at the coffee shop or throwing down for impromptu tabletop sessions. There’s even a mini speaker onboard, so you can ditch the headphones and share the fun. On that note, the included sync cable makes sharing the fun across modules easy by keeping everything locked to the same beat. Know you’re in for a longer session and don’t want to chew through batteries? No worries — just pick up a Volca Power Supply and you’re good to go as long as you like.