by default the volca drum doesn't do anything with note input values, it just treats all notes as a trigger. we wrote an arduino project to convert midi notes to CC values for the tuning CC. >:3

i LOVE the way it seems to portamento a little bit when you change notes, thats not me doing that, thats just the volca drum working however it works

the volca drum is a drum synthesizer. actually it's a "digital percussion synthesizer". actually, it's a synthesizer.

There are 6 channels. Each channel has two independently-tunable oscillators. Each oscillator has its own pitch and volume envelopes. Each oscillator can be a sine, saw, or filtered noise source.

Each channel has its own 16-step trigger sequence, bit crushing, wave folding, and overdrive.

There is a single physical modeling unit, tube or string, that each channel can be sent to in varying amounts.

it's percussive. it's tonal. it's ambient. it's glows a cozy orange. it's many things, and i'm quite fond of it.

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so what is actually going on in this recording?

Initially, two bass notes on channel 1, one of which has a pitch envelope to double as a kick-drum. And a plucky synthy rhythm, swapping between channels 5/6, which you hear exclusively through the tube modeling engine, without any dry signal. The dry signal comes in slowly. channels 5/6 also have pitch envelopes on one oscillator to add a bit more percussive hit to their part of the rhythm.

Eventually we add in another two channels 3 and 4 to add some extra notes. Not much to say about these, they're exactly what you hear. Finally, a snare drum on channel 2.

At 1:54 we bring the bitcrush in on 5/6 to add some nice sparkle. Spend some time there.

And then deconstruct it back down.

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it's a good little box.