what is the best 303 emulation soft synth

[josephjobling]

forgot to say acidtrash love the tunes (i one day aspire to e able to do this) x

[Metadog]

audio realism bassline two is good

is what i use anyway

got the built in 303 style sequencer to get it slippin an slidin

[xes]

phoscyon is very good. I have a tb303 clone which is about as close as you'll get because it used the same components and pcb and most of the time I wouldnt bother plugging it in because while its fun to play with the difference is really not much to write home about. It is just an analogue pulse generator. I certainly wouldn't spend £1500 on a tb303 even if I had it spare.. but in the end for lead lines I wouldn't swap the Arlsm bassline for anything.

This is something silly I did using only the emulator...

http://umbrellog.com/music/funkkkkk.mp3

This is it...

http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~co...ssor/tb303.htm

Contrasted with the vst...

http://umbrellog.com/music/omarkhans...antakeaway.mp3
http://umbrellog.com/music/kinaldieautospares.mp3

Nuffin in it. The legend of the TB303 is mostly a case of "emperors new clothes"

Pete,that clone,what do you run it through? Could I plug it into my mixer/midi controller (CME UF50)/pc? Or all of the above. I'm gagging for some knobs to twiddle. (and i've not figured out how to map ABL through ableton to my midi cos I'm a thick impatient bastard) :embarrassed:

[echodek]

Pete,that clone,what do you run it through? Could I plug it into my mixer/midi controller (CME UF50)/pc? Or all of the above. I'm gagging for some knobs to twiddle. (and i've not figured out how to map ABL through ableton to my midi cos I'm a thick impatient bastard) :embarrassed:

once you've loaded the plugin into a midi track, a little box pops up at the bottom of the ableton window. at the top of that box is a little button with a triangle in it. click the triangle, and all the ABL2 parameters are listed for you to map to a controller. i've attached a screengrab...

[xes]

once you've loaded the plugin into a midi track, a little box pops up at the bottom of the ableton window. at the top of that box is a little button with a triangle in it. click the triangle, and all the ABL2 parameters are listed for you to map to a controller. i've attached a screengrab...

cheers dude,I'll give it a try tonight :) I once managed to get a little light to flash when i pressed buttons. But that's about it :lol:

[xes]

had a little play,got the box up,but I still can't map it. Probably cos I'm not running a legit version of either,and it's god punnishing me.

[AcidTrash]

Pete,that clone,what do you run it through? Could I plug it into my mixer/midi controller (CME UF50)/pc? Or all of the above. I'm gagging for some knobs to twiddle. (and i've not figured out how to map ABL through ableton to my midi cos I'm a thick impatient bastard) :embarrassed:

I haven't a clue. It just works as a midi slave. I make my riffs then pipe it out to the box. My advice is not to bother. there is nothign at all wrong with ABL. The difference is negligable and the hype about the real thing is just hype. By the time you';ve run it throughj a shitty distortion unit or overdriven desk and recorded it and eq'd it you've lost any semblnce of analogue realism you may have had and the majority of acid lines depend more on the fx than the pulse generator anyway.

The old gueard, nostalgic about the old days may call me a heretic and while they may have dozens of records out using the real box, I have been using emulators for 7 years nowand I have yet to find the ABL or phoscyon wanting in any great dimension.

I'm with DB on this one. The trade off is not worth the sacrifice in money. I say with a reasonable degree of confidence that when my tunes are good, theyre fcking great and I think the spontenaeity of my tracks would be lost if I spent half my time fcking around with hardware that never sounds the same twice.

[AcidTrash]

audio realism bassline two is good

is what i use anyway

got the built in 303 style sequencer to get it slippin an slidin

You can do the same with midi patterns and varying velocity. But why bother? abl is the shit.

This is the abl. If abl isnt good enough for you, nothing will be.

[davethedrummer]

You can do the same with midi patterns and varying velocity. But why bother? abl is the shit.

This is the abl. If abl isnt good enough for you, nothing will be.

sorry mate i have to say you are way off the mark if you think the ABL can totally replace the real thing.

it's pretty good for sure
but the real thing still has that edge especially at high resonance settings, at least to my ears it does.
and i disagree with the shitty distortion / crappy desk argument too
it's still analogue mate and some things just sound better than others.
put the real thing through the mackie and hey presto !

[MARK ANXIOUS]

sorry but i totally agree with d the d. abl is good but if you really do know the true sound of the tb-303, you'll notice a difference - especially if you use shitty batteries in it. just my 2 cents :)

[Electrictribe]

sorry mate i have to say you are way off the mark if you think the ABL can totally replace the real thing.

it's pretty good for sure
but the real thing still has that edge especially at high resonance settings, at least to my ears it does.
and i disagree with the shitty distortion / crappy desk argument too
it's still analogue mate and some things just sound better than others.
put the real thing through the mackie and hey presto !

Agreed. I have phoscyon, and ABL. ABL is my choice of the 2 and it does do a good job. But it never sits aswell in the mix as my tb. The resonance and the accent just sound better.

[xes]

with reguards to hardware clones,what is the general thoughts on the futureretro revolution? Here's a little video comparing it to a tb 303
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SkALw...eature=related

[Electrictribe]

with reguards to hardware clones,what is the general thoughts on the futureretro revolution? Here's a little video comparing it to a tb 303
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SkALw...eature=related

Is meant to be pretty good from what i have heard. Think they are around £600. Not seen them on sale in the UK somewher ein germany stocks them though i think can't remember the name of the shop though.

[AcidTrash]

sorry mate i have to say you are way off the mark if you think the ABL can totally replace the real thing.

I have near as dammit the real thing and "that sound" is totally achievable with the inbuilt foldback distortion on ABL (with added after effects). In many respects this analogue solutions TBX303 thing is even more versatile for an analogue acid box and I still wouldn't go to the effort of plugging it in for Skankadelic style or hard dance style acidlines.

If you want that hyper psychedelic hi res sound with hi mod, sure I take my hat off to analogue but soon as you mix it down into a track it really doesn't add much. I only really notice "that sound" when it's playing live but then I'm betting that if I spent as much time with phoscyon as I have with this and other emulators I could produce a track even you wouldn't know for sure.

it's pretty good for sure
but the real thing still has that edge especially at high resonance settings, at least to my ears it does.

You mean to tell me after near two decades of being a travelling DJ you still have that hearing range? ;)

and i disagree with the shitty distortion / crappy desk argument too
it's still analogue mate and some things just sound better than others. put the real thing through the mackie and hey presto !

But once it's recorded it's then digital so it's a pretty redundant argument, no? Unless you're maintaining analogue purity throughout or very high quality 24bit recording, which incidentally will not burn onto CD at that rate.

I really notice the difference in sound from all analogue live sets the likes of eggybamyasi and hardfloor but I'm still gonna go out there and say, sound quality aside, it still sounds ameteurish and not nealy as dynamic as the latter day acid techno. In my humblest opinion.

But then like all things, it really does depend on what you're trying to achieve. I couldn't get the ABL to replicate say Lock or International rescue but I can't get this clone to either. Hell, I can't even get this thing sounding the same twice. I suppose that is the merit of having one but it''s damn annoying if you find something and want to revisit it.

[force]

But once it's recorded it's then digital so it's a pretty redundant argument, no? Unless you're maintaining analogue purity throughout or very high quality 24bit recording, which incidentally will not burn onto CD at that rate.

:lol:

You just don't get it, do you????

[AcidTrash]

nope. you'll have to elaborate. I'm coming form a position of clinical analysis on this and I really can't find much difference to write home about.

"analogue is just better OK" is a mantra, not an argument.

[dan the acid man]

nope. you'll have to elaborate. I'm coming form a position of clinical analysis on this and I really can't find much difference to write home about.

"analogue is just better OK" is a mantra, not an argument.

doesn't matter what it ends up on, it's the original source of the sound that's important.

getting back to the orginal question for a second, xes, if you're honestly still thinking of going hardware, then don't get anything less than a tb303, ok it may mean you have to save for another year or whatever, but if you're wanting a 303 sound then it's the only way to go, other than that stick with the abl or that psychothingy (sorry can't remember the name).

The ABL is damn good if you use the right plug ins with it, but i do agree it loses it a little on the high resonance.

[rhythmtech]

nope. you'll have to elaborate. I'm coming form a position of clinical analysis on this and I really can't find much difference to write home about.

"analogue is just better OK" is a mantra, not an argument.

well then you need to listen more.

it doesnt make a differance to me.. it think the abl sounds as good.. not the same though, theres a slight differance.

[AcidTrash]

post an example of this legendary hi res. Lets put this to the test shall we?

[AcidTrash]

doesn't matter what it ends up on, it's the original source of the sound that's important.

But it's radically altered by whatever you pipe it through anyway so what you're hearing is the effects on what is just an analogue pulse generator.