Making a Roland Groove box 303

Coz wrote:

Nah, they didn't pass mine

Given a choice of either sounding somewhere close to a 303 for free, or having to spend CRAZY money to buy the original then there is no contest!

Third option: Get one of the analog "clones". Actually, most of them aren't even close to true "clones" but as far as I'm concerned they all blow away DSP. I never liked ReBirth as anything more than a video game. It was a good video game.

elektrik_muz wrote:Third option: Get one of the analog "clones". Actually, most of them aren't even close to true "clones" but as far as I'm concerned they all blow away DSP. I never liked ReBirth as anything more than a video game. It was a good video game.

the Tee-bee is the best clone there is!

The Tee Bee sounds good. But I still think the x0xb0x is the best clone ever.
However, since the x0xb0x kits are not avaialble anymore, the only way to build one is to source out all the components on your own (which isn't too hard when you can find people selling rare components on layada's forums).

If the x0xb0x never existed, I would say that the Future Retro Revolution is the best clone out there.

The TeeBee that you mentioned would follow as the next best. It definitely sounds much better than the other clones I've been listening to on the Acid Voice site.
I love that site. I've been visiting there for a while since I learned about it on ladyada's forums.

The other cool thing about that site is the x0xb0x Distortion test.
I've built quite a few clones of the popular distortion pedals prior to knowing about that site. After talking to Alex at Acid Voice, we both agreed that the MXR Distortion Plus sounds the best. But the ProCo RAT was also a good choice, since it has more bite.... and Hardfloor use the RAT too.
Glad to see alex added the RAT to the Distortion Test page. I built a clone earlier this year and it sounds just as good as the original. I love using it on my x0xb0x (and with my guitars). I built the MXR Distortion Plus clone as well and I use that alot on the x0xb0x and the guitar.
My next comparison is the Sans Amp GT-2. I built a clone of it on Friday. I just need to finish mounting the PCB to the case, so it don't short out on me.

distortedtekno wrote:However, since the x0xb0x kits are not avaialble anymore, the only way to build one is to source out all the components on your own (which isn't too hard when you can find people selling rare components on layada's forums).

Hmmmm.

http://www.adafruit.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=4&sessid=336ed16324596acbed2771b663558afc

Weooew thats cheap as chips! Might get me one! Why so cheap though i wondered?

Yeah I've heard the general consensus for the most 303 like is usually xOxbOx, Future Retro and Syntecno in that order. Then there's the "half clones" that combine 303 circuits (like just the filter section) with a different design like the Transistor Base 3 family (includes the MaM "clones"). Then there's the "not 303 clones" which are lumped in with the clones because they can do some of the same things but are actually completely different synths with their own character and uses such as Doepfer MS404 (closer to a ProOne clone -- nothin' wrong with that) or Technosaurus Microcon.

Funny thing is I can't actually remember the last time I had a real 303 under my fingers. I do remember getting the chance to do a 3 way comparison between the original Syntecno TeeBee Mk1 (the black face version w/less knobs), a MaM MB33MkII and a Technosaurus Microcon II (the midi version). TeeBee was the thickest and heaviest of the lot, I can see why the 303 heads go for it. The main thing that struck me about it was that no matter where you turned the knobs it always sounded good no matter how much the sound changed. The other two have more parameters to mess with and can do different stuff, but there's a bit more tweaking involved to get the best effect. The Technosaurus sounds very good is on the same quality level as Syntecno but goes in a more Moog-ish direction, sorta. The MaM is the cheapest out of the three and sounds it, but it still has it's uses esp. for fast percussive notes and plenty of screaming reso.

I also used the FR777 once -- the old purple faced model before they fixed the distortion section. That sounded pretty good too, though I didn't have access to any of the other synths to compare the sound at the time.

The sequencer on the tb-303 also addet alot of character into the sound, as it was kaotic!