Test: Korg Volca FM2

Externally, the Volca FM 2 barely differs from its predecessor. Under the hood, however, the second generation of this mobile FM synthesizer offers some improvements. The polyphony has been doubled to six voices and a new Reverb effect complements the integrated Chorus. For the first time, a MIDI output has also been built into a Volca, so that external synthesizers can be controlled with the built-in sequencer and arpeggiator without further modification. The sound generation is compatible with the Yamaha DX7, whose thousands of presets can be loaded directly into Volca FM2 and can now also be played with velocity using an external keyboard, which was only possible with unofficial firmware on its predecessor.

First Volca with MIDI output

The Volca FM comes in the same plastic case as the older model and the other Volca synthesizers; however, the first change is already apparent in the connections: In addition to the familiar analog sync input and output, there are two additional mini-jack sockets instead of the DIN socket for MIDI IN. Here, you can connect compatible equipment with the same jack directly using a jack cable. Unfortunately, there are already different standards here, so that the connection, for example,