Fun hacks to get more out of the KORG Volca FM2 and Drum, a new “auto-dynamic” Joranologue filter module, and more.
Synth Journal
Made With Best Practice Rithmatic for KORG Volca FM2
The KORG Volca FM2 is a great little synth. Like a budget Yamaha DX7, it gives you six voices of polyphony to play those classic 1980s FM sounds. New one-man company Made With Best Practice offers an FM librarian called Rithmatic that’s designed to work with the KORG Volca FM2.
There are already quite a few editors and librarians out there for the KORG Volca FM2, but Rithmatic looks worth a look. It not only sends DX7 patches to your Volca, it can act as a depository for your DX7 patches, including single voices, 32-voice bulk banks, .SYX and .SYS files, and even ZIP archives. You can tag and search for patches, save them to one of 64 memory slots, even build your own patches and play them via the onboard FM engine.
Best of all, Rithmatic is free. It’s available for MacOS, iPhone, iPad and Android.
KORG Volca FM2 is available from our affiliate partners Thomann* and Sweetwater*.
hj-oja hj Firmware KORG Volca Drum Custom Firmware
My favorite of the KORG Volca series has to be the Drum. With its DSP and physical modeling touches, it doesn’t sound like anything else out there. Being a KORG Volca, though, it doesn’t offer the most complex sequencer. Developer hj-oja has set out to fix that.
Called hj Firmware, their new (and very unofficial) firmware beefs up the KORG Volca Drum’s sequencing capabilities and general operation in some very cool ways.
Here’s what it does:
- FUNC + knob shows the current parameter value without changing it
- SWING extended to negative values
- FUNC + SELECT cycles SRC only
- ACCENT extended to negative values (for ghost notes)
- SLICE extended — sub-step patterns
- PROBABILITY gains Elektron-style trigger conditions — A-B, first bar, FILL
- MUTE + STEP 7–16 clears motion sequences per knob
- TOUCH FX on STEP 9–16
- MIDI IN velocity finally works properly
Visit hj-oja’s GitHub page (link below) to access the update and find out how to install it.
KORG Volca Drum is available from our affiliate partners Thomann* and Sweetwater*.
Ian Dixon Korg DW-8000 Editor
We are now firmly in the age of vibe coding. While on the one hand this is resulting in a deluge of plugins that all look the same, it’s also giving us some interesting browser-based instruments and editors. One guy making editors for vintage synths (I assume he’s getting assistance from AI, although I could be wrong) is Ian Dixon, who currently offers free editor/librarians for the Kawai K1, KORG MS2000 and one of my personal favorite synths, the KORG DW-8000.
The DW-8000 Editor & Librarian lets you edit the synth in real-time from a browser interface, with displays of waveform shape on the two oscillators, a visual graphic for the filter and amplitude envelopes, sliders for all of the digital delay parameters, and more. You can also write patterns to memory, import and export patches, save libraries, and perform other librarian functions.
Looks like Ian has a Yamaha DX100 one coming soon. I wonder if that will work with my DX21.
3DSage Sage Sequencer
3DSage is a 3D printing genius (can I use that word, genius? I think it applies) who made a wearable chiptune synth with a sequencer. How cool is that? Done entirely DIY, his Sage Sequencer features a basic square wave synth and a 16-step sequencer in a 4 x 4 grid that’s giving Nanoloop vibes.
I love how the housing is transparent in that Y2K style, and that he can wear it like a watch.
The Sage Sequencer is so far one of a kind, but apparently he might make some to sell so check out the comments section in the YouTube video (above) to express interest.
Joranologue Flow 3
I feel like it’s been a while since we featured some Eurorack in Synth Journal. Let’s rectify that right now with Flow 3, the latest module from Joranologue. The 6 HP Flow 3 offers a new variation on the classic state variable filter, with simultaneous 2-pole lowpass, bandpass and highpass outputs with smooth resonance that you can use as a sine/cosine oscillator. It really does sound delicious.
The company describes Flow 3 as an auto-dynamic filter, and this is where it gets interesting. Sort of like an auto-wah, Flow 3 can modulate itself via a combined decay generator/envelope follower circuit that controls the filter frequency over an adjustable range. This makes it great for kick drums and auto-wah effects. You can also use it as a spectrum splitter.
Joranologue Flow 3 is available now from Thomann*.
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