Korg issued a factory advisory for early volca sample2 units in September 2020. Contemporary reviews followed in 2021, describing the USB-equipped second generation.
The machine in the record
Moe Shop / Volca Sample 2 demonstration.
For Korg, Moe Shop built a Volca Sample 2 demonstration around imported sounds and second-generation sequencing, with an NTS-1 riser in the arrangement. It is not an archival record credit; it is a clear demonstration of the revised machine being used to make an actual piece of music.
Read Moe Shop Interview ↗More records in the archive
The machine keeps turning up.
TORIENA / the volca sample 2 demo track
TORIENA describes using factory samples for her volca sample 2 demonstration.
Read TORIENA and volca sample 2 ↗From computer to sixteen steps
Prepare a sound outside the instrument, send it through the micro-USB connection with Korg’s Mac or PC Librarian, then choose it for a sequencer part. The second-generation volca sample plays imported audio; it does not record sound directly. Its factory library includes material by Korg and MSXII Sound Design, but all 200 sample locations can be overwritten. USB adds a computer-management route, not a microphone or audio recorder.
volca sample2: product and artist collaborations ↗ volca sample2 specifications ↗ Korg Volca Sample 2 ↗
Ten parts, eight voices
Ten parts share eight simultaneous voices. Select a sample, choose its start and length, then change playback speed, reverse it or soften it with Hi Cut. Pitch and amplitude envelopes, level and pan further shape each part; digital reverb and the Bass/Treble analogue isolator act on the resulting sound. The 8MB memory holds up to 130 seconds at 16-bit, 31.25kHz resolution. These are playback and storage specifications, not direct-recording facilities.
The early factory-sample advisory
On 18 September 2020, Korg reported noisy factory samples in some early units within serial range 0001–2680. A corrupted production installation was the cause. The published remedy uses Librarian to replace samples 000–009, or reload the complete factory bank. This is a dated service notice for a bounded production range, not a description of every sample2.
New volca sample corrupted factory data and troubleshooting method ↗
Two demonstration workflows
For Korg’s commissioned demonstration, Moe Shop prepared chords and other sounds in his DAW, then built the arrangement on sample2; an NTS-1 supplied the riser. His August 2021 interview explicitly distinguishes this work from years with the original model. TORIENA’s April 2021 interview describes using many factory samples and the reverse function in her demonstration. These accounts document particular projects, not sample2 credits for either artist’s wider catalogue.
More patterns, a different arrangement method
The original model offered ten patterns and six saved songs; sample2 has sixteen patterns with chaining instead. In January 2021, Robin Vincent welcomed the easier sample management but questioned losing Song Mode: chain order depends on pattern positions, rearranged through Librarian, rather than six stored song arrangements. He also encountered Windows driver trouble before transfer worked. His review describes a useful change with trade-offs, not an automatically frictionless upgrade for every owner.
The USB socket identifies the revision
The manufacturer photograph shows the micro-USB socket above the controls and sixteen pattern-memory labels across the touch strip. The face still says volca sample: those details matter when distinguishing the second generation from the original. Moe Shop’s and TORIENA’s portraits identify the artists; neither portrait establishes a machine model or a recording session.
Sources
The visual archive