303 Grooves
Oli Bell from Groove Criminals reveals how he came up with his first pack of all-new 303-style samples…
“While we don’t have access to an original version of the ubiquitous silver bass box, we do have a handful of great-sounding clones. The TD-3 we ran raw (using its faithful reproduction of the 303’s bloody annoying sequencer) and with its built-in distortion, which is fine but we prefer to use one of the collection of guitar distortion/fuzz pedals we have laying around for added crunch and fizz. We also used the Minim and Echopark to add some lush reverb and delay to the bass patterns.
“The Roland TB-3 we also ran dry and using its extensive built-in effects, mostly reverb, delay and distortion. Thankfully its built-in sequencer is slightly more user-friendly and we used that to program the sequences.
“Lastly we have the MC-09, one of a few slightly odd boxes Roland released in the early 2000s. This odd-looking beast has a 4-part looper, basic drum machine and effects, as well as two monophonic synth engines, both of which do a really lively 303 impression. Once again it’s a pain to program and is rather counterintuitive to use, but you can (with a fair amount of swearing) coax some dirty 303-ish basslines out of it.”