Trend price : 200€
Roland finally revisited the famous analog bassliner Tb-303 from 1981 with modern options and new features.
Overview
(weight: 0.8 Kg). 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
Voice
digital unit based on the analog modeling ACB Analog Circuit Behavior a process that recreates nuances and the behavior of traditional transistor circuits. The Tb-3 generates 1 monophonic voice.
Oscillators
machine offers 4 kind of digital oscillators models:
-
saw and square (modeled on tb303)
-
leads
-
FX
- bass
Performance
the pressure-sensitive touch pad controls X-Y axis control these functions:
- notes entry
-
filter cutoff
-
EG decay
-
transpose
-
decay
-
volume
-
scatter effect
-
pitch change
- LFO amount
Filter
is a digital emulation of the "famous" -18dB/oct screaming filter
LFO
some patches have modulations but these cannot be edited.
Sequencer
patterns can be recorder in 2 manners:
- realtime, note entered with touchpad, with sequence transpose, chain patterns, random notes, automatic variations, copy and delete.
- step modes: 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.
Effect
- reverb
- delay
- distortion
- phaser
- scatter mangling
Memory
-
134 preset patches
-
64 user patterns (each 32 steps)
Audio demo:
Video Clip:
Review
OK: TB-related / price
NOT : limited sound edit / key combos / sound is a bit "raw"
"I had a lot of fun jamming with tb3/tr8 at a fraction of price of the original vintage machines, but I definitely will keep my Tb303."
Text , review, special demos copyright polynominal.com / Eric Pochesci