Roland has announced the addition of the TB-303 to its ranks of software recreations within the Legendary series on Roland Cloud.
The news just so happened to fall on 303-day (opens in new tab), and the Japanese giant kicked off proceedings with a mini-documentary, featuring DJ Pierre of acid house-pioneers Phuture.
This new softsynth iteration of the TB-303 utilises the same ACB technology as its hardware synth sibling, the TB-03, and you’re able to store 64 patterns and 64 patches per bank, while eight variations of a pattern are still accessible on the faceplate.
Not content with being a straight-up recreation of the acid-line dribbling synth, there is a new hidden panel, which unlocks a variety of new tone-tweaking features, including new VCF trim, Vintage Condition, and Master Tune knobs. These are joined by onboard effects, such as distortion and delay with tempo-sync.
You can get hold of the TB-303 by subscribing to the Roland Cloud service from $19.95/£18.50/€21.00 per month. More information can be found on the Roland website (opens in new tab).
New key features
- 64 patterns per bank
- 64 patches per bank
- 8 variations per pattern
- 48 preset patches and 32 preset patterns included
- New graphic edit window for step input, pattern edit and pattern creation
- Circuit modification via the new VCF Trim, Vintage Condition, and Master Tune knobs
- Condition knob adjusts the age and condition of the virtual hardware
- Tone knobs for tuning, cutoff frequency, filter resonance, filter envelope, envelope decay, and accent
- Effects control for overdrive and delay with tempo sync
- Pattern drag and drop of MIDI/audio data to DAW
- 5 play modes: Forward, Reverse, Fwd & Rev, Invert, and Random
- 6-octave spread (C0 to C6)
- Position locking to DAW
