Conclusion

Given its humble roots, it is hard to overstate the allure of the TB-303. As a bass synth, it’s perfectly adequate, but it does lack the more complicated synthetic architecture found on its brethren, the SH-101.

We have to balance our arguments for and against original TB-303s by breaking things down into three distinct arenas. Firstly; sound. As a basic synth, it sounds very fine, in part due to its diode-ladder filter-based design, which operates in 4-pole/24dB mode. Many aficionados report that it exhibits a slight quality reduction, closer to 18dB, but this may well be down to component degradation over time. It only offered saw and square wave sound sources upfront, but when you add in the decaybased filter modulation envelope, you have a simple trix-ter which just does what it does.

That is, until you add the second of our elements; the sequencer. Allowing basic step editing of notes, which can be stored as patterns and ultimately chained together to form songs, the onboard note-organiser is notoriously hard to work with, which might explain why so many chose to work with a single bar in a loop or pattern. But, it’s the combo of note input, ability to add rests, and then slide from one note to another, that throw open the character of the 303. Synchronising an original 303 to your track was never going to be easy. There is a 5-pin DIN connector onboard, for an old sync protocol known as Sync 24. It also offers CV and Gate outputs, so if you did manage to grapple the sequencer, you could send those notes to another dimension. However, if you owned other Roland products from that time, such as the TR-606 Rhythm Composer, you were in luck! Pure synchronisation was a cable away, but even then, it often exhibited issues, such as the lottery of both sequences starting on the first beat at the same time.

Sync issues aside, you only need to add the aforementioned, envelope-laden filter, and an overdrive or distortion pedal, and you’d gain the iconic sound of the 303. We say iconic, but it never started that way, which leads us to point three; style, genre, time and place! If it hadn’t been for its failure within its intended domain, it wouldn’t have been sold off as cheaply and no kids or bedroom producers could have picked them up from the bargain bins, resulting in the groundbreaking genre of acid house.

We started our exploration into the 303 by describing it as a machine based around happy accidents. That machine ultimately became the machine of kings! Long live the 303…

Finally, we’ve curated some loops from our friends at Loopmasters, all created on original 303s, and then placed the latest Roland software version of the instrument up against them, so you can hear the difference… or not! Which sounds best? Only you can decide! Download the audio from filesilo.co.uk.

“Which sounds best? Only you can decide!”