As with any Volca you do get a bit more noise compared to a high-end synth, especially when you've got the tone knob cranked

Raw analog sawtooth sounds can be a bit harsh, though you can tame this with the VCF cutoff or add external effects

This is a neat little analog rhythm machine that is very simple to use, lots of fun to play with, and actually sounds amazingly good when recorded or integrated into a proper system (and by that I mean, send the audio out into a nice compressor, slap a bit of reverb or delay on it, and this thing is fat!!).I played with it in a store and wasn't too impressed, even with headphones

I don't mean to imply that the snare is completely unusable - with the snappy and decay knobs set around 12:00, you get a short, percussive snare sound that is passable, albeit very limited in scope and a bit weak in output.