Korg Volca Beats

Appendix: Music terms

A plain-English glossary of the terms used in this course and in drum machine circles generally.

Rhythm and timing

Term	Meaning
4/4	The most common time signature: four beats per bar. Almost all pop, rock, dance and hip hop is in 4/4. On the Volca, one 16-step pattern is one bar of 4/4.
3/4	Three beats per bar, the waltz feel (“1, 2, 3”). Needs a 12-step loop on the Volca (starter beat E).
Bar	One cycle of the beat count. In 4/4, a bar is “1, 2, 3, 4”. Also called a measure.
Beat	The main pulse you tap your foot to. Steps 1, 5, 9 and 13 on the Volca.
BPM	Beats per minute, the measure of tempo.
Tempo	The speed of the music.
Downbeat	Beat 1 of the bar, the strongest beat.
Backbeat	Beats 2 and 4, where the snare or clap usually sits (steps 5 and 13). The backbone of most popular music.
Offbeat	The “and” between beats (steps 3, 7, 11 and 15). The open hat in house music and the guitar or uke chop in reggae both sit here.
Eighth note	Half a beat; two per beat, eight per bar. Every second step on the Volca.
Sixteenth note	A quarter of a beat; sixteen per bar. One step on the Volca.
Syncopation	Accents placed off the main beats, which makes a rhythm feel funky or unexpected.
Swing / shuffle	Delaying every second note slightly so the rhythm lilts, as in jazz, blues, UK garage and much hip hop. The Volca Beats can’t do this.
Groove	The overall feel of a beat; how it makes you want to move.
Polyrhythm	Two or more rhythms of different lengths playing at once, so they drift against each other.
Quantise	Snapping played notes to the nearest grid position. The Volca quantises everything to its 16 steps.
Half-time	A feel where the snare hits on beat 3 only, so the music feels half as fast as the tempo.

Beats and styles

Term	Meaning
Four on the floor	A kick on every beat (steps 1, 5, 9 and 13). The foundation of disco, house, techno and trance.
Boom-chick	The simplest kick (boom) and snare (chick) alternation, used under folk and country strumming.
Boom bap	90s hip hop style named after the sound of its heavy kick (boom) and cracking snare (bap).
Breakbeat	A drum pattern originally sampled from the “break”, the drums-only section of a funk or soul record. Also a genre built on those samples.
Amen break	A short drum solo from the Winstons’ 1969 track “Amen, Brother”, probably the most sampled drum loop ever, and the basis of jungle.
One drop	Reggae beat with nothing on beat 1 and the kick and snare together on beat 3.
Two-step	In drum and bass, a sparse beat with the kick on 1 and the “and” of 3, snare on 2 and 4. (Not to be confused with UK garage 2-step.)
Jungle / drum and bass	Fast UK genre (about 160 to 175 BPM) built on chopped breakbeats and deep bass.
Trip hop	Slow, moody, sample-based style from Bristol in the 90s (Massive Attack, Portishead, Tricky).
Big beat	Late 90s style mixing heavy breakbeats with rock energy (The Prodigy, The Chemical Brothers, Fatboy Slim).
Electro	Early 80s style built on drum machines and synths, a bridge between funk and hip hop.

Drums and sounds

Term	Meaning
Kick	The bass drum.
Snare	The drum with wire snares underneath that rattle, giving a sharp crack.
Clap	A handclap sound, often layered with or used instead of the snare.
Hi-hat (hat)	Two cymbals on a stand. Closed is short and tight; open rings longer.
Toms	Pitched drums used for fills.
Crash	A loud cymbal for marking the start of a new section.
Ride	A cymbal played in steady patterns. The Volca has none, so a long-decay closed hat stands in.
Claves	Two wooden sticks struck together; a bright, short click.
Agogo	A pair of tuned metal bells from Brazil.
Cowbell	A metal bell sound famous on the 808. The Volca’s agogo is the closest substitute.
Fill	A short burst of drumming, often on toms, that leads into the next section.
Ghost note	A very quiet drum hit, usually on the snare, that adds feel. Needs velocity, so the Volca can’t do them.
Accent	A hit played louder than those around it.
Velocity	How hard a note is played, controlling its volume. The Volca Beats has no velocity per step.
Decay	How long a sound takes to fade away after it’s struck.
Pitch / tuning	How high or low a drum sounds.
Snappy	The level of a snare drum’s wire rattle.

Machines and gear

Term	Meaning
808	The Roland TR-808 Rhythm Composer (1980), an analogue drum machine. Its long, booming kick, snappy clap and cowbell shaped electro, hip hop and later trap. “808” is now also slang for a long, pitched bass kick.
909	The Roland TR-909 (1983), part analogue and part sampled (its cymbals). The core sound of house and techno.
CR-78	Roland’s CompuRhythm CR-78 (1978), an early programmable drum machine heard on “In the Air Tonight”.
DMX	The Oberheim DMX (1981), a sample-based drum machine heard on much early 80s rap.
Analogue	Sound made by electronic circuits in real time. The Volca’s kick, snare, toms and hats are analogue.
PCM / sample	A recorded sound played back digitally. The Volca’s clap, claves, agogo and crash are PCM.
Step sequencer	A sequencer where you program a beat by switching steps on or off on a grid, as on the Volca.
Pattern / sequence	One programmed loop of beats. Korg calls it a sequence.
Chain / chaining	Playing patterns one after another automatically. The Volca Beats can’t do this; switch patterns by hand.
Motion sequencing	Recording knob movements into a pattern so they replay.
Stutter	Rapid automatic retriggering of a sound, like a roll or echo.
Mute / solo	Mute silences a part; solo silences everything except one part.
MIDI	The standard digital language electronic instruments use to send notes, clock and control changes.
MIDI clock	Timing messages that keep instruments in time with each other.
Sync / analogue sync	A simpler timing method: a voltage pulse per step down a 3.5 mm cable, as used between Volcas.
DAW	Digital audio workstation: music software on a computer, such as Ableton Live, Logic Pro or GarageBand.