Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Roland TB 303

Time for a little history lesson about the Roland TB 303 Bass Line synthesizer. Intended to mimic the sound of a bass guitar, it did a horrible job at what it was made to do. It sounded nothing like a bass guitar. It used one oscillator with 2 waveforms to choose from and a unique 16-step sequencer with some unusual and glitchy sounding slides, accents, and filters. The end result generally sounded artificial and robotic. This is what made it so damn cool to use in dance music.



You can hear this mechanical abomination screaming it's little head off in tons of 90's dance tunes (including Da Funk) and you can still hear it used in today's music. Today they can be found on eBay for around $1,000-$2,000, but there are plenty of good software emulation options for everyday civilian usage.

Watch for reviews of the various software options that you can use to get that classic 'acid' sound.

7 comments:

  1. interesting post but i don't need it atm :D

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  2. Wow, there is always a '303' or '303 bass' in just about every synth preset I have ever seen, it's freaky to actually see one.
    I've always viewed it as the early 90's Essential G-Funk box.

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  3. That makes me want money, so I can then fully want that.

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  4. lol we have one of these standing around at work

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