Korg Volca Beats

Lesson 4: Programming your first beat in step mode

Goal: build a four-on-the-floor house beat from an empty pattern, one part at a time. This is the method you will use most.

Start from a blank pattern

1. Load a memory slot you don’t mind losing: MEMORY, then step 8.
2. Hold FUNC and press step 16. This deletes the whole current pattern.

Deleting only changes the pattern in working memory. Memory slot 8 keeps the old version until you save over it (Lesson 6).

Program it part by part

1. Press STEP MODE so it lights. The bottom row is now the step grid.
2. Press PLAY so you hear changes as you make them.
3. Select the kick: hold FUNC, press step 1.
4. Press steps 1, 5, 9 and 13. Their LEDs light and the kick plays on every beat.
5. Select the clap: FUNC + step 7. Press steps 5 and 13.
6. Select the closed hat: FUNC + step 5. Press steps 3, 7, 11 and 15 (the offbeats).
7. Pressing a lit step again turns it off.

The result:

Set TEMPO to about 124 BPM. That is a basic house beat.

The other way: step record

Step record writes one step at a time, which suits putting several parts on the same step.

1. Stop playback. Hold FUNC and press REC. The LED under step 1 blinks.
2. Press the part button (1 to 10) for what should play on this step. The Volca moves to the next step.
3. To put several parts on one step, press their buttons together.
4. REC leaves the current step empty and moves on. PART > moves forward, PART < moves back.
5. Press FUNC to leave step record.

Starter beats to play guitar or uke along to

These are the simplest beats worth having. Each uses two or three parts, so they’re quick to program and leave plenty of room for your strumming. Program each one the same way as the house beat above: clear the pattern, STEP MODE on, select a part, press its steps.

Matching a song’s tempo. The Volca Beats has no tap tempo, so do it by ear. Play the first few bars of the recording, count “1, 2, 3, 4” along with it, then start the Volca and turn TEMPO until its kick lines up with your count.

Keep them. Save each beat in its own slot: hold FUNC, press MEMORY, then a step from 1 to 8 (Lesson 6 has the details).

The songs listed are suggestions to strum along to whose feel suits each beat, not drum transcriptions.

Beat A: Boom-chick (about 80 to 120 BPM)

The campfire beat: kick on 1 and 3, snare on 2 and 4. Fits most strummed folk and country songs in 4/4, such as John Denver’s “Take Me Home, Country Roads” (1971). Swap the snare for the claves or clap for a softer, more acoustic feel.

Strum: one downstrum on each of steps 1, 5, 9 and 13.

Beat B: Pop strum (about 90 to 130 BPM)

Beat A plus closed hats on every eighth note, which gives you a steady pulse to lock your up and down strums to. Try it under Vance Joy’s “Riptide” (2013), an Aussie uke staple.

Strum: down on every hat hit for steady eighths, or the popular down, down-up, up-down-up pattern across one bar.

Beat C: Folk stomp (about 100 to 140 BPM)

Kick on every beat like a foot stomp, with a clap on 2 and 4. This is the feel of 2010s stomp-and-clap folk such as The Lumineers’ “Ho Hey” (2012) and Mumford & Sons’ “Little Lion Man” (2009).

Set the kick PITCH low with a short DECAY so it thuds like a boot on floorboards.

Beat D: Reggae one drop (about 70 to 90 BPM)

Nothing on beat 1. The kick and snare hit together on beat 3, and the hats mark the offbeats. Strum along to Bob Marley and the Wailers’ “Three Little Birds” (1977).

Strum: a short, muted upstrum (a “chop”) on steps 3, 7, 11 and 15, exactly with the hats.

Beat E: Waltz in 3/4 (about 90 to 140 BPM)

For songs that count “1, 2, 3”, such as “Amazing Grace” and “Scarborough Fair”. A waltz needs a 12-step loop, so first shorten the pattern with active step (Lesson 7 explains it fully):

1. Hold FUNC and press PLAY.
2. Press steps 13, 14, 15 and 16 so their lights go out.
3. Press FUNC to exit. The loop is now 12 steps, three beats of four steps each.

Strum: down on step 1, then lighter strums on 5 and 9 (“OOM-pah-pah”). When you’re done with the waltz, FUNC + step 14 sets the pattern back to 16 steps.

Exercise 4

Add an open hat on steps 3, 7, 11 and 15 of the house beat instead of the closed hat, and listen to how much more “lift” it gives. Then program starter beats A and B into slots 2 and 3, and play a song you know on guitar or uke over each one.