Roland’s 303 Day
You might have seen the #303Day trending this Sunday. A lot of photos and videos popping up all over the Internet displaying some tiny silver coloured plastic box with a few knobs making a weird sound.
This happens on the 3rd of March every year.
The box itself is a small electronic bass synthesiser made by Roland Corporation back in 1981. It wasn’t a huge success in the beginning but everything took a strange turn when in 1985 techno producers in Detroit started to use the box, sometimes on its own and sometimes using a distortion pedal to get a very angry sound. There’s just too much to tell about the whole incarnation of acid house so it’s better to leave that up to DJ Pierre himself.
The little synthesiser box is named TB-303 where the TB is a short for Transistor Bass. Doesn’t it sound super sexy?
The TB-303 has been both used and abused by a lot of artists. It’s been cloned and there are an insane number of software incarnations of the box too. One of the more iconic songs that’s based around the squelching silver box is Josh Wink’s “Higher State of Consciousness” (YouTube link). It’s also used in a ton of Astral Projection songs.
One of my favourite songs to tame it is Taucher’s remix of a cover by Scooter. Which song? Oh, it’s time to put on your blue suede shoes and board a plane.
There are more than one TB-303 in the Taucher remix. The first comes in at 1:39 and is heavily distorted. The second time it appears is at 4:23. And this is one of the best patterns I’ve heard using a TB-303. It’s pure and it’s uses the glide function in a brilliant way.
Purists say it’s only the original box that can be used and none of the copies sounds right. But since Roland only built 10,000 original boxes and that one in a good condition will cost you between $2,000 and $3,000 I, for one, had to settle for a clone; Roland’s own TB-03. Got it for less than $350.
So, my contribution Roland’s #303day is a homage to both this little synthesiser as well as one of the best EDM bands. I’ve named it “Snap! to the Rhythm” and I guess you can easily figure out which one it is.
And as a final gesture to an amazing #303day Roland Cloud released a software version based on their ACB technology found in the TB-03. To all Roland Cloud users, this is completely free. All you have to do is open the Roland Cloud Manager and download it.
If you’ve tried the 30 day free plan and now think that it be fun to try it again Roland Cloud have reset ALL previously free plans so you can have another go and an additional 30 days! Go to Roland Cloud and sign in or sign up.
