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Volca Sample. Always noisy ? Or do you just need better cables or an audio interface ?
Hey guys.
I'm genuinely curious. have heard loads of stories of people complaining about how noisy their volca sample is and it got me wondering. can the quality of the audio cables and the audio interface actually affect how clean the recording is ? I've noticed my sample is pretty noisy when i connect it to earphones and directly to a speaker but it is super noise free when recording using my Novation Audiohub or the ICA4+. is this the experience that most users are getting ? here are some examples of recording directly into blocs using the Audiohub:-
As you can see there is literally no noise at all in some of the recordings. would love to see what other users have experienced or if there are other people with Noise free Volca Samples.
Comments
Turning down the reverb helps a lot. Volca effects are usually really lo-fi.
oh definitely. do not use the effects at all since i add effects in my daw. i pretty much just use the sample to shape my drum sounds. actually use the analog isolators to shape each layer too. like add punch to the bass drum and record it. add brightness to hats record that. and so on and so forth. blocs is wonderful for this workflow. and direct ableton export means i have my clean drum loops directly in my daw
Yeah the Volcas are a little "raw" but honestly I quite like that! It also depends how you're powering them. On battery they're pretty quiet. On mains, less so. Although I found that giving my audio cables a little jiggle and spin in the socket tidied up like 75% of the noise from my Volcas. So cables could be a thing too!
These examples were from mains power. I wonder if the power system matters. I live in India. We have 220volts here. Would that be a factor ?
Interesting. I have never really thought of this, but that absolutely could be a factor. I do have all of the Volcas, but I'm much more knowledgeable about guitar effects and equipment - "dirty" power is absolutely an issue with many effects pedals.
I run my Volcas off of batteries. I use Eneloop rechargeables for a lot of my gear, but given that I have 6 Volcas, that would be 36 Eneloop AA's, which is not cheap. Fortunately, the batteries do last for a fairly long time.
I think your point with the Blocs Wave examples above was to show how there doesn't seem to be much noise when you record with it, but you hear noise with headphones. I hear some noise too, even with batteries - it's a pretty well known characteristic of the Volca stuff. Sounds like a hissing noise, if we are talking about the same thing. A headphone (and a powered monitor, obviously) are amplifiers, so it might just be the case that whatever noise you are getting is amplified when you use cans or a monitor, but not picked up as much if you just run the 3.5 mm jack into an interface. Hope this helps!
the actual sound examples that i record lack the hiss from my earbuds. whats strange is if i plug in my AKG 240 MK2 directly to the volca the hiss vanishes as well. on the flipside one of my line in cables records hiss into the interface meanwhile another does not. hence my question on whether the cables were a factor as well.
all i know is with the cable i currently use and my mains power its incredibly noise free
(unless you use effects.)
power lines can transmit a lot of noise, as you know from neon bulbs or dimming circuits.
Most of that slips into audio circuits by the ground line (or rather the effective ground level).
In particular if the circuit isn't really 'grounded' as with 2 pin supplies - your mileage may vary a lot and there's plenty of surprises once you start to examine your installation (which includes all pwered devices that have some interconnection, from mic to powered speakers and DAWs in between).
Most interfaces have some reglation for supply power on board which may deliver quite different noise levels.
IIrc I once improved the noise level on microphone recording for about 6dB by using a battery powered preamp - the first preamp stage is the most sensitive to these effects.
As long as they conform to (at least) average quality, cables shouldn't be a problem.
@gonekrazy3000 It sounds like a blessing that you're getting clean signal when it counts the most (recording). The only Volca I've kept is the Sample and I find it surprisingly crisp and hissless noise-floor wise both through headphones and monitors / interface. Generally I'm using AC power with it.
The quality of the power supply powering the volca may be key- a good quality, regulated power supply made for analog music equipment. Them being two prong is actually a good thing, the third prong ground connection is often a source of noise when connecting pieces of gear together, that each have a ground plug, -especially- when they are plugged into different outlets, because unwanted AC current can flow through the grounds in your audio cabling, making the audio noisy. Two prongs is your friend. After all, things are very quiet when run on battery power, and there is no ground connection to the building.
Hum is a power issue, or cabling, but hiss is an audio design or gain staging issue, like something too quiet early in the chain, so when it gets turned up later, so does the noise.
I burnt off some precious couple of hours trying to see what's the problem with my new Volca FM, that I tried to record and a horrible hiss came out, the recording was listenable but far from sounding "professional", due to the hissing noise in the background.
So all I had to do was go into my audio settings on Windows 10 - Recording Devices - Recording - double tap the mic line - Levels - it was on 100%, slided it over to 75% and the hissing issue was gone. Maybe in your case it's not the Volca's fault.
Good'n. Most audio components have a sweet spot. And, unless it's an 80s RAT distortion pedal, most of those sweet spots fall below 100%. I try to default most things to around 70% (lower with budget mic pres where possible), gain staging wise, and go from there.