#11

I wanted to retain the classic 303 trademark Acid sound but imagine it was sitting alongside strings and piano on a formal concert stage…!
Acid sounds come in about 40 seconds but really get going after a minute or so…

9 Likes
#12

Well, given the 303 started life as a means for guitarists to have simple basslines without the need for a bass player, pretty much everything it has ever been used for meets this criteria :slight_smile:
I have a FAT FB-383 which is a fully analog TB303 “clone” which I haven’t used in ages. So, I dug this out, dusted it off, and set to work. Initially, I thought about playing folk tunes on it live, but it didn’t quite work out, so I took my Dark Time sequencer and created a 15-note sequence, which I could then use with panned echo for creating space. I wanted to start out not sounding like the classic 303 acid sound, but I did want that sound to make an appearance at least. I set the notes of the sequence quite high, so not using it for basslines. I also took the output and ran it through a filter (Ripples - which is a Roland filter clone, quite good for squelchy acid basslines, though not used that way here) and an echo (Disting) before running that into Clouds for glitchy sampling. To this, I added a BS2 on a sound that uses the 303 style ‘Acid’ filter, using a very slow arpeggio - this is added to the mix entirely wet with reverb - no original signal is included. I also added three Doepfer oscillators - one static, one gently moving, and the other with a fast sequence. These were put through a single filter (uVCF) and again all reverb and no signal into the mix. I added a bit of echo as I faded the signals in and out, which brings a little of the original signal in as the track progresses. I then set about live tweaking all of this to create something a bit Berlin School - certainly not what the original TB303 was intended for. The FB383 makes an appearance initially via clouds, but at around the 5 minute mark in its raw form. This is a single live take - no overdubbing, all manual tweaking of sounds and levels.

https://soundcloud.com/ikjoyce/berlin-school-303-disquiet0303

5 Likes
#13

Love weird time sigs, especially when they work that well! Mine is in 15/8 :slight_smile:

3 Likes
#14

That works really well - love the way the track evolves from its calm beginnings.

2 Likes
#15

https://soundcloud.com/s_e-v/fallout-disquiet0303

messed around with the 303 emulator at 350bpm and 100,000bpm and managed to crash the browser. not before recording some nonsense tho. had this running thru protoplasm, sine chorus, echo platter and ozone imager. as echo platter makes it more formless imager should have increased the stereo width. mastered in audition.

4 Likes
#16

The playlist is rolling:

https://soundcloud.com/disquiet/sets/disquiet-junto-project-0303

5 Likes
#17

took a 3.03 second snippet from a recording made at 303bpm on the Acid Machine 2 303 emulator and Paulstretched it 303 times which came out at 15 mins, so edited it down to 3mins 03secs with 3.03 secs fade in + out.

6 Likes
#18

Just looked and you posted this 3 minutes ago! I’ll try and listen to it 3.03 times!

3 Likes
#20

This one kind of happened by chance . . .

I told a friend about the latest disquiet brief over lunch at work. After booting up the errozero acid machine on his PC, he started messing around whilst eating - the last bit of his wonderful spontaneous play was caught on iphone, comments and all. This was going to be the source material for a composition, but I realised it was already a beautifully sculpted little sonic entity all of its own already, so I ended up just topping, loop-tailing and mastering it a bit to bring out the random traffic noise, air con and mouse clicks . . .

3 Likes
#21

https://soundcloud.com/nonwrestler/jet-jaguar-norman-cook-disquiet0303-free-download

I decided I’d use multiple 303s and focus on melody and harmony. I also decided to use some polymeter (different parts layered in different time signatures) and a gradual tempo change to undermine the basic 4 4 rhythm and help to keep away from a typical 303 bassline.

I did want to use some of the classic characteristics of the 303, still, otherwise if the 303s were entirely unrecognisable to even the most hardcore nerds it’d seem a bit pointless. So I did use the pitch glide and also tweaked the (virtual) knobs a bit.

I used four copies of a software 303 emulator called AB-303. Three form sparse chords, with the polymeter creating variations. The fourth plays the melody in 4 4.

Then there’s just some drums (also in 4 4) and some effects and that’s it.

5 Likes
#22

The tail sounds like there’s cooing pigeons in there, or does the loop do a forward/reverse boomerang thing?

1 Like
#23

man! Great stuff here. I probably won’t be kicking in anything this week–I’m doing crazy exotic artsy things like tending the garden and driving my daughter around :)–but I have to say, this weeks’ thing reminds me of why I love this group. I’m inspired to read up on the history of the 303, acid house, Berlin School, and lots of other stuff. I’m inspired by your courage and creativity in “bending” technology and ideas to new uses (including cranking the software up to 100,000 BPM and crashing the browser)! And most of all I’m just really enjoying listening to all this great music. Thanks you all!

4 Likes
#24

Yep :slight_smile: Complete with pigeons just outside the office :slight_smile:

2 Likes
#25

used Logic ES1 Subtractive Synth, modified to supposedly sound like a 303. not exactly unexpected, sound-wise, but hey it’s my first post here so.

Edit: just realized I didn’t set the track as Downloadable in Soundcloud. Fixed!

5 Likes
#26

I thought I’d try mimicking an actual, specific bass guitar line, since that’s not really done much with the 303. Used Freebee after not being able to use another 303 emulator. I like how it’s notes say there will be no future versions since the code is on a dead hard drive.
My attempt to copy the bassline for an old song called “Reason” was pretty much a failure, but I liked the sounds I got.
Next unusual thing was to add a one-take 12-string guitar, with reverb, echo and stereo enhancing from iZotope’s free plugin. A drum loop, and a vocal singing parts from the original song with a little Melodyne tweaking at the end, and that was all.

3 Likes
#27

https://soundcloud.com/davedorgan/bt-030-disquiet0303

I decided to create something that had not beat. This seemed counter to what the TB-303 was/is used for.

  • I found a set of good sounding .wav samples of a TB-303 at:
    http://www.rolandclan.com/library/tb-303/
  • The TB-303 samples were the only sound source for this piece.
  • Took three of the samples and loaded them into Iris2. Pencilled in random sections of each sample. Ran each to run bkwrd-frwrd.
  • Track 1 is the sound from Iris2 playing a low D for four bars and then repeating. Added Quadravox and Filterjam effects.
  • Track 2 is the same sound and effects alternating each four bars between G and A two octaves higher. It really wanted to resolve, but not this time.
  • Tracks 3 & 4 are the same IRIS2 sound with shorter notes, and Hysteresis and Flterjam. Different Hysteresis setting on each. Each panned further left/right.
  • Those four tracks were bounce and put in Ambient_v0.3. The out put of that was turned into Track 5. It is the background throughout the piece including the opening and ending.
  • Track 6 is Track 1 played down an octave. The volume was animated to come in and out when Tracks 3 and 4 were quiet.
  • Mixed and Mastered in Logic.
3 Likes
#28

Really enjoying listening to this weeks Junto tracks.

So whilst the Roland 303 is in our thoughts I wondered if any of you wanted to share memories of when you first became aware of this unique sound / noise?

I remember in 1988 hearing the first Acid House tracks, via my older brother - what was that noise I thought - that was the famous squelchy 303 acid sound and thinking it was music from another planet.
I have a great UK Acid compilation from around this time called Acid Bang and I gave it a spin this morning and suddenly everything felt like my teenage self 28-30 years ago!

Also later who could not remember Josh Winks Higher State of Consciousness - the original acid version was something else!

Any other thoughts and memories?

2 Likes
#29

In 1988 I would’ve only been 12 or 13, so my earliest memories of acid are fairly poppy things that made it on TV here in New Zealand - e.g. Theme from S-Express by S-Express and The Only Way Is Up by Yazz & The Plastic Population (surely not a 303, listening to it now).

I also remember discovering the original “Pure Trance” version of What Time Is Love probably 5 years after the fact and just being … well, entranced. :wink: Again, not even sure there’s a 303 in there? But I still love it.

Also, if people don’t know the TM404 album from a few years’ back, I regard it as pretty essential. Depends what you’re into, but it’s dubbed out home listening stuff but made with 100% Roland gear in live takes. That could be very boring, but the guy’s got impeccable taste IMO. (Andreas Tilliander, who has pretty long pedigree.)

3 Likes
#30

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#31

https://soundcloud.com/ethanhein/303-soul-pride-disquiet0303

This idea started very complicated, and I kept cutting stuff and cutting stuff until I was left with the truth: four James Brown breakbeats vocoded through a 303 drone, a track I did many years ago with Propellerhead Rebirth for a piece of downtown theater.

2 Likes