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Roland Tb303

 

 

 

Roland tb303

audio demo Country: Japan
Weight: 1 Kg
Dimensions: 300 x 55 x 146 mm
audio demo trend price : 2500 €
manual demo video comments

Roland TB303 Bass Line "transistor Bass"
Computer Controlled
(1981)

 

THE silver machine, cult bass liner that defined most of the electronic acid music.

Loved or hated, the 303 is one of the most immitated, controversial and sought-after musical machine ever created

 

computer controlled
silver box

info BASS LINER main panel features 2 rotary selectors, 24 push buttons and 8 knobs potentiometers.

Rear panel terminal connectors:
- main signal out
- CV tension out 0-5V
- Gate signal out
- Sync din 24PPQ
- audio input MIX IN
- headphones out
- waveform selector (square / saw)

ac Power supply is a 9V external PSU DC negative center -)+ or 4 X 1,5V batteries.

 

 


edit VOICE the internal CPU UP650C manages 1 voices with 2 different waveforms: saw and square.
Generated sound can be tweaked using the upper knobs functions.


cpu

 


editSOUND FUNCTIONS the sound can be modified using 6 knobs:
- Tuning: changes the VCO oscillator pitch (range: +/-700 cents)
- Cutoff freq: amount of filtered VCF
- Resonance: amount of VCF resonance
- Env MOd: sets the amount of signal from the EG that reaches the VCF cutoff
- Decay: sets the decay time of the Envelope
- Accent: sets the amount of the EG that reaches the VCF resonance.


drum pad

 

 

edit FILTER famous resonant and screaming diode Ladder VCF at 4 poles, unmatched.

drum pad

 

edit ENVELOPE generator is based on famous and now rare BA662 VCA chip and controls decay and accent.

drum pad

 




editSEQUENCER
tb303 cannot be directly played (unless some Mod) and must be programmed with the not-so-intuitive internal sequencer. Notes are entered with the mini-keyboard, then each note can be set with lenght, portamento, slide and octave transpose (+/-1)
Quite tedious and results are often different from original idea, but that's part of the original charm... tb303 noobs are puzzled for that, especially after spending thousands of bucks for the machine.


drum pad

 

edit SYNC tempo from 40 to 300 BPM or sync to external DIN-SYNC with other compliant machine like big sister drum machine TR808.

sync



edit MEMORY:
- 7 songs
- 64 patterns (256 measures).
Internal batteries must be fitted to retain memory, be aware of acid leaking.



sync




editREPAIR AND MODIFICATION
the TB is quite reliable, just some tact switch need to be replaced soon or later, also some issues on RAM IC and more rare the CPU may die, however there are some third-parte replacement with some enhancements (e.g.. quicklsilver).
THe most common modification is the Midi retro fitting by single DIN or various CV/GATE, also some extreme mods like devilfish or Borg.


sync

 


memroy RELATED FAMILY
tb303 is maybe the most cloned machine ever made, dozen for more or less good emulation of the silver box.


sync Roland TB3 (2014) should be the official successor of the Tb303 with new outfit. A digital cheap machine, not so great IMHO.
Roland Tb-03 Roland Tb-03 (2016) boutique series is a remake of the tb3 which is a remake of the tb303- lol- Not tested yet
clones 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
- 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

 

 

effet VST PLUGIN / SAMPLED VERSION also a LOT of virtual softwares:

  name price
free 303 vst

- Venom VB-303
- Bitsonic TB-303

Free
VST PLUGINs
commercial vst

- D16 Group Phoscyon
- AudioRealism BassLine3

commercial
VST PLUGINs

 

 

demo AUDIO DEMO

demo coming up
demo  
demo  




video VIDEO CLIP SELECTION

demo1 video2 hits3
hits hits hits

 

tb303 cat
mimi the synthcat with 2 TBs :)



 

 

 

 

 

roland tb303 big picture

 

 

 

 

 

 




manual
Roland tb303 MANUAL

 

 




manual
Roland tb303 SERVICE MANUAL

 

wheel shift scale
edit chord shift scale

 

tb303 scan1
edit original brochure

 

tb303 scan2
edit original brochure

 

tb303 scan3
edit original brochure

 

tb303 scan3
edit edit

 

 

tb303 shirt
edit edit

 

merchandising
edit edit

 

 

Roland tb303 FOR SALE
Roland tb303 FOR SALE
CHECK OUT EBAY OFFERS

 


 

 

circuit pitchmode midi modification


manual

-cult
-it's a tb



manual

- price
-not so intuitive

comment



REVIEW : "History of electro music, nothing more to say".

 
logo tb303


COMMENTS

 

 

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* but merchandising, bikini, tshirt, custom tb, brochure , pillow

Roland tb303 5.5 out of 5 based on 1 ratings. price €2500