Search for my review on the Keys for further discussion, but the summary of the Keys/Bass comparison is that the Keys has a wider feature set (3-note polyphony; 27-key mini-keyboard; ability to stretch to 4 bars of live recording), whereas the Bass makes it easier to dial in a better quantity of warm, thick monophonic lead and bass sounds.

Keep the high tamed and you get just fat organic bass.

This was actually another reason I preferred the Bass over the Keys

I bought the volca bass by mistake (I was actually looking for the volca sample for my project), but damn that thing was the best - excellent fat bass sounds, beautiful tweets, far easier to use and get started than the volca keys, far more responsive to just noodling around to get improvised bass-lines

and I slightly prefer the Volca Bass (for reasons discussed below), I'm going with a 5-star rating anyway based on sheer "value" offered in this insanely portable little package

I bought the volca bass by mistake (I was actually looking for the volca sample for my project), but damn that thing was the best - excellent fat bass sounds, beautiful tweets, far easier to use and get started than the volca keys, far more responsive to just noodling around to get improvised bass-lines

I really like this thing, the bass sounds great in headphones, but it has sort of limited possibilities by itself

They are also pretty great, but I feel that Bass is the best of the three of what it specifically sets out to do.

I really like this thing, the bass sounds great in headphones, but it has sort of limited possibilities by itself

Plugged in it sounds like a dream, rich deep and powerful bass, nice highs, the filter and reverb sound dreamlike and fluid in use

I bought the volca bass by mistake (I was actually looking for the volca sample for my project), but damn that thing was the best - excellent fat bass sounds, beautiful tweets, far easier to use and get started than the volca keys, far more responsive to just noodling around to get improvised bass-lines

For example, I recorded a simple C2 note in a great app called iFretless Bass, sent it to the Caustic Volca Editor via AudioShare, and had a pitch tuned electric bass sound available on my Sample, and the whole process took maybe a couple of minutes

The Bass also has more traditional step sequencing in the tradition of the 303, and you can trick it into doing cool unison and faux polyphony sounds by setting the 3 oscillators to different pitch settings.

The Bass also functions like a traditional step sequencer, whereas the Keys is more geared at live play.