Roland TB-3
Touch Bassline (2014)

 

Roland revisited the famous analog bassliner Tb-303 from 1981 with modern options and new features.

Tb3 is part of AIRA project which is aimed to produce high-quality digital products at budget price.

DESKTOP MODULE Main panel features a 7 segments display, 8 push buttons, 16 step minipads, an encoder, 5 knobs and a touchpad (not multitouch).

Rear panel terminal connectors:
- Midi interface
- headphones
- main out
- USB interface.

Power supply external PSU 500 mA.

VOICE digital unit based on the analog modeling ACB Analog Circuit Behavior a process that recreates nuances and the behavior of traditional transistor circuits.
Tb-3 generates a monophonic voice and 4 kind of digital oscillators models: saw and square (modeled on tb303), leads, FX and bass.

 

PERFORMANCE the pressure-sensitive touch pad controls X-Y axis control some real-time functions: notes entry, cutoff, decay, gain, scatter, pitch and LFO amount.

FILTER is a digital emulation of the -24dB/oct resonant diode filter.

LFO some patches have preset modulations but these cannot be edited.

SEQUENCER patterns can be recorder in 2 manners:
- realtime notes entered with touchpad. Sequence transpose, chain patterns, random notes, automatic variations, copy and delete.
- step mode: traditional modes ncludes original accent, glide, tie and octave shift. It is possible to choose the step numbers (1-32) and 16th or 8th Triplet notes length or apply a shuffle swinged mode.

 

SYNC internal clock frequency (30-300 BPM) or external digital clock set by Midi or USB, note that when plugged in a computer it is directly Midi controlled, digitally recorded and tempo-synched to other Aira devices

 

EFFECTS some interesting effects with very limited edit: reverb, delay, distortion and phaser.
SCATTER mangles your sequences with real-time synced effects fo remix or glitch music purpose, including:slicing, reverce, gating and random seed.

 

MEMORY:
- 134 preset patches
- 64 user patterns (each 32 steps).

 

 

TB-3 TIPS and COMBOS:

- TUNING: hold ENV MOD and change values using the pad
- NUMBER OF STEPS: hold STEP rec and use data knob
- TRANSPOSE: hold KEYBOARD and press the note root
- RANDOM PATTERN: hold PATTERN SELECT then SCATTER
- VARIATION RANDOM: hold KEYBOARD SELECT then SCATTER
- SELECT MIDI CHANNEL: switch on holding SCATTER, change 1-16 or OMNI.

RELATED FAMILY:

	ROLAND TB303 the original cult bassliner
	Roland Tb-03 (2016) boutique series is a remake of the tb3 which is a remake of the tb303- lol- Not tested yet
	ROLAND MC-303 one of the first marketing operation from Roland in 1996. Totally digital groovebox, rompler style.
	ROLAND VARIOS 303 - the rack from 2003 was a mix of various function including a tb303 emulator
	Clones: here's a brief list: - Abstrakt Instruments Avalon Bassline synthesizer VIDEO - Adafruit x0xb0x VIDEO - Acidcode ML303 VIDEO - Analogue Solutions TB-X TB-303 VIDEO - Cyclone Analogic Bass Bot TT 303 VIDEO - Future Retro Revolution - Future Retro 777 VIDEO - Acidlab Bassline VIDEO - Syntecno TeeBee VIDEO - Doepfer MS-404 VIDEO - Analogue Solutions Trans-Bass-Xpress VIDEO - Deep bass Nine VIDEO - Oakley TM3030 VIDEO - MAM MB33 VIDEO

 

VST PLUGIN / SAMPLED VERSION virtual TB softwares and samples:

	name	price
	- Venom VB-303 - Bitsonic TB-303	Free VST PLUGINs
	-Polynominal | 5 octaves samples note by note! -Polynominal | 18 first patterns sampled from Tb3	Free kontakt sample SET. Gift 4 you. free donation
	- D16 Group Phoscyon - AudioRealism BassLine3	commercial VST PLUGINs

 

AUDIO DEMO

jam with drum TR-808 another jam with 808 third jam with 808 last jam with 808 standard sequence scatter

scatter ringmodulator scatter sequence I scatter sequence II 1scatter sequence III scatter sequencer IV scatter sequence V

 

YOUTUBE VIDEO CLIP SELECTION AIRA TB3 (AIRA TB3) roland TR8 & TB3

 

 

ROLAND TB-3 MANUAL

original brochure