devious Posted January 8, 2008 Share Posted January 8, 2008 I have one sitting before me. As you know I pass a lot of gear and this is a piece of gear I will be passing . I picked the box up at the Post Office and I thought there wasn't anything inside. Seriously! Although the 303 arrived in a hard case, I expected the box to have a little weight. So much for being in the know. My take on it is aside from getting the hang of programming it, it sounds good, and rocks and I love the oh so sweet analog sound it produces. Now, if you take the insides and put them in the same case but make that case out of a metal, aluminum or something, how fuckin tits. This one has been noodled quite extensively as apparent with the color/setting mark rubbage. It's not mine. I just accepted shipment for somebody else on ebay to pass it on to them [i deal with mostly people in Europe because Americans suck balls when it comes to making them happy, Europeans really are the golden folks when it comes to dealing on ebay and I have a name made to where people ask me to receive goods for them and to pass it on to them for a small fee heehee]. So here I sit with a 1200 dollar 303? Would i pay 1200 dollars for one? No! Do I want one, you bet I wouldn't mind one, but only if it could be had for about 400 dollars tops. I paid just a few hundred more for the Prophet 5 and while I don't intend on doing so, I'm sure a few drops of the Prophet would still outlast one drop of the 303 bwahaha. I am a total quality whore and while it does boil down to the "sound of the 303," you would never see me on the road with one because of the quality sturdiness issue. Also, having the original 303 manual..going through it, and looking at it at first trying to figure out programming was a bitch. I had to resort to the Internet which made more sense in the 3 minutes of reading a website how to than the 40 minutes i spent trying to translate that Roland manual..So much for the Japanese wanting English folks on the crew. I see where their marketing failed for the 303 Ah well! On the bright side. The unit is fully functional and everything's a go after the buyer got scared about the legitimacy of the seller. So, goodbye 303, and by golly I hope you don't split in two on that plane to Germany or Ireland [wherever the buyer ends up, waiting to hear from him, until then, I have a 303 to play with for freeeeeeeeeeeeeee Haha! Anybody want to throw me their 909 now? ] Love, -d Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colin OOOD Posted January 8, 2008 Share Posted January 8, 2008 Lucky bastard. Buy one then visit this site... then this one. Then send it all to me Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
devious Posted January 8, 2008 Author Share Posted January 8, 2008 Lucky bastard. Buy one then visit this site... then this one. Then send it all to me Aha, I am familiar with the devilfish mod. Somebody in my state has one, never met him. There's like a 303 clan here, seriously. Well, there's a lot of acid music made here in Minnesota, soooo.. TR's and TBs are quite common. The guy I bought the Super Jupiter from had a 303, it was my first time seeing one, although, I did not touch it. I am sold though, I think I want a x0xb0x now. And who knows, maybe the guy who bought this will forget about it later on :-D and forget to contact me and tell me where to ship it heehee. My abilities suck though. I had a nice acid line going before bed time last night in which I tried to do something on the prophet, and well, it just didn't work for me...That is of course to blame on my skills. I tried though and it was funnier than shit and everybody would had laughed at me! but shit, I see how music can be made from a 303 almost by itself [note the almost] when I had that line going, it was simple playing with the cut/res/env/dec/acc knobs aha! I feel so gay! What the hell? Only because I've never touched one of these before. Colin, I'd buy you one, but only if my profit was exceedingly high. I had to bid on a mini moog the other day. It had a buy it now price of 1395, yes, a model d! It required IMMEDIATE payment! I did not have the money yet because I was selling that gay PAiA modular. It sold the next day, and the mini moog went up to 2700 dollars after my bid! DAMNIT! I bid out of spite. I never let any body get those awesome deals if I can't because I rarely run across them. Just think, I could had acquired two 303's for that one mini moog...but would that second 303 go to you? Ah well, I'm sick with a head cold today. I have 800 dollars to spend on something cool. It won't be a 303. And I have to return to working a regular job soon unless another mini moog like such pops up :-D -d Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
acidkills Posted January 8, 2008 Share Posted January 8, 2008 Now, if you take the insides and put them in the same case but make that case out of a metal, aluminum or something, how fuckin tits.Man ur a pervert.. I have a better idea for the case.. You said it is light but if u put it into carbon case it would be practically weightless.. Easy money Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
devious Posted January 8, 2008 Author Share Posted January 8, 2008 Man ur a pervert.. I have a better idea for the case.. You said it is light but if u put it into carbon case it would be practically weightless.. Easy money Hahaha! I am a sick twisted individual when it comes to synthesizers and their innards! In fact, I just received a casio cz-101 today that's broke, but...I think I have a super complicated problem on my hands with it and I got it to repair but...bah, I'm not 140% sure of what the issue is in this piece and it's making me frustrated. I actually think a chip may have received a case of ESD [electrostatic discharge] or some other type of electrical surge. So it may be as good as worthless aside from displaying it on my wall or something And it's funny that I Colin mentioned that case. That's super cool and I hope more people put them in those sort of cases. They definitely deserve to have a very lasting design to them... Hell, you could make half of the money back by selling the old case on ebay when you got the new case -d Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
needle ninja Posted January 18, 2008 Share Posted January 18, 2008 Roland has always made a lot of shit quality stuff with wall warts and bad manuals etc. The 303 was just so bad it was good.. For a few weeks I worked at a Radio Shack with a friend before christmas and they where selling this toy box with a microphone - it made the most knarly sound when you dove the mic into the speaker - I should have bought it. But that was before I had my recording gear, Oh well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TRohr Posted January 19, 2008 Share Posted January 19, 2008 Why is it so expensive? Is it just really rare? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
devious Posted January 19, 2008 Author Share Posted January 19, 2008 Why is it so expensive? Is it just really rare? It is hardly rare in the sense of how many units were produced. There were a little over 10k units produced. They would had made many more but they gave up because it was initially unsuccessful because it was after all "TB-303 Computer Bass Line" and the fact it was too overly complicated for some drummer, guitar player, or whomever wanted a bass line...who played an organic instrument...to program. That and the fact that the 303 manual is written in japanese, well, not really, but...very non-literally, it's hard to follow. I figured it out in 1 easy step when I received dude's 303. I went online, read a how to program the 303, and in seconds I was making fun acid lines but she's gone now, left yesterday to Germany to be with her rightful owner. But I am on the x0xb0x waiting list I guess it's rare to find a good 303 unit really. Even the one that I had received, was horrible. It had a crack, lots of wear from noodling, and I was amazed the thing worked 100% and that's what really matters. I know dude can sell it for 800 dollars more than he paid for it when he gets it and decides he'd rather have a future retro 777 or something other. Personally, anybody who wants a 303 today, either wants to be a> cool or b> fill a niche they've never had the chance of filling before. I think for what they sell for, you're better off buying another acid box like the 777 which has so much more to it, or build yourself a x0xb0x, they're very simple to assemble and only cost 340 plus shipping and I've heard 4 different ones from locals and think it fills the 303 gap perfectly for those who are willing to solder or even pay somebody a few hundred dollars to have it done. AND it has USB! with USB updated FIRMWARE! Just what a 303 needed ha ha! Anyways, back to finding a LM326N Dual voltage regulator for a crumar ds-2 I Just received. A badass monophonic DCO based synth made in Italy, but I bought it not working and...I found the problem pretty quickly! Because I have electric flowing through my body and after being electrocuted yesterday with a nice high voltage zap :-D I realized where the problem was haaaaaaah! But the LM326N is more rare than a 303 these days unless you spend five-hundred dollars from these REQUEST FOR QUOTE fucktards! (((((((((((((((((((( So dig through your equipment, your electronics junk pile, find me a LM326N and I'll pay you 40 bucks or less for it -d Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
devious Posted January 19, 2008 Author Share Posted January 19, 2008 Roland has always made a lot of shit quality stuff with wall warts and bad manuals etc. The 303 was just so bad it was good.. Their programmers are annoying too, having been through the PG-300, the PG-800, and the 200, I don't see why they did not do it the same way they did the MPG-80 as it were to the MKS-80! The PG programmers, including the 10 and the 1000 too [i cannot forget I had those at one time too] all have wall warts, or well, could use the standard boss psa-120t adaptor which is cool because all you need is one adaptor for them all versus a different power rating for each individual one [yuck, that would had been annoying!]. But..........witht he MPG-80 -> MKS-80 connected, it used a special 5 pin 'programmer cable' and the MPG-80 received it's power from the MKS-80. It was icky because you had to go through a ritual of shutting the unit down. You couldn't just zap down the MKS-80, well, you could, but you'd risk damaging the MPG-80 [it could happen, unlikely, but the possibility was higher if you were to avoid the ritual] but instead you'd have to power off the mpg-80, and then power down the mks-80 unit, not very hard, but a ritual nonetheless. Roland's old gear is awesome though. But I went to owning all Roland to owning a little bit of everything and I'm totally content, well, almost. I pick up a Yamaha SK-50D today or tomorrow from a local guy. That thing is like a poorman's CS-80! It's basically Yamaha's version of the ARP Quadra from my understanding, it's a hefty beast at I think around 140 pounds so don't expect to see me move it once it's inside my living quarters! Here's a photo: And so it goes, bigger keyboards, less functionality! HAH! -d Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
devious Posted January 23, 2008 Author Share Posted January 23, 2008 http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...N:IT&ih=010 I did it, I bought a 303! NOT! Okay, I bought a poorman's 303! It has its own sound, but can be pretty acidic! I just needed a monophonic that works because I have a crumar ds-2 that's not working and am awaiting some power supply parts on! The DS2, I don't know if I'll like the sound, but the MS404, from the demo's I've heard, totally has me going yay yay! I just wish I'd get called up for the x0xb0x already! waiting waiting waiting........... So, anybody usea MS404 before? Colin? It'd be cool if there were some tracks that had used it so I could get an overall appearance of how it's been used and how it mixes with our lovely goa/psy sound........ oomph! -d Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colin OOOD Posted January 23, 2008 Share Posted January 23, 2008 I've never used one of these but Doepfer make good shit. Ott has a fair-sized Doepfer modular and it has a lovely sound, rich and smooth. I'd be glad to have an MS404 in my rack. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Veracohr Posted January 23, 2008 Share Posted January 23, 2008 I downloaded a schematic for a 303 a while ago. A few more years of school, and hopefully I'll be able to make my own clone. At least from a sound standpoint--I don't think the schematic covers the sequencer part of the 303. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
devious Posted January 23, 2008 Author Share Posted January 23, 2008 I've never used one of these but Doepfer make good shit. Ott has a fair-sized Doepfer modular and it has a lovely sound, rich and smooth. I'd be glad to have an MS404 in my rack. Modulars are cool! :-D Except when they're PAIAs like the one I had acquired momentarily hahahaha!!!!!!!!!!! Glad I didn't lose money on it, that was scary! Well, cool! I've taken your use of the nordmod seriously lately. So I'm down to either a nord modular or a regular nord lead. Probably the modular though so I can say I was influenced by an artist, or something! Haha, no really though. I thought it was "just a digital synth" but I realize, I really need one in my setup otherwise it's going to cost me way- too much money in the long run to get setup and way- too much space that I'm already running out of. I downloaded a schematic for a 303 a while ago. A few more years of school, and hopefully I'll be able to make my own clone. At least from a sound standpoint--I don't think the schematic covers the sequencer part of the 303. The 303's sequencer is uberly lame. It's ancient chinese language the chinese can't even decipher. No, it's just really not as cool as it could had been, but for its time, it sufficed. -d Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
needle ninja Posted January 25, 2008 Share Posted January 25, 2008 I downloaded a schematic for a 303 a while ago. A few more years of school, and hopefully I'll be able to make my own clone. At least from a sound standpoint--I don't think the schematic covers the sequencer part of the 303.The magic of the 303 really derived from the imperfect waveform and the kind of distortion the box produced. There is a huge HUGE difference between them and most digitally derived distortion available in common prodution software. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Veracohr Posted January 25, 2008 Share Posted January 25, 2008 The magic of the 303 really derived from the imperfect waveform and the kind of distortion the box produced. There is a huge HUGE difference between them and most digitally derived distortion available in common prodution software. Hence, my desire to build a hardware clone! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colin OOOD Posted January 25, 2008 Share Posted January 25, 2008 The TB303 sequencer is just as much responsible for dance music as the sound of the synth. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Otto Matta Posted January 25, 2008 Share Posted January 25, 2008 The TB303 sequencer is just as much responsible for dance music as the sound of the synth.Really? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colin OOOD Posted January 25, 2008 Share Posted January 25, 2008 Really? Really. The two are a pair and interact in a complex manner to produce a quite unique sound, and driving a MIDId-up TB303 from a computer sequencer produces very different results to driving it from its internal seq. The '303 sound' is a product of both elements; this is a major reason why 303 emulations also attempt to model the sequencer, rather than just the synth part. Also, because programming a TB303 is so fkn difficult, you quite often get very unexpected results, and I'm utterly positive that more than one classic 303 tune is based on the happy accidents this causes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Otto Matta Posted January 25, 2008 Share Posted January 25, 2008 I see. For some reason I interpreted what you said as something like "The TB-303 is responsible for dance music." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colin OOOD Posted January 25, 2008 Share Posted January 25, 2008 I see. For some reason I interpreted what you said as something like "The TB-303 is responsible for dance music."Well it is, partially Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NEMO.BOFH Posted January 25, 2008 Share Posted January 25, 2008 Well it is, partially +1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
devious Posted January 26, 2008 Author Share Posted January 26, 2008 Really. The two are a pair and interact in a complex manner to produce a quite unique sound, and driving a MIDId-up TB303 from a computer sequencer produces very different results to driving it from its internal seq. The '303 sound' is a product of both elements; this is a major reason why 303 emulations also attempt to model the sequencer, rather than just the synth part. Also, because programming a TB303 is so fkn difficult, you quite often get very unexpected results, and I'm utterly positive that more than one classic 303 tune is based on the happy accidents this causes. hahahahah! I CAN VOUCH FOR THIS! That super drippy bassline I had going, I didn't really know what the fuck I was doing, and I read it was typically normal for acid heads to randomly hit the programming and see what comes out and if it worked, it worked. I did it, and it fucking worked haha! I was completely amazed that it took no less than 30 seconds to do this and I had an awesome bassline. No shit! It takes me 30 minutes just to think about a bassline, then another 3 days to lay it out :-D in a computer based sequencer! Yeah, I'm lame, but the 303 randomness totally helped! :-D -d Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Otto Matta Posted January 26, 2008 Share Posted January 26, 2008 Well it is, partially I have to agree. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
devious Posted January 26, 2008 Author Share Posted January 26, 2008 On that note, my prophet 5 is for sale.........ahahahahahahahahaha "MAKE UP UR FRIGGIN MIND DEEV!" sorrrry! But....CEM vs SSM.....And I just got an offer to buy a really awesome 8 voice SSM synth for 2k dollars..and...well...I'm a synth whore :-D and like to hear everything so i have to put up the P5 for the cash now I wish I had started working this new job sooner!@#!@ GRR! I'd love to have *that* synth and the prophet together, ohhhhhhh lala! Then I'd have my two poly and one mono combination I was working towards achieving! Ugh! Anyways, just wanted to spill the beans. Back to learning some more spanish gypsy scales. :-D -d Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colin OOOD Posted March 5, 2008 Share Posted March 5, 2008 Ok this is the first 303 thread I found; I just wanted to say I LOVE PHOSCYON. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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