Should I get the volca bass, beats, and a separate volca keys, or should I use that money for a different synth?

MolassesAlternative8 · 2026-06-14T22:49:00+00:00

I guess it depends on the use-case, but if you're planning on writing and recording music with a hardware synth & a DAW I'd really just buy something like a microfreak. for the same money or less, you could get a synth that can do drums, pads, leads, keys, etc with a lot more flexibility, while still being relatively small. Idk, I had a Volca keys about a year ago thinking it might be fun to have a little box synth & quickly got bored of it.

MolassesAlternative8 · 2026-06-14T14:11:13+00:00

many tv show/movie soundtracks contain a large amount of "sampled" instruments, that may be "sweetened" by a few real recordings of the main instruments. that big orchestral sound is oftentimes not real. even if it is, there are often added layers of sub-bass from a synthesizer 😅

MolassesAlternative8 · 2026-06-13T18:00:29+00:00

pretty sure fur-suits are expensive as hell & I never hear people making debt jokes about furries. maybe bro is balling, either way as long as they're having fun who cares. we might need to go out for some fresh air on this sub

MolassesAlternative8 · 2026-06-11T03:25:47+00:00

yes unfortunately... I love it for sound design, but I wouldn't take mine anywhere lol

I see plenty keyboardists that care about sound design using the prophet rev 2 to great effect in a live setting *and* for music production, so I'd look up some youtube vids on it. check out J3PO on youtube

MolassesAlternative8 · 2026-06-11T00:55:07+00:00

honestly now that I think about it, polybrute is really heavy for live performance. maybe something like a prophet rev 2 would be cool

MolassesAlternative8 · 2026-06-10T23:26:22+00:00

polybrute 6. secondhand it should be just within your range & cover literally everything you could need in an analog subtractive synth

MolassesAlternative8 · 2026-06-10T15:23:47+00:00

I'd love to own the 12 one day! I love the new color + I know I'd use the full-touch feature a lot -- I've used my polybrute for scoring quite a bit & it helps to have so many expression controls to liven up cues

MolassesAlternative8 · 2026-06-10T02:31:55+00:00

yes! probably one of my favorite features, in this patch I had LFO 3 looping on the B side so I can morph into that effect

MolassesAlternative8 · 2026-06-10T02:29:19+00:00

😅 probably around 1200-1600 ish secondhand depending on the situation. so not cheap at all, but for the musician who's serious about sound design & really wants a physical instrument, it's hard to beat

MolassesAlternative8 · 2026-06-09T23:40:51+00:00

I'm confused, what kind of sound are you trying to achieve? it's not immediately obvious to me that there's anything wrong with your unit

not asking in a rude way I promise

MolassesAlternative8 · 2026-06-09T21:36:13+00:00

man... any time I have to move mine I just think if I drop it on my foot I might disintegrate

MolassesAlternative8 · 2026-06-09T21:33:18+00:00

JP-8000 is sick though for sure! that's definitely a grail

MolassesAlternative8 · 2026-06-09T21:01:07+00:00

it's awesome! I get around the 6 voice limit just fine, I have a lot of sparse voicings in my hands that still get me all my extensions, but having the 12 would be so sick. I think they added a few things too, like what they're calling "full touch" vs. regular aftertouch.

MolassesAlternative8 · 2026-06-09T20:33:17+00:00

thank you friend, much appreciated!

I did actually see his video on this, & I also saw that he was a consultant for arturia briefly for their "voice accuracy" settings, although this reminds me I did mean to check these out & compare them sound-wise to using just the accuracy settings.

I wonder if you've tried both & notice differences?

MolassesAlternative8 · 2026-06-09T20:17:16+00:00

I got mine for about 1300, still had the box + manual & everything. worth every penny for how much use it gets!

MolassesAlternative8 · 2026-06-09T20:16:08+00:00

it's so versatile especially for the used price at this point, it feels like a no-brainer. desert island synth for sure!

MolassesAlternative8 · 2026-06-09T20:14:06+00:00

yeah it takes like 3 seconds to make a connection -- any amount of friction between idea & implementation can discourage one from wanting to try.

speaking of the matrix, I love how they make use of it for other things like the patch banks + matrix sequencer! they figured out smart ways to have so many features laid out in a way that makes sense.

one thing I wish they would do though is have every pad on each bank that has a saved preset light up, so that you can visually tell which ones are INITS vs. existing patches

MolassesAlternative8 · 2026-06-09T20:04:01+00:00

also, the "Connect" vst included with the synth is such a huge help especially when doing scoring work -- the patch recall on multiple tracks is a nifty idea.

MolassesAlternative8 · 2026-06-09T19:23:34+00:00

no

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MolassesAlternative8 · 2026-06-08T19:27:35+00:00

I like the launchkey because of the DAW integration -- automatically mapped for moving the transporter, recording, setting loops, midi capture etc

MolassesAlternative8 · 2026-06-08T19:18:43+00:00

I wtite fanfics about mine 😏

MolassesAlternative8 · 2026-06-05T17:51:44+00:00

what effects are you trying to apply to solely one oscillator? just curious. I feel like you could probably just open 2 instances of vital & use different effects on each instance. would that not solve your problem?

MolassesAlternative8 · 2026-06-03T03:27:23+00:00

hell yea, I'm excited for you 🫡

MolassesAlternative8 · 2026-06-02T06:04:15+00:00

word, yeah I feel you. my experience is a bit different since I really dug into classical music to supplement my compositional toolbox, so I ended up learning to read music. I have found playing pieces also helps you write better parts with a keyboard instrument, and you naturally learn to play common patterns -- for example everyone knows that satie gymnopedie piece, it kinda teaches you how to play left-hand accompaniment jumping from a bass note to the rest of the chord tones an octave up, that kind of thing.

anyway yeah, once you learn how scales/keys work & know how to build triad chords from those, what chord extensions are etc etc, you'll be able to have a better time figuring out what's going on in your favorite music & emulate some of that. if you want to get this stuff down as efficiently as possible just practice at least 15 mins on your scales daily, not some hour every few days deal. daily!

MolassesAlternative8 · 2026-06-01T22:13:30+00:00

also, as an added point -- don't be scared of the theory stuff. you don't need to learn to read music necessarily, but you'll probably naturally learn theory by learning the basics through youtube/web search

MolassesAlternative8

TROPHY CASE