This is really a superb analog synth! Three oscillators and a killer filter, you won't be sorry if you buy this. In truth, this is so much more than a bass machine. It is a synth in a small package. I think sometimes it gets confused with being a 303 clone, but it most certainly is not. The price is unbelievable and you can't make a bad decision in choosing this unit. Fun for days! If anything, it is under-priced for what it is. Don't think twice.

Great sound and functionality. This is one of the oldest models so it doesn't get a lot of love but it can do a lot more than you think if you take the time to learn it. All the volcas jam well together and I definitely recommend this, but get the FM first if you have a tight budget.

Easy to play. Very friendly analog drum machine

I can do much more than i expected with this one!
Volca series is just what I needed.

I've had the Beats for about a month now and it's been great. In use, it is very immediate...you are creating beats and rhythms within seconds. I would not count on it for its snare sound (unless you mod it). For me, I use it primarily as a glitch machine. The kick sound is very powerful and quite deep and full sounding. The hats are capable of a wide range of sound from hat-like to glitch-like. One really buys these for the stutter mechanism...that's when the box really gets going.

The Korg Volca Keys is a fantastic sounding analog poly synth even if it were more expensive. This can really get pretty fat too. I love the Volca Keys so much that I made a sample library with it using motion recording and doing two passes of each sound to give me stereo imagining of the LFO phase. If there's one thing that's greatest about it, it's the filter. Korg filters are the best and this filter, based on the miniKORG 700S, is no exception. The different oscillator modes give it a wide range of sounds and one of my favorite features of this is the pitch envelope. The pitch envelope just really sets it apart from synths lacking such control. I've used this with its sequencer and that's totally fun for DAWless jams. I'm now also enjoying using it in sampled form. Every parameter is motion recordable except oscillator mode & resonance and you can motion record all other parameters without limit. I hope to always have a Volca Keys and I just know I'll only ever get rid of it if Korg comes out with a Volca Keys 2.

I’ve owned Synthesizers since 1972. I currently own quite a few from several manufacturers, Behringer, Roland, ASM, Elektron, Modal, Teenage Engineering and Korg (Volca FM 2 and Sample 2) to name a few.
 
10 years in the marketplace this Volca Keys has really held up to the test of time.
 
Marketed as an “Analogue” Synthesizer in reality the control signals are generated digitally with the CPU using a 10-bit DAC giving it near-analogue resolution. So this is a Subtractive Hybrid unit; an analogue sound engine with digital control so dial tweaks and note info can be recorded into the sequencer/accessed over MIDI. By the way, this is a good thing not a negative at all.
 
It’s a pretty easy to use, straightforward, with no menu screen, pretty much a dial per function arrangement. Great for beginners but powerful enough for experienced users.
 
I did notice notice that some dials are translucent and some solid. As a rule I found the solid dials' movements can't be sequenced, but the translucent dials can be sequenced and are backlit red plus flash to denote which parameters are active or recorded in a 'motion sequence' (motion sequencing captures dial movements into the sequencer).  The tempo dials flash in time with the internal/MIDI-clocked tempo and each key/sequence step has its own LED too, convenient for letting you know what's happening at a glance within complex sequences
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It has 3 sawtooth wave oscillators & produces great upfront three-note chords, dirty lead/bass lines, ring modulated sounds and detuned unisons. It also features octave/fifth mono modes, a versatile tempo-syncable analogue-style delay that does reverbs/bit-crushing (from the Monotron Delay) freeform unquantised flux recording and 1/1, 1⁄2 and 1⁄4 tempo modes.
 
It uses the great MiniKORG700s filter. The LFO has 3 waveforms: sawtooth, square & triangle which make for some great modulation variety.
The Volca Keys really packs a lot in, it's very versatile and a true value at such a low cost.

LOVE MY VOLCAS! GREAT PRICE, EASY TO USE! I started with the KORG Volca Beats, and quickly added the Volca Keys, then the Volca Bass. I love the way they sync. I also like using knobs and manual/mechanical manipulation, which is part of the fun of the Volca series: twirling oscillators and noise filters in real time. Build quality is decent (particularly for the money), and these devices are super-easy to use. The analog tones are versatile: fat, warm and spooky/spacey as you'd want them to be. Watch the YouTube tutorials for some great demonstrations of the capabilities of these units- Hearing is believing!

Quick, easy, small drum sequencer with great features. The stutter knobs make this unit really cool. Just twist to add either a simple delay, or change the groove entirely. The controls over kick snare tom and hat are intuitive and quick. Can create significant feel changes very easily. Definitely see myself using this often to demo grooves, and layer into larger arrangements.

The Korg Volca Beats is a joy to use. The analog tones - kick, snare, toms, and hats - really are the heart of this little machine. They sound so fantastic and their control is minimal but covers a wide range of tonal shaping possibilities. The hats are the standout. The grain knob really has a unique element of sonic control. I bought the Volca Beats, again after having one many years ago, specifically for the sound of the hats. Programming with MIDI notes is the way to go here. You could definitely do a cool one-bar performance on this beast especially getting crazy with the Stutter function but, for my purposes, writing techno-electronic tracks, MIDI note triggering from a DAW is ideal. For fine control, I recommend sequencing your MIDI notes and then recording samples of each instrument for use with sampler instances in your DAW. This way you can adjust the phase of each sample to really gel everything as opposed to having a random analog phase to each tone. Also recording samples allows you to process each sound individually and that is really what a polished & professional sound is all about. The PCM sounds can be cool and sound wonderfully degraded at low pitch settings but honestly you can ignore them and stick to the analog section without losing ANY value to the machine. Korg has delivered almost certainly the best budget friendly analog (and PCM) drum machine with the Volca Beats.