The Sample offers a more diverse experience and is arguably the more "useful" of the two, but the Beats remains a very enjoyable drum machine with a character of its own.

The Volca Beats is a drum machine with analog and PCM voices and a layout that is mildly reminiscent of classic Roland drum machines like the TR-808 and the TR-909.

Very nice machine

Best Volca machine that Korg has released so far

I didn't purchase mine from Amazon but I couldn't resist to write this review about this amazing VHS shaped rhythm machine.

They're roughly the same price, but a bit more versatile (although bigger), and at least in comparing the ER-1 to the Beats, sound considerably better (the Beats snare issue is annoying, but not a total deal breaker if the other pros outweigh that con).In summary, I think these are really great, affordable little machines

Great machine for the price!

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

Amazing drum machine for the price very versatile

The Volca Beats is an impressive little analog/hybrid drum machine with powerful sounds, but also some notable limitations even beyond some of the functionality constraints common to the whole series

A much better machine in function, design, and ease of use

Great little drum machine, perfect balance of toy like fun and a serious sound

Neat little drum machine

Granted, I don't have years of experience with higher-end synthesizers to compare against, but that leads into my next point, which is that these machines are just fun, especially for someone starting out working with hardware

Had to return because it wasn't the korg I wanted, but still awesome rhythm machine!!!

While it's certainly got a tinny/metallic sound to it and is by no means your classic acid machine, the thing really screams and can make some great sounds

There is no "ACCENT" feature, which was a key feature on the 808 and other popular drum machines.

it is a beautiful compact machine

You can't vary the volume of attack for each individual part of the kit, so beats sound artificial and, well, machine-like