Roland Bass Line

R
oland’s latest Boutique
box is a silver unit
laden with the small
knobs and miniature
button keyboard
recognisable to any
Acid House aficionado
– those of the TB-303 Bass Line. The
new TB-03 is Roland’s second shot at
a 303-style box. The TB-3 Touch
Bassline (part of the Aira range)
revived the single oscillator synth plus
sequencer combo idea, but with a
very different approach to design and
functionality. It drew criticism for
resonance. The filter does not extend
into the realms of self-oscillation, but
does offer a very pronounced peak.
This comes into its own when
combined with the simple two-stage
attack/decay envelope generator. In
reality the attack is fixed, so only the
decay gets its own knob. Pushing up
the envelope mod and adjusting the
decay time facilitates the classic 303
filter squelches. This isn’t quite the
full story, as the signal also passes
through a VCA stage linked to the
Accent control that raises the sound
level when required. There’s little else
in terms of amplitude refinement
– notes are generally on or off, so it is
the filter that provides the main
contouring here. That’s not much for
something that fetches over £2k
secondhand – this could be one of
the most expensive secondhand
synths on a cost per knob basis.
However, this isn’t the full story.
The 303 also plays host to a pattern-
based sequencer that controls the
pitch of the internal synth. But, as
well as automating note sequences, it
also allows you to specify accents and
pitch slides. The addition of these are
where the recognisable sound of the
303 in full flow comes together.
The TB-03 takes the original 303
as its starting point and makes a few
functional and sonic additions. One
of the ‘features’ of the TB-303 was its
quirky sequencer’s programming
system. This facilitated entering note
pitches separately to note lengths and
rests – a big contributor to the ‘press
some buttons and see what happens’
approach to pattern creation. The new
box offers this as well as a Step
Recording Mode that allows you to
enter notes, rests, accents and slides
(tied notes) while stepping through
being too much of a departure,
especially as the marketing hyped it
as being a faithful recreation of the
original – at least in sonic terms.
But what requirements does a
true inheritor of the 303 crown have
to fulfil? In terms of synthesis the
original TB-303 is incredibly simple.
It offers a single oscillator switchable
between sawtooth and square waves.
This is then routed through a 24dB/
octave four-stage diode ladder filter
– not an 18dB/octave filter as
sometimes gets mentioned. The filter
has controls for filter cutoff and
THE PROS & CONS
+
Recreates the sonics,
parameter editing
and programming
system of the original
Swing. It escapes
the confines of
1/16ths and triplets
with a fully variable
swing parameter
All synth parameters
and sequencer data
is sent and received
over MIDI and USB
-
No real-time
recording mode
No way of
automating synth
parameters from the
internal sequencer
Too many (hidden)
multiple key-presses.
A good reason to
have added a larger
menu-driven display?
It offers the quirkiness of the
303’s sequencer as well as a
Step Recording Mode
Roland TB-03 Bass Line | Reviews
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FMU315.rev_roland.indd 83 1/23/17 3:26 PM