Review: Korg Volca FM2

Korg Volca is more than a range of mini synths, it’s more like an ecosystem — well regarded by synth aficionados everywhere. Sure, a Korg Volca is a nifty standalone synth, but it really comes into its own when interconnected, in fact, you can buy the whole fam and pop it into a three-tiered Volca rack if you’re super keen. In other words, there’s a Volca for all occasions, including an FM-voiced Volca.

Now, the original Volca FM has been superseded. The new FM2 model adds three extra voices and reverb. Otherwise it still employs six operators — with 32 available algorithms (modulator/carrier combinations) to choose from.

MONSTER HIT

FM synthesis became a monster hit in the early ’80s, mostly because it sounded so different to the analogue subtractive synths of the day. It was fresh, digital and snappy. 

FM synthesis excels in percussive sounds (bells and the like), glassy textures and slappy basses. Yamaha’s DX7 is still the gold standard in FM. In fact, Volca FM can accept sysex data from the DX7… remarkable really, given Yamaha stopped making the synth more than 30 years ago!

If you want to hear FM and the DX7 in action then look no further than Kenny Loggins ‘Danger Zone’ bassline from the original Top Gun, the bassline from A-ha’s ‘Take on Me’ is also classic DX7, the harmonica solo from Tina Turner’s ‘What’s Love Got to do With it’ and too many others to mention [see box item for more]. The reason why the DX7 is so easily identified in those monster pop songs was because they invariably used the factory presets. Why? Because the DX7 was notoriously impossible to program.

To Korg’s credit, with the recent release of its OpSix, it went where no other hardware synth had previously gone before: a FM synth that is actually possible to program. The Volca FM2 doesn’t share the OpSix’s colour-coded operator/modulator sliders and oLED with the algorithm configurations but it does have some Volca pots for diving into what Korg believes to be the most oft-used parameters, including Modulator Attack and Decay, Carrier Attack and Decay and LFO control. Then there’s the Algorithm pot, which is a winner when it comes to experimentation. (No one really expects you to have any idea what will happen when you cycle through the 32 possible algorithms, but I think that’s the point.) There’s a slider for global velocity that doubles as a handy Value controller when editing menu items. The other slider is a transpose control, which seems a bit unnecessary given the Octave buttons work just fine.

Deep-dive parameters are, mercifully, documented on a handy ‘flash’ card, including the multi-stage envelope generator.

The arpeggiator is simple but welcome. (Change patches and the arp remains on — which I couldn’t decide was a pro or a con.) The 16-step Korg sequencer is familiar, as is the Motion Sequencer, a Korg favourite since the original Electribes, that allow you to record your tweaks along with your sequenced performance.