The Korg Volca Beats is a joy to use. The analog tones - kick, snare, toms, and hats - really are the heart of this little machine. They sound so fantastic and their control is minimal but covers a wide range of tonal shaping possibilities. The hats are the standout. The grain knob really has a unique element of sonic control. I bought the Volca Beats, again after having one many years ago, specifically for the sound of the hats. Programming with MIDI notes is the way to go here. You could definitely do a cool one-bar performance on this beast especially getting crazy with the Stutter function but, for my purposes, writing techno-electronic tracks, MIDI note triggering from a DAW is ideal. For fine control, I recommend sequencing your MIDI notes and then recording samples of each instrument for use with sampler instances in your DAW. This way you can adjust the phase of each sample to really gel everything as opposed to having a random analog phase to each tone. Also recording samples allows you to process each sound individually and that is really what a polished & professional sound is all about. The PCM sounds can be cool and sound wonderfully degraded at low pitch settings but honestly you can ignore them and stick to the analog section without losing ANY value to the machine. Korg has delivered almost certainly the best budget friendly analog (and PCM) drum machine with the Volca Beats.

I am able to expand the live sounds as well as studio quality recording abilities.

I would have liked for it to have more outputs then just a headphone jack. I would have also liked a jack for an external clock. And I felt that at the end of my first time using it all the beats started sounding the same.

Really wish I had gotten the Volca Sample. I love the ease of use, but the sounds are very limiting without a bunch of modding (from effects and software tweaks to actually soldering the PCB for better sounding snare and kick). I guess if you're really on a budget...... I'd get the Sampler because they're the same price. Really wish I'd gotten the Sampler, did I say that already?

I'm a songwriter- Not really a tech guy. I've never been great with Sequencer/Drum Machine technology, but this piece is so easy to use that I'm really eager to see how far I can go with it! I massively prefer having an outboard unit such as this with physical buttons and knobs. Great sounds and easily manipulated- I love this thing. I've had Korg items in the past which I really liked (I was particularly fond of my Korg Pandora's Box PXR-4 Digital Four Track recorder until a band mate lost it at a gig years ago.). Korg is a super-solid brand with intelligent design and easy-to-use, reliable quality products. Plus, for the price, I've got to say I'm extremely impressed.

Arrived in great shape.