The Korg Volca modular is a monophonic, semi-modular synthesizer in Buchlaristic-Westcoast-Style with built-in sequencer. The compact housing contains 8 modules with 50 patch points, the white lines show the pre-wired signal path, so patching with the supplied cables is desirable and brings even more pleasure to sound research.

Summary from SOS magazine February 2019

PROS

• A West Coast modular in a Volca. Wow!
• It sounds fantastic.
• The Volca sequencer: now with scale quantisising and microtuning.
• Battery operation.

CONS

• Patching is inevitably fiddly.
• Limited modular connectivity with the outside world.
• No MIDI.

SUMMARY

Korg have attempted something brave - a modular synth in a Volca package. It maintains all the sonic possibilities of modular without the size or the overdraft fees. All the Volca Modular!

CONCLUSION

"The Volca Modular sounds wonderful. It is capable of a huge sonic palette and it positively encourages experimentation. Of course, without inserting any patch cables, the basic configuration will only produce basic results. Judging it without inserting a patch cable would be doing the Volca Modular a disservice. Once you get busy making connections, you will be rewarded with a vast range of interesting and unusual sounds. In just a few days, I stumbled through beautifully soft basses, alien drone textures, radiophonic bleeps and bloops, kick drums from hell, electro percussion sequences, nostalgic warbly leads and more. Close you eyes and you could be listening to modular system 10 times the size and 20 times the price.

We do have to talk about the size; the (miniature) elephant in the room. The Volca Modular does feel cramped. The biggest problem is getting to the controls when there are lots of patch cables plugged in. Some of the inputs and outputs are very close to the knobs and often on more than one side. Getting clear access with all but slenderest of fingers can be troublesome - pins can get bent. I can't help feeling that putting all the modular connectors at the top of the unit would have eliminated this problem, leaving the knobs free for unfettered twiddling.

Ultimately, however, the size doesn't matter because I found myself having fun and making great sounds. If you love analogue synthesis, but crave something a little different, then the West Coast approach will deliver. I suspect the Volca Modular will be many people's first taste of West Coast synthesis full stop. There isn't anything else at this price that can give such a genuine taste of those two worlds and that's fantastic, although if you get bitten by the modular bug your bank manager might disagree. The fact that Korg have even attempted to fit a modular environment into the Volca still astonishes me. What's even more astounding is that they've pulled it off."

- Rory Dow, Sound on Sound (February 2019)