Volca Sample 2... Possible to import samples without downsampling? Sounds like trash

[tim_flipspark]

So the Volca 2 has such potential for me with being easily able to import samples via USB, but one of the baffling changes is they have expanded the sample bank size to 200 (from 100) now at the expense of downsampling the samples to 31.25kHz. The original didn't do this, and samples had a higher sample rate albeit a smaller bank size.

The weird thing is that updating the factory library with Volca 2 loads 100 higher sample rate files which sound ok, but when you try to import user files into the librarian, it downsamples them on import before you even load them to the volca.

For this means the Volca 2 is unusable for me. Any imported file just sounds terrible. I'm still using the volca 1. Does anybody know how to get around this? Ideally you could put the volca 2 in '100 bank mode' at a higher sample rate.

[sin night]

So the Volca 2 has such potential for me with being easily able to import samples via USB, but one of the baffling changes is they have expanded the sample bank size to 200 (from 100) now at the expense of downsampling the samples to 31.25kHz. The original didn't do this, and samples had a higher sample rate albeit a smaller bank size.

Are you sure? The specs on Korg website for the original Volca Sample state 31.25 kHz.
https://www.korg.com/us/products/dj/vol ... ations.php


The whole point of the Volca Sample line was to provide a lo-fi sample playback device (that was true also for the first version). I don't know if the first version had slightly different (better???) electronics on the audio path than the Volca Sample 2, but it wasn't hi-fi. And of course I'm speculating about the different electronics on the audio path, because I didn't compare the two (I have only a Volca Sample 2).

I'm quite sure the app to import samples on the first version applied resampling, too. Of course the resampled file will sound "bad" on a pc / "hi-fi" device, but on the Volca Sample it shouldn't sound that bad (I think they took into account the low sample rate when designing the audio electronics).

Unless the Volca 2 Librarian performs downsampling with a very bad algorithm, worse than the apps avaible for the original Volca Sample (which I doubt, but you can verify by performing the downsampling with an external audio editor and check if there's any difference with the result of the librarian; maybe you could even try to null the two versions against each other to see if there's any residual difference), I would guess that any difference is due to a slightly different / revised electronics on the Volca Sample 2 (note: I don't have a Volca Sample 1 and I don't have plans).

Other than performing the downsampling with an external tool instead of the Korg librarian (if that makes a difference, I don't know), there are no other options.
If you prefer the sound of the first version (which may have different electronics on the audio path, which may result in a different character indeed), unfortunately you have no choice but to use the first original version of the Volca Sample.

[itanever]

Both have the same sample rate. I've owned both and while I didn't make any side by side comparisons I didn't notice any differences in the sound. Sample 2 sounded as good as the original one to me.

[Pluginbug]

The age old ‘samples sound worse when you’re paranoid & suspicious’ theorem. Hopefully tech support can help